This week I've had several scrutiny meetings including Thursday night a 6pm to 10.30pm meeting and Friday a 5 to 7pm meeting. Next week I have another two hour long meetings with two heads of service......Photo: Autumn is well and truly on it's way - love the colours and love the sunshine we've had
I have to question again how useful all this is....when it works it can work well, but our Thursday night meeting didn't - yes there were some very important contributions but overall the agenda was huge and some of the most important issues didn't get the time they warranted - furthermore after a couple of hours I know for me after a days work and rushing to get there for 6 my brain starts to frazzle as we get into the minutia of some of these reports....the discussions certainly went astray that evening - we need to take action to ensure that does not happen again - indeed I already have thoughts but that is for another time.
In terms of what we discussed well...the HRA account,legal services, quarterly reports with Heads of Service, street cleansing incl fly-tipping, an update on the planning inquiry and Stratford Park leisure centre - each one of those topics could easily take an hour - the last one mentioned did - we heard lots from Parkwood about their moves to improve cleanliness at the leisure centre - poured over charts and figures re cleanliness and visitor numbers - the new no shoes policy in the changing rooms - the press coverage - although as I noted they didn't mention the dramatic closure of the centre in the summer when chemicals got together that shouldn't - I am assured this cannot happen again. They also have a sustainability programme - more of that another time as I've already followed up on that for more details of future plans.
This summer the District Council invoked a clause in the contract with Parkwood to do a deep clean and get Parkwood to pay for it - it is wholly unacceptable that it got to that point - I welcome the Districts move to take action on this - it is long overdue time for improvements - we also heard that Parkwood are trying to improve - we have heard this before and seen improvements before but they slipped - I trust this time it is genuine.
There is loads more I could write about all of that but am happy to talk with anyone local interested - I should perhaps also mention the scrutiny sub-group meeting last night - on climate change - I have been elected chair - it was more of a scoping exercise that evening but very fruitful and I am enthusiastic about next moves and what might be possible - we'll see but time now for Farmers Market before all the donuts have run out...
2 comments:
"I have another two hour long meetings with two heads of service...... overall the agenda was huge and some of the most important issues didn't get the time they warranted - furthermore after a couple of hours I know for me after a days work and rushing to get there for 6 my brain starts to frazzle as we get into the minutia of some of these reports...."
My sympathies. There's a built in problem in local government, because elected officials work elsewhere, so are inevitably at a disadvantage in dealing with officers who work on these minutiae all day, every day.
Ever feel like you're in a local version of 'Yes Minister'?
Yes I do wonder at the system - but without it there would be no scrutiny - especially as our press does virtually no investigations nowadays - anyway where scrutiny works it can work very well indeed - on the scrutiny inquiries I am now involved in we have the ability to call other experts and look at how others are managing best practice....it will be interesting to see how much of a role we really can have...
As for 'Yes Minister' I found this quote from Hacker: "In private industry if you screw things up you get the boot; in the civil service if you screw things up I get the boot."
The trouble is when the politicians screw up they don't go nowadays....
Post a Comment