Labour politicians at the Guildhall are furious the new chairman of a key committee will be a Tory rather the traditional choice of an Opposition councillor.
The chairman of the Overview & Scrutiny will now come from within the ruling Conservative group after the previous incumbent for the past two years, Labour’s Les Marriott, stepped aside this week to concentrate on his mayoral duties for the coming year.
Labour claims the move has been done without any consulation and despite him being recognised across political groups as having done a good job.
The overview and scrutiny committee is meant to act as a ‘critical friend’ but Labour claims that with a Tory chairman in charge it will be merely a “friend”. The group had wanted Councillor Sivaramen Subbarayan (Headlands) to become the chairman.
Group leader, Councillor Terry Wire (St James), said: “Over the past two years the Overview & Scrutiny Committee has been really effective in holding the administration to account and doing to valuable research on how they might improve services. It is for this reason that we suspect the Tories have decided to take the chair for themselves.
“Overview and Scrutiny must be seen to be independent of the interests of the Cabinet but this move will now mean people will view it as a lapdog of the Tories. This is a shame but I guess Overview and Scrutiny is a victim of its own success. As a political group we will still be an effective opposition and it makes us more determined to hold this failing Tory administration to account.
“Once again this demonstrates the arrogant attitude of council leader David Mackintosh. There was no consultation over Sekhemka, the Egyptian Statute, no consultation with the opposition on the bus terminus, Grosvenor Centre, Rushden Lakes, to name just a few.”
But Councillor Mackintosh dismissed the claim, saying: “Overview and Scrutiny is an important part of the governance of the council. We have a Labour group that could not organise a party in a brewery, so I have appointed someone to chair the committee from within my own group to make sure the job is done properly.’