Once again Brent Council is using supplementary reports to push through significant documents. At tonight's Council meeting, a document relating to the future size of the Council will be slipped through, probably with very little debate.
This includes an increase in the size of the Cabinet, the abolition of some semi-defunct committees such as the Standards Committee and the Highways Committee. It further contains detail on the size of wards, numbers of councillors overall and is preparatory to a review of ward boundaries that might easily see major changes.
Main Agenda
In the main body of the Agenda are changes to the Council Constitution, including an explanation that more decisions will be made by individual members of the Cabinet acting alone. In these cases:
"However, there is no requirement to publish a report 5 days in advance of the decision being made as would be the case in respect of a decision due to be made at a meeting. Nor do the advance publication requirements apply if the decision to be taken is not a key decision." (3.9)
In terms of the time allowed for both members of the public and backbench councillors speaking time is being reduced.
Thus Brent Council moves further away from the level of transparency it has already got.
No comments:
Post a Comment