With major council reform you might expect that councillors get to discuss, input and debate the issue at hand well in advance of lets say public announcements, deal signatures or consultations. Well you’d be wrong.
In August the councils of Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire signed a deal with the government to put in place a combined authority over the whole area and a new regional Mayor. To go through the various legal motions the council then had to vote on the issue and put it to public consultation but debate was totally stifled. Item 1 was ‘agree the proposal document’. The Mayor banned debate upon item 1 but still took a vote on the issue. See here:
Since this shocking meeting, the executive scrutiny board had just 30 minutes to discuss the very basics but the majority of councillors have had no input or debate on the matter.
The plan is to put in place the relevant civil servants in April 2023. The cost of the body is expected in time to be met by the four councils and the office will receive just 38 million a year for the entire area. The office running costs alone could easily reach between 5 and 10 million if you consider the cost of the current Police Commissioners. The Mayor will be allowed to add a precept onto council tax.
We don’t need more politicians or further bureaucratic layers and as councillors we have had no meaningful say on the matter. The Conservative and Labour parties appeared to whip their votes in a very poor display of democratic confidence.