Fight for open decision making (York Liberal Democrats)

York Liberal Democrats <info@yorklibdems.org.uk>

Fight for open decision making

November 27, 2008 12:00 AM

Liberal Democrat Councillors will be fighting to retain open public decision making by Executive Councillors at tonight's Full Council Meeting.

The proposal by the Scrutiny Management Committee to abolish the public decision making committees, called EMAPs(Executive Members and Advisory Panel) meetings, would take the council back to 2002 when decisions were made by the Executive Councillor solely in consultation with the Director for the Department.

EMAPs were developed by the City of York Council after the Government imposed the Cabinet Model, from the House of Commons onto local councils ,as a local solution which allowed councillors from all parties, and the public, to comment on decisions before they were formally made by the Executive Councillors.

Cllr Andrew Waller, Liberal Democrat Leader said,

"I cannot see how this is in the best interests of the city, This proposal would be a massive step backwards, and I think that the public would quite rightly see this as turning decision making secretive. At the moment there is an all-party discussion before decisions are made by Executive Councillors so that they can be refined before being implemented, this proposal kills off the all party debate. Why go back 7 years to a system which everyone agreed was not working nor accountable ?"

"The Liberal Democrat group is opposed to this attack on local democracy and accountability."

"The public know where they can go and make their comments before a decision is made, and this happens frequently at City Strategy EMAP which deals with transport and road issues which impacts on the life of the city. This holds true for the other EMAPs"

"Whilst other councils may not have a similar process what is wrong with a local solution to be problems that were caused by a central government imposed system which tries to copy the House of Commons in the Guildhall ?"

"The current system is a very good way to ensure that a wide range of councillors know about the full breadth of services provided by a department. This helps to develop councillors ,and supports succession planning, when they need to take over from retiring Executive Councillors."