Residents Prevented From Examining Council Budget As Cabinet Delay Publishing Their Proposals (York Liberal Democrats)

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Residents Prevented From Examining Council Budget As Cabinet Delay Publishing Their Proposals

January 20, 2012 9:00 AM

carol runciman Despite facing large cuts to their Council services, residents will not be able to scrutinise the Cabinet's budget proposals until just before a decision is made as the Labour Cabinet have decided to keep their proposals secret for as long as possible.

The Cabinet's budget proposals will only be made public when the papers for the February 7th Cabinet meeting are published, following a Cabinet decision not to allow discussion of the budget at Cabinet Member Decision Sessions.

The decision not to discuss the budget at Cabinet Member Decision Sessions is a break from the councils established procedures for drafting and scrutinising the budget

During the 8 years of Lib Dem administration budget papers were brought to Executive Member Advisory Panels (EMAPs) for cross party scrutiny ahead of the Executive meeting. When Labour and the Conservatives scrapped EMAPs the Lib Dems maintained public scrutiny of the budget by bringing the papers to Decision Sessions, which were always held in public..

Liberal Democrat Group Leader, Councillor Carol Runciman said Labour seemed reluctant to give residents and opposition groups time to challenge the Cabinet's decisions.

She said, "Cancelling any discussion of the budget at Cabinet Member Decision Sessions means that the Cabinet's proposals for the budget will not be made public until a week before the Cabinet make their final decision."

"That will mean there is very little time for residents to digest the information and make any representations to the Cabinet. Given the large scale cuts Labour are likely to be proposing that doesn't give people much chance to suggest alternatives."

"Earlier this week James Alexander prevented Council Officers from giving information about the budget to residents at Ward Committees. One of his excuses was that Ward Committees had not had similar discussions about the budget in the past. Yet now we find he is quite keen to depart from past procedures by removing the budget from the agendas of the Cabinet Member Decision Sessions."

"James Alexander seems determined to force this budget through with little or no debate about his decisions. Their secrecy over the budget proposals shows a lack of respect for democracy and runs contrary to his promises during the election campaign."