News from Harrow Labour

Harrow Labour and Lib Dems join forces to slam Tory scrutiny failure

On Nov 12, the Cabinet agreed a report outlining the introduction of the Neighbourhood Champions Scheme. This generated a lot of comment in the local media. On November 24 the Overview and Scrutiny Committee met. It was concerned that there had been no opportunity to consider the proposals before going to Cabinet for approval. It was felt that these proposals presented a number of potential risks. As a result the Overview and Scrutiny Committee, on a cross-party basis, agreed to set up a Challenge Panel to further investigate the proposals.

The Challenge Panel consisted of Cllrs Green (Chair), Gate, Kinnear, Romain, Teli and Mr Ramji Chauhan.

The Challenge Panel’s Report was submitted for consideration by the Overview and Scrutiny Committee at its meeting on Tuesday February 23 and appeared on the supplemental Agenda 1, pp 37 – 60.

The Panel made 11 recommendations as set out on p 92 of the report. In essence these were highly critical of the way in which the whole scheme had been conceived and implemented. For example, it was recommended that there should be proper financial planning, costing and controls; that formal plans and monitoring processes need to be put into place; that consideration should be given as to how local ward councillors could be involved and their training needs; that phase two which involves more controversial proposals should not be rolled out before further clarification of the scope is provided to Cabinet. Representatives from the boroughs of Brent and Hillingdon, who had provided evidence for the Challenge Panel, had emphatically stated that such a roll out was not appropriate for the schemes in their boroughs.

In line with usual procedure the Report had been circulated in advance for the comment of Panel members and no adverse comments were received. It was therefore submitted to the Overview and Scrutiny Committee for onward transmission to the Cabinet. At the meeting of the Overview and Scrutiny committee, the Chairman, Cllr. Sheinwald, reported that the two Conservative councillors on the Challenge Panel (Cllrs Romain and Teli) said that they did not agree with the findings of the Panel and Cllr Teli added that he had not even read the report until two days before the meeting and was reprimanded by Cllr. Sheinwald. Councillor Romain did not attend the meeting and his concerns remain a mystery. After an hour long debate, the Conservative majority on the Committee voted to refer the report back to the Challenge Panel for further consideration so suppressing any debate on its recommendations for the time being.

Cllr Mitzi Green, Vice-Chair of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee and Chair of the Challenge Panel, Labour, said: “I believe this was a very fair report which made constructive criticisms and laid out very clear lessons about how any such similar schemes should be put together in the future. Elementary managerial mistakes were made which we had hoped the acceptance of the report would have highlighted and corrected, and which we hoped would not be repeated in the future. Playing party politics with the scrutiny process demeans all of those who sink to such tactics.”

Cllr Paul Scott, Lib Dem, said: “This is a damning report of the way in which this scheme was conceived and implemented. All members were given the usual time to comment. It is ridiculous to refer this back if no member of the Panel had dissented from it before the agreed date of its publication. This report has now been kicked into the long grass.”

Other news from Harrow Labour

• New Year’s greeting: Tory fare rises - 30 December 2010
• Boris's broken ticket office promise a big blow to Harrow - 14 August 2010
• Conservative Harrow Council's "culture of fear" condemned - 19 May 2010