Public Participation Proposals Dropped (Oxfordshire Liberal Democrats)

Oxfordshire Liberal Democrats <info@oxfordshirelibdems.org.uk>

Public Participation Proposals Dropped

August 25, 2009 4:14 PM

Proposals to increase public participation in council meetings were turned down at today's meeting of the full Oxfordshire County Council.

Liberal Democrats in Opposition at the County Council proposed that if a member puts a question to a council meeting, but is subsequently unable to attend, then another person can ask the question instead. This is a very simple request but encourages more public participation, which is a good way of supporting democracy. However, unfortunately, Conservatives voted against it. Cllr Zoe Patrick, Leader of the Opposition said, "It can be sometimes be difficult for a member of the public to attend a meeting at a particular time, and I'm therefore sorry that they will not be allowed to send someone else instead, especially if they are ill or are unable to arrange cover for caring responsibilities."

Liberal Democrats also asked to hold meetings in public in future of the group that has until now co-ordinated the scrutiny work of the council. Scrutiny is an important function that holds the administration to account, and whilst the individual Scrutiny Committees do meet in public, the group that has until now decided on which reviews are done when and allocated resources has never met in public. In fact, the Conservative group voted to remove the co-ordinating group altogether, whilst all the opposition groups voted to retain it and open it to public view. Cllr Patrick said, "This means that there will be little input into the management of the scrutiny committees. We proposed a Scrutiny Management Group which could monitor the scrutiny work of the council and ensure the Cabinet is held to account. We also wished this group to meet in public. Sadly the Conservatives did not agree."