Scrutiny... Breckland style!

Today saw the monthly gathering of the Breckland Overview & Scrutiny Commission. We normally have several agenda items of relative interest, but today there was only one - a decision by the Cabinet not to allocate funding to parish & town councils that had seen reductions in their income thanks to Government benefit changes. A complicated situation, but in short, last year it resulted in Thetford Town Council receiving £85,000 less in funding through no fault of its own. Last year, the Government gave District Councils a pot of money which they could pass on to parish and town councils to mitigate the loss. At a recent Breckland Cabinet meeting, members chose not to undertake the same approach this year meaning parishes would be hit with that financial blow. 

I 'called that decision in' with the support of other Labour Group members, I stated:

"I wish to write and request that the decision taken by Cabinet on Tuesday (29th October) i.e. ‘Town/Parish Council localised Council Tax Grant’ - is ‘called-in’ to be discussed by the Council’s Overview & Scrutiny Commission. I do this on the basis that I do not feel that the Cabinet adequately assessed the impact that this decision would have, particularly given the additional costs that parish and town councils are facing given Breckland’s continued transfer of services and responsibilities to them. It is particularly disappointing that parish and town councils were not consulted about this decision in advance to ascertain the implications to them and I feel that the Council has a responsibility to do this.

Imagine my surprise when several Tory District Councillors also 'called in' this decision, albeit for different reasons. I'd imagine that parishes in their divisions had been on to them quite a bit about the decision and therefore they needed to do something.  I did find it amusing that the Chairman had to point out to them however that their reasons for 'calling in' the decision were not valid reasons for a 'call-in' and that mine was - awkward!

At the meeting today I said something along the lines of;

Mr Chairman, I am pleased that this item has been called in. As a Town Councillor myself I am aware of the concern that this issue has caused across the district. This one matter is fairly significant on its own, a loss of £85,000 for my town of Thetford, or put a different way, the need to increase the Thetford share of the Council Tax by 10% for this one issue alone. An unwelcome position given other budgetary pressures. But for many areas, the real significance of this matter is the cumulative effect and the continued trend for services and responsibilities to be passed to parishes and towns. It feels very much like the straw that broke the camels back.

In Thetford, like in many areas, we have seen the responsibility for both play areas and toilets passed onto the Town Council in recent years. These added responsibilities have inevitably led to previous increases in the towns’ share of the Council Tax, now it looks as if street lights will be next. With other changes instigated by Breckland added into the mix, we are now having to charge residents more than £100 per band D property, a much greater amount than what is being charged by the district. Our town councils do not get the direct funding from the Government that Breckland does, towns are not able to benefit from the economies of scale that the district can and there is not an income from fixed assets, assets that were purchased in the main, from using funding obtained from the sale of council houses, a significant number of which were situated in towns.

Mr Chairman, this transfer of responsibilities has a fancy new title – localism. For most people, they will see it for what it is, passing the buck. If it were localism in a true sense, it wouldn't just be all these liabilities that were being transferred by Breckland, other aspects would be shifted over as well.

My Chairman, I want our district to be in a position where we charge the lowest possible Council Tax, but get the highest possible quality of service. Not just for the Breckland share, but for the total amount that residents pay per month for their Council Tax. Residents frankly do not care if their Breckland share of what they pay is lower than perhaps other areas, particularly if it means that they are having to pay a disproportionately higher amount to their town or parish council.

The most frustrating aspect of this specific reduction in funding, is the scant regard given to the impact. There was very little, if any consultation with parish’s and towns to ascertain the effect of this being removed and whilst some may say that this might only be for one year, there was no certainty of this.  Cabinet members did indeed have a choice, they could have passed on the money, in full or part. It would have been far more sensible, and fairer, to gradually reduce the funding, rather than remove it completely.

We have got to get this decision looked at again and I would urge members to do just that".

How incredibly peculiar that several Tory Breckland Councillors, including some of those that called in the decision (!!) then voted to refer the matter back to Cabinet, supporting their decision to remove the grant completely - utterly ridiculous.

Myself and an Independent Councillor were the only two Councillors that voted not to support this, and voted instead to refer the matter to Full Council for wider consideration.

The scrutiny process in Breckland is rotten, but that's what you get when you have one political party having such a massive majority, the lesson is quite clear - if you want democracy in Breckland, and a Council more able to represent it's people - do not vote Conservative at the next elections in May 2015.