Another bid by opposition parties to seize control of important scrutiny committees at Knowsley Council was defeated by the ruling Labour group on Friday (May 21).
At the first in-person meeting of Knowsley Council for more than a year, held at Huyton leisure centre to enable social distancing, Green councillors called for the chairmanship of scrutiny committees to be divided up proportionally between parties.
Green leader Kai Taylor said this would improve scrutiny compared to the current situation where, although committee membership is divided up between parties, all chairs and vice-chairs are Labour councillors.
Cllr Taylor said: “The days of one party dominance in this council are over.
“Opposition councillors now account for 25% of the council membership. Is it right that 75% of the council controls 100% of the committees?”
Pointing to government recommendations that scrutiny committees be chaired by opposition members to ensure independence, Cllr Taylor added: “I believe that the council should be demonstrating its commitment to openness, good governance and transparency.”
He also mentioned the Max Caller report into Liverpool Council which found Labour control of scrutiny committees had hindered efforts to hold the executive to account.
In response, cabinet member Jayne Aston said she was experiencing “deja vu” after Cllr Taylor brought a similar motion to the council’s annual meeting last year.
She said that the Labour group would be opposing the move as there was no legal requirement for councils to divide up committee chairs on a proportional basis and Labour’s majority meant it had the right to control scrutiny.
She said: “34 representatives have earned the right by the virtue of the democratic process to be appointed to these positions as members of the ruling group.
“It’s simple mathematics and good old democracy.”
Cllr Taylor’s motion was defeated with all 11 opposition councillors voting in favour and the 34 Labour members voting against.
But further bad-tempered arguments followed. When Cllr Aston introduced changes to the council constitution to “reflect national best practice”, Liberal Democrat leader Carl Cashman said it was “funny” that the council would follow best practice in this area “yet ignored the [Local Government Association] finding in 2018 that said opposition members should chair scrutiny committees”.
At a later stage in the debate, Cllr Taylor said he too was experiencing “deja vu” after elections earlier in May that saw Labour lose seats in Knowsley for the fourth election in a row.
He added that, without taking on opposition suggestions to improve the working of the council, Labour would “continue to lose seats at local elections”.
He said: “Based on that trajectory, that gives you four years left of running the council.”
