26 April 2002
Giving evidence to the transport, local government and the regions' urban affairs select committee on April 23, local authority representatives said that councillors who do not feature in their Cabinet feel sidelined, which could ultimately discourage people from standing in local elections.
The committee heard council views on the Local Government Act 2000 – legislation that forced authorities to adopt one of three forms of local governance: elected mayor with a Cabinet; elected mayor with a council manager; or a Cabinet with a leader.
The Department for Transport, Local Government and the Regions intended to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of council decision-making by providing Cabinets and mayors with wide-ranging powers.
But David Panter, chief executive of Brighton and Hove City Council, which has operated the widely used Cabinet/leader model for the past year, said that non-Cabinet members felt it 'had led to democracy behind closed doors'.
'The perception [of exclusion] has extended to the public… because there is a desire to see us work in an open and transparent way,' he added.
John Price, Cabinet leader at Chester City Council, said that, while the authority had improved its executive decision-making through a corporate-style board structure, other members 'did not feel involved in the process'.
But Andrew Whetnall, director for local government at the DTLR, told the committee that the Act should not be viewed as a threat to backbench councillors and that they were merely 'taking time to adjust' to their new role under the legislation – scrutiny and overview of the executive.
In his written evidence, however, Panter noted that the Act had forced councils to adopt a 'more adversarial Cabinet/scrutiny split', which 'was not helpful to the overall development' of the authority.
But John Williams, executive director at the New Local Government Network, said that opting for a mayoral structure could help to overcome concerns about local democracy.
'Mayors address the problems of the broader engagement of local communities and transparency, because the public can identify with, and scrutinise, the council through a visible individual,' he said. 'Councillors also have a strong idea of their required role under such systems.'
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