does Durham County Council want to get?

Councillors attend scrutiny meetings where we are supposed to challenge what the council is and isn’t doing, to try and improve it. So you would assume that when we make comments and ask questions, someone would write this down so that there is a record of it. In a sinister move however, on the Economy Scrutiny committee, over the last few months, all mention of councillors names has been removed.

When I challenge a particular aspect of the council’s policy or performance or make recommendations, it should be stated in the minutes, however of late, it simply says “members commented”, meaning that there is no record of what any particular councillor has said.

So much for accountability. Minutes with no-ones names on them – So much for the council’s “Altogether Better” strapline. it also makes it easier for the Council to miss out comments which might be negative in the hope that no-one notices… no surprise there then.