So my attempts today to change the way that the council is run failed. They were voted down by Labour as we pretty much expected. We wanted to scrap the cabinet system and replace it with a committee system.
This is because so many decisions are made by the 10 person cabinet meaning that all the other councillors hardly get a say in the decision making.
This is why our leisure centre was threatened with closure by Labour, and why the Library opening hours were slashed too.
If back bench councillors had more power to vote on and debate major issues then we wouldn’t have seen the Labour council sell Windlestone Hall for £241,000 when they were offered over £1.5m. Click on the links below to read the story on this.:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-tees-21470371
This and so many other disgraceful decisions just wouldn’t have happened under a committee system.
The craziest part of my attempts to change this today though was an amendment put forward by an independent councillor which would have meant that a working group “just look at” the possibility of reintroducing the committee system after the May elections. Crazy because Labour voted this out as well. So they wouldn’t even allow a discussion on it, which pretty much provides the official proof we need (as if we did need it) that Durham County Council is the most undemocratic council in the country.