'I don't know the particular circumstances in this case but in my experience councillors usually are prepared to accept without question what council staff tell them. As they are essentially part time and probably have no relevant professional expertise, it is understandable.'
Oh! Do give over, councillors are elected to represent us and formulate policies to get things done in the borough. Officers are the professional paid advisors, but councillors should ensure that they are on top of their brief - if they are cabinet members - but in any case as a ward member you should be fully cognisant of local issues. And as such any decent ward councillor should have a far more intimate knowledge of their patch than a paid officer who may not even live in the borough. For councillors to just go along with an officer recommendation is lazy, you can ask questions, you can object to their opinion, you can escalate the matter. This seems to me - and I am sorry once again to bang on about this - why this cabinet system should be dumped for the much more accountable and scrutinised committee system of local governance. Councillors are the political cog in the council wheel, if they cannot make a reasoned judgement on something they are told then it's bugger all to do with them not being full-time members, it is incompetence, pure and simple. |