Opposition parties challenge democratic cut backs of Conservative County Council leader

Liberal Democrats, Labour and Green Councillors teamed up on Tuesday 23 May 2017 to challenge Conservative Council leader Izzi Seccombe's attempts to restrict democracy and accountability in Warwickshire.

It's the job of opposition councillors to scrutinise and hold the decision makers to account to ensure best value for the tax payer. However, the Conservatives have given all the chairs of Scrutiny Committees to members of their own party.

Cllr Seccombe also wanted to restrict the time for public questioning of Cabinet members, but partially backed down on this when the opposition challenged her and agreement was reached.

Liberal Democrats group leader Cllr Jerry Roodhouse said:

"Best practice for local democracy is to allow the executive to be scrutinised and enable the public to question the controlling group. The action of the Conservative administration to secure all scrutiny chairs and tighten the screw on democracy gives them a blank cheque. We are committed to hold them to account and will do so."

Green group leader Cllr Jonathan Chilvers said:

"There's lots of evidence to show that Councils make better decisions when there is a strong opposition holding decision makers to account. Our democracy works better when there are clear checks and balances and I'm disappointed that the Conservatives think that cutting these back is the right thing to do."

Labour group leader Cllr Richard Chattaway summed up saying:

"I was very surprised at the response by Mrs Seccombe on behalf of her Conservative group. For the last 4 years she has been advocating open up the council to Warwickshire tax payers. Now she has total control she seems to want to run a closed shop with limited accountability of her group's actions."