To be fair by the time items get to the Executive (and possibly before) there is no chance of changing the decisions presented on the agenda. It feels like “tick box” process … “did we (the Executive) meet our responsibility under the right to speak?” … “Yes” … “did we (The Executive) change anything substantial as a result of fellow Councillors or members of the community taking time to come and speak?” … “No” … well as far as I can remember virtually never … An indicator is that I can never remember any Executive member voting against any item with everything being voted through unanimously at every meeting … I can’t remember seeing an additional recommendation being added or an existing one being removed as the result of the “debate” at an Executive Meeting … most Executive members start with the words “I welcome this report” and I feel proceed to indulge in self congratulation. There is no visible scrutiny amongst the members even to just to give those watching the feeling that there are robust debates and arguments behind the scenes before all agree without questioning in public. Just my observations. PS one one occasion when I went to raise the issue of the closure of Ketteting Leisure Village the leader’s response was to try to stop me using my three minutes and when I didn’t, asking if I could be removed from the meeting … scrutiny and passion not welcome?
I have seen a few of the "Executive" meetings and I would agree wholeheartedly with what you have written. They have a certain North Korean character to them. I can only add that this appallingly authoritarian behaviour, while undoubtedly due (as I described in a comment last week) in main part to the individual inadequacies of the leader and the small inner group that he surrounds himself with, is perpetuated because the backbench councillors, the opposition and the local press (with the exception of the NNJ) accept and enable it. It really is just scratching the surface of the problem to say that large majorities bring poor governance. As a Conservative myself, albeit from the "pragmatic liberal" wing that seems to be well-represented in most other parts of the country but almost absent in Northants, I am embarrassed by and ashamed of what I see in NNC, in terms both of the incompetence with which the council frequently acts and the shockingly poor way in which it presents itself to the public.
Thinking of your postscript, you may well have been lucky that the "Dear Leader" didn't have you dragged out and fed to his dogs!
To be fair by the time items get to the Executive (and possibly before) there is no chance of changing the decisions presented on the agenda. It feels like “tick box” process … “did we (the Executive) meet our responsibility under the right to speak?” … “Yes” … “did we (The Executive) change anything substantial as a result of fellow Councillors or members of the community taking time to come and speak?” … “No” … well as far as I can remember virtually never … An indicator is that I can never remember any Executive member voting against any item with everything being voted through unanimously at every meeting … I can’t remember seeing an additional recommendation being added or an existing one being removed as the result of the “debate” at an Executive Meeting … most Executive members start with the words “I welcome this report” and I feel proceed to indulge in self congratulation. There is no visible scrutiny amongst the members even to just to give those watching the feeling that there are robust debates and arguments behind the scenes before all agree without questioning in public. Just my observations. PS one one occasion when I went to raise the issue of the closure of Ketteting Leisure Village the leader’s response was to try to stop me using my three minutes and when I didn’t, asking if I could be removed from the meeting … scrutiny and passion not welcome?
I have seen a few of the "Executive" meetings and I would agree wholeheartedly with what you have written. They have a certain North Korean character to them. I can only add that this appallingly authoritarian behaviour, while undoubtedly due (as I described in a comment last week) in main part to the individual inadequacies of the leader and the small inner group that he surrounds himself with, is perpetuated because the backbench councillors, the opposition and the local press (with the exception of the NNJ) accept and enable it. It really is just scratching the surface of the problem to say that large majorities bring poor governance. As a Conservative myself, albeit from the "pragmatic liberal" wing that seems to be well-represented in most other parts of the country but almost absent in Northants, I am embarrassed by and ashamed of what I see in NNC, in terms both of the incompetence with which the council frequently acts and the shockingly poor way in which it presents itself to the public.
Thinking of your postscript, you may well have been lucky that the "Dear Leader" didn't have you dragged out and fed to his dogs!
We should meet and chat sometime! Confirm that it’s not us it’s the others!