LETTER: ‘Sofa government’ rules at HDC

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Your excellent piece of investigative journalism last week (‘Spotlight on secret advisory groups’, 29.10.15, p3) reported how Cllr Connor Relleen (Con, Horsham Park) rightly spoke out for the way that backbenchers have only limited information about the activities of Cabinet Members’ ‘Advisory Groups’ [AG]. Most councillors didn’t know that these AGs even existed it was reported!

Cllr David Skipp supported the keeping and publishing of minutes/notes yet an unnamed council spokesman said, ‘Cabinet members invite members of their Advisory Groups to meetings. The detail of meeting notes are entirely at the discretion of the cabinet member.’

But that’s not what the council’s own constitution says about publishing notes of AGs: they must do it and if they don’t a complaint can be made to the Ombudsman or a Judicial Review lodged at the High Court to force them to comply with their own rules.

Many residents have complained since 2013 about the secrecy at HDC in its relationship with the electorate that it professes to serve.

Attempts to discover the facts through FoIs have been routinely refused by the council. ‘Sofa government’ rules at HDC with the avoidance of notes/minutes, communication between councillors on private phones have enabled staff to say that no records are available and of course made it possible to avoid searching FoIs. Good old-fashioned minuted meetings are a thing of the past.

When Cllr Claire Vickers took over from Cllr Ian Howard in May 2013 (following his sudden and still unexplained departure from the cabinet) Cllr Vickers moved all the meetings of her advisory group (PPAG) into closed session. It has never met in public since.

Holding meetings or part of meetings in secret was against HDC’s own Statement of Community Involvement (SCI) voted by councillors in September 2011. But the cabinet cabal that runs our local council tore that policy up and froze out the public (the very people who elect them) from the Gang’s meetings.

Cllr Vickers told this paper at the time (30.06.13) ‘Since becoming the cabinet member for living and working communities, I have realised that we need to be able to have a more open and frank debate at our Strategic Planning Advisory Group meetings. I have therefore decided that we will no longer be holding SPAG meetings in public, as per other advisory groups of Horsham District Council.’