Labour boycott city's watchdog over claimed lack of democracy

Labour group leader, Coun Steve Brady, said it was refusing to send councillors to the seven scrutiny bodies at the authority as they had become "nodding dogs" for the administration.

Carl Minns, leader of the Liberal Democrat-run council, hit back, calling Labour's stance "childish", and said Labour members were not performing one of the most important functions they had been elected for.

As well as the main Overview and Scrutiny Management Committee, there are seven scrutiny commissions at the council, overseeing key service areas including children's services, crime and community safety, environment and transport, health, housing and regeneration, and value for money.

All are chaired by Liberal Democrats. Labour's non-attendance means there are currently 17 vacancies across the committees.

Coun Brady called for an overhaul of the scrutiny committee structure to give more representation to opposition parties, which he said was necessary since the council's adoption of the "strong leader" model in May 2008, a national system of local governance that gives council leaders powers to choose a Cabinet, decide the budget and delegate decisions.

He said: "The scrutiny commissions have refused inquiries brought up by members, and what the leader says is exactly what happens.

"There's no democracy and we believe it should be weighted towards the opposition, particularly in light of the strong leader model, where the leader can effectively do anything he wants.

"We need a strong opposition that is able to operate properly in scrutiny." Coun Brady said Labour would review its position after the council elections on May 6.

"We are going to look at our position when the election results come out because situations change and the situation of the parties can change," he said.

But he said he did want Labour members to play an active role in scrutiny in the future.

He said: "I want us to be back playing a full part in scrutiny, but if you look around there's something amiss with scrutiny.

"It's nodding dogs for the administration. In the interests of fair governance it has to change.

"If the Lib Dems are in opposition at any time in the future we would also want them to be able to bring us to account."

He added: "The strong leader model is not the best system in the world but we can work with it as long as we've got a really robust democratic system behind it.

"We need to hold the leader to account, whether he is wrong or whether he is right, because individuals can make mistakes and we all make mistakes."

Coun Minns said his party did not want to chair all the scrutiny committees and claimed Labour had declined a chance to chair two of them.

He said: "Scrutiny is an important role and it's to hold the Cabinet to account.

"They walked away because they didn't get chairmanship of a couple of the committees, and that's quite childish.

"The Liberal Democrats agreed we didn't think it was right we should chair all the scrutiny committees and asked Labour to chair the children's services scrutiny commission and health; two very important and influential committees, and they refused."

He added: "I think people considering voting Labour on May 6 might wonder what's the point if they are not going to do their jobs when they get there."