Blur committee by donkeyhotey

Changes to council governance up for debate for a fourth time

The way the Isle of Wight is governed will be up for debate yet again next week following a motion being put forward by Isle of Wight councillor Alan Holland (LAB).

The motion calls on the council to agree to scrap the four current Executive Advisory Committees and replace them with two Select Committees.

Readers will remember the Executive Advisory Committees have been effectively boycotted by Isle of Wight Conservatives since they were introduced in May 2014.

Similar motion fell in July
Back in July 2014, a motion proposed by ten Conservative councillors and two Labour councillors to replace four existing Executive Advisory Committees by two Policy Review and Development Sub Committees of the Scrutiny Committee, namely, Children’s Services and Economy, Environment, Transport and Tourism fell with 20 councillors against and 17 for.

The new motion
The latest motion – which has the support of eight Independent councillors (including the leader of the council Ian Stephens), both Labour councillors and eleven Conservative councillors – states:

Council continues to welcome the Independent group’s inclusive approach to policy development and decision making and the ongoing review of the Constitution. Council agrees that the four existing Executive Advisory Committees should be replaced by the following two Select Committees:

  • Children’s Services
  • Economy, Environment, Transport and Tourism each with nine Members (which number will also apply to the existing Health Scrutiny Sub-Committee). Membership to be open to all non-Executive Members of the Council. Their remit to be policy review and development.

The Head of Corporate Governance and Monitoring Officer is instructed to make the necessary changes to the Constitution in consultation with the Constitution Review Working Party.

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Image: donkeyhotey under a CC BY 2.0 license