Scrutiny on the County... 'New' plans sound oddly familiar (From Worcester News)

Scrutiny on the County... 'New' plans sound oddly familiar

1:53pm Friday 17th April 2009

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STRANGE sense of deja vu at County Hall this week, where highly-paid supremo Trish Haines made a rare appearance before the county council's scrutiny committee.

The committee - a small group of councillors from across the political spectrum - is the authority's main watchdog body, designed to keep an eye on what Mrs Haines and County Hall's other key decision-makers are up to.

Mrs Haines, however, was not here to have her year's work – all £170,000-worth of it – scrutinised.

No, this time it was the scrutinisers themselves under the microscope – for Mrs Haines has a plan to shake things up a little.

The chief executive wants to increase the number of scrutiny committees from one to five, so widening the scope of its work and allowing (or forcing) more backbench councillors to get involved.

All well and good... except for the vague feeling we've heard all this before.

Mrs Haines's plan, you see, looks suspiciously – okay, exactly – like the scrutiny arrangements formerly in place at County Hall.

That was before Mrs Haines's predecessor brought in privates consultants, at a cost of many thousands of ponds to the taxpayer, to advise how things could be done better.

The consultants suggested the council reduce the number of scrutiny committees to, erm, one.

“Your plan mirrors exactly what he had before,” committee chairman John Buckley told Mrs Haines. “We brought in consultants on behalf of the cabinet because they didn't think it was working too well, and the consultants made the recommendations we have today!”

Now, it's probably fair to say there's been little love lost between former Labour leader Coun Buckley and Mrs Haines since he wrote a letter to the Worcester News last October describing her wage demands as an “insult” to local taxpayers.

But this was no personal feud – long-serving members of all parties were quickly making the same point.

The comittee’s deputy-chairman, veteran Conservative Clive Holt, said: “It does seem we're going back to where we were previously. It doesn't seem any different.”

No, Mrs Haines insisted, it was different – this time the five-committee system would be “more accountable”, with “stronger links” to the rest of the council.

Members looked unconvinced.

Acting Labour leader Peter Pinfield commented dryly: “Well, it just goes to show, if you're here long enough in this place things come round again.”

A council wasting money on private consultants?

Certainly sounds like a familiar tale to me.