DEAR EDITOR -- As one of four independent councillors representing Wythall Ratepayers and Residents Association (WRRA) I would like to acquaint your readers and the people of the district with a serious defect that exists in the scrutiny committees operated within the district council.

The controlling Conservative group insists on imposing chairmen and vice-chairmen from the same party as the executive cabinet. This reduces the independence of the scrutiny committees as there is inevitably the tendency for some councillors to refrain from asking difficult questions and risk upsetting the group leadership.

It is only human nature when your future as a chair of a scrutiny committee lies in the hands of those being scrutinised.

Having experienced this unsatisfactory and ineffective process for more than a year the WRRA councillors have strived to obtain changes to the committees by having a chairman and vice-chairman of different political persuasion.

To their discredit, the Conservative majority on each scrutiny committee have refused to allow this to happen.

Unless and until the scrutiny committee structure is changed, Bromsgrove will continue to be ill-served by the very people who were elected to represent them. Scrutiny is not working as intended in Bromsgrove and the inhabitants are the losers.

Stephen Peters

WRRA Councillor for

Hollywood and Majors Green ward.