Cheshire East Council will move to committee system of decision making next year.
The move away from the current 'leader and cabinet' model was confirmed at a special council meeting held on Wednesday, 19th November.
Under the new arrangements, which will be introduced in May 2021, decisions will be taken by committees made up of elected members in proportion to their representation at council. There will be six committees, all of which will meet in public.
The chair of the Constitution Committee, Councillor James Nicholas said: "The Independent Group have been leading the way on wanting this change since 2017. It has been a long struggle but yesterday there was strong support. This was a great day for the council as we continue to make changes that we believe will be to the benefit of Cheshire East residents."
He added "The committee system is more open, transparent and democratic and since the new administration began in May 2019 the Independent Councillors have been leading the way in making this happen, following the hugely successful ChangeCheshireEast Campaign started by the Independents in 2017."
The Leader of the Independent group, Craig Browne commented "The move to a more transparent and inclusive system of governance is just one of the ways in which we have been trying to change Cheshire East for the better, since Independent Councillors joined the leadership of the Council in May 2019. This decision marks the delivery of our key election promise to residents."
The decision was unanimously supported by 44 members of the Independent, Labour and Liberal Democrat Groups, but unanimously opposed by all 32 members of the Conservative Group present whilst two members abstained.
The change is fixed for a minimum of 5 years.
Comments
Here's what readers have had to say so far. Why not add your thoughts below.
I believe this will put the basic decision making back into the hands of officers who have recently shown that in Wilmslow they are out of touch with residents' priorities - example, three recent planning applications for care homes without an inkling of supporting infrastructure.
Committee members will find themselves on the back foot to oppose officer recommendations. Despite best efforts when push comes to shove, inspectors at appeal invariably end up supporting the officer recommendation, which supports developer pipe dreams.
Open, transparent and democratic maybe, but in the end it is results that matter not the process. Will this really be 'to the benefit of Cheshire East residents? Previous resident objections to applications or spatial development proposals counted for nought. Will this new system really put these issues into the hands of residents or indeed their elected representatives?
I acknowledge that officers don't always get it right and that is why planning committee members need to understand the rules, be confident and apply them if the officers haven't got it right but what they cannot or should not do is make decisions because they are popular or because that is what the residents want. Sadly, that is not always the case.
However, for the normal service committees, there is more scope for representing the best interests of the residents; individual councillors vote and they make the final decisions. In the old (cabinet) system, your councillor could speak and make their views known but they had zero say in most decisions unless they were one of the 8 cabinet members.