Scrutiny committee meeting cut short due to lack of attendance by councillors

A scrutiny committee was hit with a lack of members for the second time forcing it to finish early due to being inquorate.

Before a lack of councillors meant the social care overview and scrutiny committee on Friday (September 13) was cut short it was decided to hold a special meeting to focus on the annual director of social services report.

Members in attendance – David Bryan, Simon Hancock, Vic Dennis, Paul Rapi, Myles Pepper, Aden Brinn and Alison Tudor  – began discussions but on the suggestion of vice-chairman Cllr Hancock, who said there was a lot of “meat” to the report, another meeting will be arranged.

“I’ve got lots and lots of questions, there’s a lot of meat in this report,” he said.

Adding: “I would prefer meeting just on this. It’s 85 pages, it’s one of the biggest spending departments in the authority.”

Cllr Alison Tudor said: “I’m a little bit disappointed by the member attendance of this scrutiny committee.

“I think if people don’t want to be involved in this committee they want to step off and allow others who are interested.

“I’ve taken a day off work today, as I did last time, we’ve got members who don’t work and they are not here. I understand people have other commitments but this should be a priority.”

There were apologies for absence from Cllrs Margot Bateman, David Lloyd, Ken Rowlands, Stephen Joseph and Paul Dowson.

One committee member had to leave at 2.30pm on urgent business which resulted in the meeting being inquorate and without sufficient numbers to legally make decisions.

Last September the partnerships overview and scrutiny committee, also chaired by Cllr Bryan, was postponed due to insufficient members.

The committee agreed to note the report and scrutinise it in more detail at a future meeting, as well as any other unfinished business.