Hillingdon Council rejects review into Hillingdon Council

A motion submitted to last week’s meeting calling on the Council to approach the Local Government Association (LGA) to carry out a review into scrutiny procedures was unsurprisingly rejected by the Hillingdon Conservatives who currently control the make up of the Council.

There have been recent changes to the way in which Councillors are entitled to seek information on how the Council operates, with restrictions now on Councillors when questioning Council policy meaning that they would now have to go through their party group leader if they wanted information on matters that weren’t explicitly related to their ward such as children in care and environmental policy.

The motion, submitted by Hillingdon Labour Councillor Kerri Prince, called on the Council to approach the LGA to conduct an independent review to ensure that Hillingdon’s scrutiny procedures were up to scratch. Despite Council Deputy Leader Cllr David Simmonds having participated in a number of reviews on behalf of the LGA looking into other Council’s, Cllr Simmonds spoke against the motion and voted to reject such a review into Hillingdon.

After the meeting, Cllr Prince said:

“It is no surprise that the Conservatives voted down a motion that would essentially prove that the Council has been whittling down the mechanisms available to Councillors to scrutinise what the Council does. The Leader of the Council argues that we are elected to represent only our wards, but ignores that we are elected to be Councillors for the London Borough of Hillingdon as a whole, not just our respective wards. Casework and working with residents is just one part of the role.

“This proves the Council have something to hide. Our Councillors have been working hard to find out where cuts are being made, what services are being reduced, and the Conservatives know we’re on to them. That’s why they’re removing scrutiny procedures – because they don’t want us to have the information. What do they have to hide?”