[David Collins]

There's a lot of work for officers embodied in those recommendations Dave!

[gareth davies]

David Collins Wrote:There's a lot of work for officers embodied in those recommendations Dave!

Recommendation 19 made me smile, probably for all the wrong reasons...

On a serious note though, the idea of legally separating support for the exec and support for non exec members seems to me to lead, almost inevitably, to something akin to Short money being paid to opposition parties, or to officers being appointed in roles that are purely about serving the non exec members. I can imagine that being something of a challenge, especially in a council where, say, there's a minority administration and the agreement of an opposition group or groups is required to get anything through full council... The same end could have been achieved by simply insisting on adequate scrutiny funding, with the benefit that scrutiny could deliver improvement...

[Dave Mckenna]

garethd Wrote:On a serious note though, the idea of legally separating support for the exec and support for non exec members seems to me to lead, almost inevitably, to something akin to Short money being paid to opposition parties, or to officers being appointed in roles that are purely about serving the non exec members. I can imagine that being something of a challenge, especially in a council where, say, there's a minority administration and the agreement of an opposition group or groups is required to get anything through full council... The same end could have been achieved by simply insisting on adequate scrutiny funding, with the benefit that scrutiny could deliver improvement...

Supporters would argue that it works well nationally and in the Welsh Assembly. For me the more interesting point is whether a formal sepapration would clearly distinguish the administrative and democratic roles of Councillors - the later being more or less peripheral for UK local government. The problem of course is cost - whether this means an additional burden or the cost of changing to a new system.