Cllr Jenny Roach, who represents Silverton told a meeting of Mid Devon District Council said she had been shocked to find that questions asked by another councillor last month had been answered on her behalf by council officers without the courtesy of the responses being sent to her first.

The council leadership said to try to improve the “smooth running” of council business, officers would regularly answer technical questions which elected chairs of committees were unable to answer themselves.

Cllr Roach told members: “As chairman of the scrutiny committee, I have felt several times I have been undermined. I didn’t expect to answer the question myself but I did expect that the answer would be run past me before it was sent out in my name.

“The scrutiny committee is a very important role, sadly I have felt undermined and alone. This sort of situation should not be happening in a democratic and well-run council. ” Cllr Linda Holloway said she was shocked that question to a chair of a committee could be answered without the response going through the chair of that committee. “What else do our briefing papers say that isn’t true?”, she queried.

Cllr Mel Lucas who chairs the council managing the environment policy development group said the way Cllr Roach had been treated reflected poorly on the council. He said: “I am annoyed and dismayed at the conduct of this council I have seen in the last few years a great deterioration in our conduct. This is possibly the last straw. People should not put down answers to questions without even having the courtesy to let the person they are answering for see it first.”

Council chief executive Kevin Finan said the scrutiny had a wide remit and could be asked questions on a wide range of subjects. He said there were tight deadlines in which to respond to questions and committee chairs had to rely on officers for information.

He said; “We are only trying to help the smooth running of the council by answering the questions put to us.

The scrutiny committee exists to consider and review issues relating to the council’s policies and service delivery and can “call-in” decisions made by the council cabinet for further examination. The questions which had been answered without Cllr Roach’s knowledge were raised by Cllr David Pugsley and related to the version of the council’s constitution available to view on the website.

Cllr Pugsley did not attend the meeting of the full council held on Wednesday, July 2 in Tiverton Town Hall, but he did put forward a motion that the council abandon its decision to adopt a ‘strong leader’ governance model which he believed was undemocratic.

Cllr Mary Turner said she did not believe Cllr Pugsley had “chickened out” of presenting his motion to the meeting, reasoning that he liked “stirring things up”.

Cllr John Berry who chaired the meeting said Cllr Purgsley had had not one but two opportunities to discuss this motion but not attended the meetings in question, and he accused him of “bringing the council into disrepute”.

The motion was brought forward in Cllr Pugsley absence but was defeated.

Read more: http://www.middevongazette.co.uk/Councillor-felt-undermined-staff-answered/story-21318520-detail/story.html#ixzz36M6qPerV