24 June 2011
After reading leaked minutes of a Conservative Party group meeting on March 4th in which the decision to award the contract for the Kings Lynn incinerator was made, Councillor Andrew Boswell has written to the Head of Law at County Hall asking her to revoke the conclusions of the Cabinet Scrutiny meeting of April 19th.
This Cabinet Scrutiny meeting discussed a call-in of the incinerator for over 6 hours before a packed audience of concerned Kings Lynn residents, but did not result in the incinerator decision being changed. However, the leaked minutes show that the Conservative Party group were given a briefing document written by senior council officers on which the Conservative group councillors decided to go ahead with the incinerator contract at the March 7th Cabinet. THIS BRIEFING REPORT WAS NOT MADE AVAILABLE SUBSEQUENTLY TO SCRUTINY COUNCILLORS.
Councillor Andrew Boswell says:
“This takes the decline of openness and transparency at Norfolk County Council to a new low. Once again, a decision has been made a small clique of councillors, who have withheld key information. Scrutiny councillors had no chance of properly assessing the decision to award the contract when they didn’t even know of the existence of, let alone see, the key document that influenced the decision.
“This completely undermines the democratic process and I believe it contravenes the constitution. I have asked the Head of Law to revoke the conclusions of the Cabinet Scrutiny meeting of April 19th. “
