Richard Baum

Last night was the latest meeting of the Resource and Performance scrutiny commission, on which I am the Lib Dem representative. There were reports on our current budget position, and revisions to the way that the Council manages its assets. 

The main event was the debut before the commission of the new(ish) Executive Member for Finance, Cllr Peter Redstone. He was there to talk about the budget.  

The point of scrutiny is, as far as I am aware, to allow members to gain a better understanding of the issues placed before them, and to question the Executive Member responsible about policy and decisions. And of course there are officers there to support the Executive on the detail. 

I thought that last night the whole thing descended into political point-scoring, moving well beyond what was necessary for scrutiny. The situation was not helped by Cllr Redstone himself, who is now responsible for delivering a budget set by Labour, and who’s opening gambit was “I obviously had my reservations about the sustainability of the budget when I took it on.”  

This accusation was clearly a red rag (or perhaps a red flag…) to a bull, and the Labour members really went for him to explain himself, which he couldn’t do. Whether his comment was made intentionally to enflame the situation, or was heartfelt and just carelessly phrased, I don’t know. But what I do know was that it deflected serious questioning away in favour of petty squabbling about who said what and when. 

I laid off the Redstone-baiting because, truth be told, I don’t know anything sophisticated about the budget and my concerns had been answered by the officers anyway. Quite why the occasion had been used for a political slanging match when the only people present were officers (who are a-political) and members (who I imagine are fairly politically convicted…) is a mystery. The questions were overly aggressive, and the answers overly defensive as a result. Information isn’t being shared between Executive and scrutiny, for reasons of petty rivalry and childishness. And it does nothing for the people of Bury. 

At the end of the meeting I was pulled up by a Labour member about my silence during the grilling. I was told that my job was to “oppose” rather than be quiet. I had no response at the time, and although I thought of the perfect witty rejoinder 90 seconds later, by that time I was half way down the stairs and absolutely alone. If I’d still have had company, I’d have said that  my job is not to oppose, but to scrutinize. My job is certainly not score political points in a room with no members of the public and three embarrassed looking officers. 

Last week at Council I carelessly phrased a question, and it annoyed opposition Members who thought (mistakenly) that I had purposefully kept them in the dark about an issue. In reality the thought of sharing it with anyone, regardless of party, hadn’t crossed my mind. It is a sad fact that rather than think the best of fellow Members, for political reasons we seem to automatically think the worst of them. Secrecy and suspicion rule the day, and the opportunity to score points and bash the opposition is taken ahead of our real job which is to make sure that the Council serves the people of Bury properly. 

Rick