CARTER PRE-EMPTS, THEN IGNORES INSPECTION FINDINGSKent Labour condemns current Conservative Leader Paul Carter’s high-handed attitude to local democracy and official inspections. Kent County Council’s Cabinet Scrutiny Committee met today to consider proposals for joint working between KCC and the district councils in East Kent. Labour Shadow Deputy Leader and member of the Scrutiny Committee Derek Smyth asked Paul Carter whether decisions taken under the joint arrangements should be subject to scrutiny before they were taken, or only afterwards. Paul Carter replied that he thought strong leadership should mean taking decisions and then only having them looked at once they’d already been taken. He went on to say that the findings of the recent Audit Commission CPA Inspection of KCC may disagree with his position, but he would be sticking to it. Derek Smyth said: “The proposals for joint working in East Kent could give Conservative-led KCC and the district councils a chance to look at the way they’ve always done things and see if they could do them better. “But not only did Paul Carter’s response show that there’s no hope of re-thinking scrutiny in East Kent, there’s also no hope of re-thinking scrutiny of KCC all the while that he’s in charge. “He totally missed the point that a strong leadership should have nothing to fear from opening up proposals and decisions for proper debate, before it’s too late to really make a difference. “Only Paul Carter and his Conservative Cabinet get a real say on what KCC does – everyone else only gets asked their views when it’s pretty much a done deal. “No wonder that a lot of people don’t bother to get involved with local democracy any more. They probably can’t see the point.”Labour Shadow Leader of KCC and Chairman of the Cabinet Scrutiny Committee Mike Eddy said: “With this latest gaffe, Paul Carter has shown once again that he’s totally out of touch with national thinking on local democracy. “I can’t imagine the Audit Commission inspectors would be too impressed to know that Paul Carter’s going public on what their findings could be, and then in the next breath he’s saying that if their position disagrees with his, he’s ignoring them. “It really was an extraordinary thing to say. I should imagine it’s a bit of an embarrassment even to many of his Conservative colleagues.”
This Website and it’s contents are subject to copyright . KCC Labour Group C/o Sessions House County Hall Maidstone Kent ME14 1XQ 01622 694320
