Clash Of Diaries Leaves West Sussex Councillors Frustrated

A clash of diaries left West Sussex councillors frustrated after senior officers and cabinet members left a meeting just as the county’s economy was about to be discussed.

Members of the performance and finance scrutiny committee spent last Thursday morning (September 10) inspecting reports into issues such as the budget gap and how the council would reboot once the pandemic is over.

But just as the economic recovery plan came up, West Sussex County Council leader Paul Marshall, CEO Becky Shaw and several cabinet members logged off to join another meeting.

While chairman Joy Dennis called the double booking ‘disappointing’, Steve Waight (Con, Goring) had much stronger words.

Mr Waight said scrutiny was being treated like ‘a second class subject’ and the mass exit gave the impression that councillors only attended the meetings if there was nothing better in their diary.

He added:

“That really shouldn’t be the impression we ‘re giving either to members of the council or to officers or to members of the public who may be watching this and will have simply seen the cabinet disappear because they have something else to do.

“I really do think that where we have these meetings in the diary well in advance that both officers and the cabinet should take that into account before they just decide that they’ll go and do something else.”

The committee was told that the second meeting concerned Covid-19 recovery and was not organised by the council.

Mrs Dennis said that didn’t change the fact that she had not been told about the clash.

A spokesman said:

“Scrutiny is an integral part of the operations of the council.

"The leader, CEO and cabinet members were present for the items they were directly involved in.

“We would say diaries are under huge pressure because of the ongoing pandemic as we continue to support our communities.”