An opportunity for you to learn a little bit about Scrutiny...

The Council has five Scrutiny Committees, which review and challenge the decisions of Cabinet. An important part of their role is to review areas of the Council’s business and recommend improvements to Cabinet. The 'Cabinet' comprises of nine Councillors.

The Council has five Scrutiny Committees, and each committee looks at a different area of the Council’s work. Councillor's, other than Cabinet members, each must sit on one or more Scrutiny Committee. For instance; I'm on the Resources Scrutiny Committee and the Children and Young People Scrutiny Committee. You can read more about my Councillor role here.
The five Scrutiny Committees are:

Children and Young People Scrutiny Committee – Responsible for scrutinising decisions and issues relating to Education, Children’s Social Services, Youth Service, Libraries and Adult Learning.
 
Economy and Environment Scrutiny Committee – Responsible for scrutinising decisions and issues relating to Regeneration and Development, Transport, Town Centre Business Engagement, Tourism, Climate Change and Waste Reduction.
 
Health and Well Being Scrutiny Committee - Responsible for scrutinising decisions and issues relating to Adult Social Care, Public Health, Environmental Health, Trading Standards, the Registration Service and Leisure.

Neighbourhood Services Scrutiny Committee – Responsible for scrutinising decisions and issues relating to Housing, Community Safety, Street Scene and Licensing.

Resources Scrutiny Committee - Responsible for scrutinising decisions and issues relating to Human Resource Management, Financial Management, Contract Management, and Land and Property Management.
Individual decisions can be ‘called in’ to one of the Scrutiny Committees, to give the relevant Scrutiny Committee chance to review the decision before the decision is implemented. The Scrutiny Committee does not have the power to take the decision itself – but it can ask Cabinet to reconsider.
 
You are very welcome to attend any meetings of the Scrutiny Committees, can participate in discussion and, at the discretion of the Chair, ask questions. Scrutiny Committees also invite interested parties to appropriate meetings. 

You can approach your Councillor to ask that an issue be referred to a meeting of Scrutiny. This is referred to as a ‘Councillor Call for Action’ (CCfA).

If you would like more information on the work of Scrutiny Committees, you can contact the Democratic Services Section at the Town Hall on tel. 01325 388351, or via e-mail at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it