LIB DEM LEADER SLAMS TORIES FOR SCRUTINY POINT-SCORING

5.05.00pm BST (GMT +0100) Wed 13th May 2009

Lib Dem leader Kath Pinnock has blasted the Conservative leader Jim Dodds for trying to turn Scrutiny into the Conservative group's mouthpiece.

Lib Dem leader Kath Pinnock has blasted the Conservative leader Jim Dodds for trying to turn Scrutiny into the Conservative group's mouthpiece.

Currently, the Council constitution means that the Conservatives have almost all Scrutiny Chairs. This allows them to gag other groups on the Council and use the committees for political point-scoring.

A proposal has been put forward to allow Scrutiny Chairs to be shared across all groups, to ensure balance.

Speaking in defence of the new proposal, Kath Pinnock said "There are three main reasons for making the change. Firstly, scrutiny is important and needs to be led by those with real talent and enthusiasm for the task. Being able to pick from a wider pool of Councillors will make scrutiny stronger.

"Secondly, when the administration changed in January very experienced people had to give up their important scrutiny work. This is not in the interests of residents, who would be better served by continuity and knowledge. Here in Kirklees we are used to working across the parties and scrutiny is a key part of that.

"Thirdly, Jim Dodds is simply trying to hold on to all the Scrutiny Chairs so that he can make political attacks. Scrutiny is not the right place for his type of politics - scrutiny is about working together and serving residents."