THE collapse of the Lib Dem vote in the May council elections meant that Poole council moved from “no overall control” to a Conservative majority.

This means that the Conservatives can force through any policies and decisions that they wish. Unfortunately, the Conservatives (at least in Poole) appear to make decisions behind closed doors and have a tendency to believe that their view is always correct.

Although some of them will say that they are open to other points of view, they invariably vote as one.

One of the deficiencies of the British electoral system is that councillors are responsible both for setting policy and for scrutinising it.

This means that if a party has a majority of councillors, it can staff the cabinet with its own members, appoint the chairs of the overview and scrutiny committees and outvote opposition councillors in those committees. The majority party essentially scrutinises itself. There is a demographic deficit here.

The Conservatives’ fear of being questioned has caused them to introduce proposals to abolish area committees, which have for a long time given members of the public the opportunity to question officers and members.

They are also channelling more decisions directly to full council, bypassing the overview and scrutiny committees. Full council does not allow proper scrutiny because a councillor’s contribution is limited to three minutes and because relevant officers are not present to be questioned.

This closing down of the democratic process is particularly serious at this time because the council is being forced to cut services of value to Poole’s residents.

CLLR MARK HOWELL

Poole People, Market Street, Poole