Due to a miscommunication between Council officers I was up at an ungodly hour this morning so that I could attend the 8.30am Childrens Services Lead Member Briefing. Nobody seemed sure if the meeting was scheduled for 8.30am, 8.30pm or 11am – in the end, 8.30am was accepted (purely because that time had been used on the public notices). The meeting was primarily concerned with the decision that Councillor Warmisham had arrived at, in regard to the move of the Youth Offender Service (YOS) into the former Blackfriars Housing Office, located in a residential cul-de-sac .
Regular readers of my blog will remember that this decision was subject to call-in and the Lib Dem led call-in was successful for the residents, as Overview & Scrutiny referred the decision back for Cllr Warmisham to reconsider. They also advised that if he was not minded to re-consider his decision, it would be referred to full council. Well that may now not happen.
Councillor Warmisham has “revised” his original decision, although the revision is merely delaying one aspect for 6 months (namely spending £155,000 from the YOS budget to build an extension and refurbish the former Blackfriars Housing Office). Officers seem to believe that this “revision” is enough to ignore the original call-in decision and not refer the matter to full Council to consider. I would tend to disagree. It is essentially the same decision, with a delay of 6 months thrown in at the last minute.
If you look at the terms of the original call-in, the very first part dealt with the decision to move the YOS to Blackfriars. While Councillor Warmisham did not believe this part to be subject of the call-in, it was. The whole decision was “called-in” successfully. The second part of the decision dealt with the spend of £155,000 from the YOS budget. Councillor Warmisham agreed this could be called in, although it was confirmed today that if the amount had been less than £100,000 it would not have been.
Regardless of what Councillor Warmisham believes, the whole decision was called in by Scrutiny. Salford Council cannot now ignore the democratic process; they would be breaking the law if they did. The correct procedure is to now allow this decision to be brought before full Council on 15th July.
Labour councillors will no doubt be aware that the Childrens Services Overview & Scrutiny has not only changed name (it is now Children Young People and Families Scrutiny) but it’s members have changed. As Council has met following the election of Councillor Ferguson, who was elected in Pendlebury in March, he is now eligible to vote (eagle eyed readers may remember I blogged previously about Cllr Ferguson who tried to vote against the call-in last time around, despite not being a member of the Scrutiny Committee).
It is clear what the Lead Member for Children’s Services is trying to achieve here. By “revising” his decision, he hopes to negate the original call-in decision and has “voluntarily” referred the matter to Children Young People and Families Scrutiny; clearly he believes the current make-up of this Scrutiny panel are more likely to be accepting of the YOS move to a residential cul-de-sac in one of the most deprived wards of Salford. If that is the case, Children Young People and Families Scrutiny will not take the matter any further and the decision will not go to full Council for consideration.
This type of devious politics has no place in Salford – does Cllr Warmisham not realise he is playing a political game with people’s lives?
I await the Children Young People and Families Scrutiny meeting on 8th July – I just hope the current committee members respect the deliberation and decision of the previous members and force the YOS call-in to move to full Council for consideration as is right and proper.
