What Council services should be scrutinised?
Residents are urged to have their say about what St Albans City and District Council services should be improved.
A meeting of the Council’s Planning, Resources, Housing and Commercial Scrutiny Committee will be held on Thursday 10 September.
Its members want to hear beforehand what services residents would like them to examine in the months ahead.
Areas covered by the Committee include planning, finance, social housing, information technology, customer services, human resources, community protection and commercial developments.
Topics that residents could raise include rough sleeper provision, the impact of Covid-19 on the Council’s budget and how antisocial tenants are dealt with.
Other concerns might include progress with the Local Plan that identifies land for future housing, commercial and infrastructure development.
The Committee’s role is to study the Council’s work in depth to ensure it is providing the best possible services. Members review performance, decisions and policies.
They can look at issues that are not the Council’s direct responsibility but can impact on the District such as public health provision.
The Committee can summon members of the Council’s Cabinet – its executive body – and Council officers for questioning. It can also ask for representatives from other organisations to present to meetings.
It cannot make decisions but can make recommendations to the Cabinet about what actions should be taken.
To suggest a topic for review, residents, businesses or other organisations should email scrutiny@stalbans.gov.uk by noon on Monday 7 September.
Councillor Paul Cousin, the Committee’s Chair, said:
We very much want to hear from our residents about any concerns they may have about the Council’s services.
I urge people to let us know what they would like us to look at. Subjects could include anything from our Council house repairs service to progress with delivering new leisure and cultural centres in Harpenden.
We will greatly value all the feedback we receive and it will be used to determine where our focus should be.
Scrutiny Committees look to see if the Council is performing well and what actions need to be taken if they are not doing so.
We want to make sure that we are responsive to the issues that our residents are most concerned about and we need their feedback to do that.
The four Cabinet members accountable to this Committee are Cllr Jamie Day, Portfolio Holder for Planning; Cllr Robert Donald, Commercial, Development and Wellbeing; Cllr Jacqui Taylor, Housing, Inclusion and Protection; and Cllr Karen Young, Resources.
There is another Scrutiny Committee that checks on the Council’s Community, Environment and Sport services.
For more information about the Scrutiny Committees, please see: https://stalbans.moderngov.co.uk/mgListCommittees.aspx?bcr=1.
Picture: Cllr Cousin.
Councillor contact:
Cllr Paul Cousin, Chair of the Planning, Resources, Housing and Commercial Scrutiny Committee: cllr.p.cousin@stalbans.gov.uk, 07825 652780.
Media contact:
John McJannet, Principal Communications Officer: 01727-819533; john.mcjannet@stalbans.gov.uk.