Review to look at decision making process at Chichester District Council

During a meeting of the full council on Tuesday (January 19), Liberal Democrat leader Adrian Moss tabled a motion calling for a cross-party working group to be set up to look into a number of areas.

They included providing open and accurate democracy while making decisions in a timely manner, working more effectively with residents and maximising the involvement all councillors have in the decision making process.

Mr Moss said: “We’re not looking for major changes. 

“I think there may be some opportunities for subtle changes to bring people into the decision making process, to enable councillors to understand early in the process what’s happening in the council.

“I think this gives us as councillors an opportunity to look at how the council moves forward in the coming years.”

In May, Arun District Council will be switching away from the current ‘leader and cabinet’ system of governance to a committee-led system – but that was not seen as a route to take for Chichester.

The motion described that system as ‘complex, resource-intensive and undesirable’.

It would also be unworkable given that Chichester only has 36 councillors compared to Arun’s 54.

Instead the motion suggested a ‘best of both worlds’ hybrid model could be explored.

Given the pressure already being placed on council staff, the group will not be set until the pandemic has died down.

It is expected to report its recommendations to the rest of the council in May 2022.

Mr Moss met with leader Eileen Lintill to thrash out the wording of the motion and, while she felt there were already ample opportunities for councillors to be involved in the various issues, she supported the idea of setting up the group.

The debate brought an interesting range of opinions, with some taking an ‘If it ain’t broke don’t fix it’ approach to the idea – while others suggested the current situation at the council was less than equitable.

The majority view, though, was that this was an idea which should be taken seriously, with accountable, transparency and cross-party working being key.

Richard Plowman (Lib Dem, Chichester North) said: “It will make our decisions better and it will make them quicker and I think that will go down well with everyone.”