Excellent move by the Chief Ombudsman

The Chief Ombudsman released:

The Chief Ombudsman has launched an investigation into concerns that councils are undermining local democracy by using ‘workshops’ to discuss issues and make decisions behind closed doors.

Mr Boshier is taking action after becoming concerned about the use of workshops and other informal meetings by local authorities and the way some are excluding the public from meetings in general.

“There is nothing to prevent councils from holding workshops but I am concerned at reports that some councils may be using them to avoid their responsibilities under the Local Government Official Information and Meetings Act 1987 (LGOIMA).”

“Councils must give advance notice of a meeting. They must also provide an agenda and supporting papers at least two days before. Even extraordinary meetings need to be organised and reasonable notice must be given. Importantly, meetings should be open to the public, unless there is good reason under LGOIMA to exclude them.”

Mr Boshier says these meetings requirements can’t be avoided simply by calling what is really ‘meeting’ a ‘workshop.’

The vast majority of these workshops are de facto meetings. Councils use them to discuss issues and work out what the majority view is. They carefully avoid having a formal vote, but they have informal ones which then allows them to schedule a formal meeting where they simply vote in line with their earlier secret workshop discussions.

If the Chief Ombudsman can get this practice stopped, that will be a very good thing.