SOME Herefordshire councillors are not pulling their weight in key meetings, a political leader in the county has claimed.

Herefordshire councillors were debating changes to the way their five scrutiny committees, which monitor the council’s various functions, operate.

Challenging the proposed changes, Independents for Herefordshire group leader Cllr Liz Harvey said that for its size, the county has ‘a bloated scrutiny’ and called for the five to be reduced by at least one.

“It’s clear the Conservative and Liberal groups struggle to populate the seats across the five, with their members most frequently failing to attend, failing to apologise and failing to provide substitutes,” she said.

“Those members also struggle to attend the preparation meetings. A reduced number of councillors would maybe do a better job.”

Opposing this, Liberal Democrat councillor for Ross, and chair of the connected communities scrutiny committee, Cllr Ed O’Driscoll said: “With everything the council is planning to do, we require significant scrutiny.”

Cllr Harvey added that proposals to restrict public questions at meetings were “unfortunate and inappropriate” – though these “should be focussed on the business of that meeting”.

Her colleague and former council leader Cllr David Hitchiner said councillors should be very cautious about changing arrangements for public questions, adding that had the public felt able to ask more questions earlier about the council’s ‘deficient’ children’s services, fewer lives would have been harmed.

Cabinet member for environment Cllr Elissa Swinglehurst said there were numerous other avenues for the public to put questions to the council.

And chairman of the children’s scrutiny committee Cllr Toni Fagan said that allowing unvetted questions from the public during live-streamed meetings risks exposing a child, a family or a worker, inadvertently or deliberately.

Non-aligned councillor Jim Kenyon said the authority’s policy of filling places in proportion to the numerical strength of political groups was wrong.

Cabinet member for health and adult care Cllr Carole Gandy agreed that group leaders must ensure appointees have interest in the subject.

And LibDem group leader Cllr Terry James warned that the Boundary Commission could shortly change the structure of the council and its membership – so why do it now?”

Cllr Harvey’s proposed amendments were voted down, while her place as vice-chair of the children’s scrutiny committee now goes to Cllr Ben Proctor.