Recommendations? What recommendations?
One would think the Tees Valley Combined Authority (TVCA) has a lot to discuss in the recent aftermath of the Tees Valley Review that set out 28 recommendations for consideration to the combined authority. It was, however, discovered by a shrewd Teesside observer that the upcoming scheduled TVCA cabinet meeting due on 15 March would be axed. The TVCA website declares“This meeting has been cancelled as there are no substantive agenda items requiring a decision.”
Dodging scrutiny
As many of the recommendations in the report surround governance and scrutiny, or lack thereof, within the TVCA one would hope the cabinet would be party to discussing and implementing a new system to rectify this. The members of the board include the Chair – Conservative Tees Valley Mayor Lord Ben Houchen and the leaders of the five local authorities within TVCA’s catchment. They include:
- Mayor Chris Cooke – Middlesbrough
- Councillor Alec Brown – Redcar & Cleveland
- Councillor Bob Cooke – Stockton-on-Tees
- Councillor Stephen Harker – Darlington
- Councillor Mike Young – Hartlepool
When Lord Houchen was approached by a local constituent on his personal Facebook page asking why the meeting was cancelled his response was as follows, “there are no items on the agenda. There are no decisions to make. We could have a meeting where there’s no decisions and no items on the agenda, but [this] doesn’t seem sensible to me.”
Is the Tees Valley Mayor trying to dodge scrutiny? Surely not?
Reinstating good governance
Once local leaders were made aware (thanks to the lobbying of many concerned citizens) that the meeting had been cancelled, unbeknownst to them, Councillor Alex Brown called on behalf of all Labour leaders that the meeting be reinstated, “I am receiving quite a number of messages about the next TVCA cabinet meeting being cancelled because there is “nothing to discuss”
“For clarity, myself and the other Tees Valley Council Leaders have not been consulted on the decision.
“I have written to Mayor Houchen and CEO of the TVCA to express my disbelief that after a report with 28 recommendations has been published we ‘have nothing to discuss’”.
As reported in The Yorkshire Post Cllr Bob Cooke has gone one step further and consulted legal officers to ask for an emergency meeting before the next election. This is due on the 2 May.
An agenda
During the discovery of the meeting cancellation the MP for Middlesbrough, Andy McDonald suggested a draft agenda since the Mayor and his CEO Julie Gilhespie could not seem to add one item to it.
I would hasten to add the recent PD Ports case to said agenda.
It does seem that a plan of action is in place to implement some of the 28 recommendations. Strangely it was only laid bare to the Hartlepool Development Corporation.
Avoidance is key
Are we seeing an avoidance is key approach to Lord Houchen’s mayorship? We await his response to reinstate the meeting.
