Tories take too much time off, says Councillor Malcolm Cowan

9.48.47pm BST (GMT +0100) Sat 18th Apr 2009

Councillor Cowan decries long Tory breaks.

Tories give themselves up to 6 months 'holiday'

Shocked Liberal Democrats have revealed how long a holiday the ruling Tory group on Herts County Council are giving themselves each side of the upcoming election in June. Many committees and panels last met early in March and are not set to meet again for up to 6 months.

'It beggars belief that they think the electorate does not need to feed into decisions, through their councillors for so long. What will the cabinet have agreed to whilst the other 68 councillors are forced to wait for the resumption of democracy?' said Malcolm Cowan.

'Some of these committees are monitoring on services that have been shown to be failing recently. We need to be keeping up scrutiny over what is being done on our behalf.

'Taken together, around £200m will be spent whilst councillors are taking an enforced break.'

Some of the gaps between meetings:

Education panel - 5 months

Highways and Transport panel - 6 months

Childrens Services - 6 months

Planning and External Relations panel - 5 months

Community Safety panel - 4 ½ months

Health Scrutiny 3 ½ months

Policy and Resources - 3 months

Adult Care - 6 months

Waste Management - nearly 5 months

Policy and Resources - 3 months