Missing information limits council scrutiny

North East Lincolnshire Council’s new Reform administration is being challenged to provide councillors with the information needed to properly scrutinise its performance and spending.

At the first Communities Scrutiny Panel meeting of the new municipal year, councillors were left without the council’s year-end finance and performance report following the cancellation and rearrangement of a Cabinet meeting by the Reform administration.

That meant important information on council performance, financial pressures and risks was unavailable during the formal scrutiny period, limiting councillors’ ability to properly examine it.

One glaring example was missed bin collections.

At the previous meeting, councillors had been told that the year-end report would provide data on missed bin collections which had previously been unavailable. However, because the report was not available for scrutiny, councillors were still unable to see that data.

Following the recent disruption to waste collections across North East Lincolnshire, Liberal Democrat Group Leader Cllr Nicola Aisthorpe asked for a verbal update instead.

The panel was told that the new reporting system was now operational, but that challenges remained, including reports not being captured. Without the year-end report and supporting data, however, councillors were unable to see the scale of those problems or properly assess performance for themselves.

Cllr Aisthorpe also challenged why new initiatives and investment were being presented without clear baselines or measures of success in the public report. Officers agreed these were necessary and committed to providing them to councillors by email so the results can be properly measured.