Many times the council administration will bring proposals to Full Council or the Executive which will result in significant changes from the current position.
Before any proposal is put forward you would start with an explanation of what the problem is that it is addressing.
In order for the explanation to be credible suitable information needs to be also provided to justify it. Without such information why would anyone believe that there is a problem.
Once an explanation is deemed to be credible then inevitably there will be a number of alternative options which will be evaluated. Each one will have full analysis of both the benefit and the disadvantage of that option. For example, what is the negative impact of that option and does the benefit outweigh such negative impact?
The final step would be to choose the best option which will then become the proposal. The reason for choosing this one and not any of the other options should be detailed.
Put all this together and you have the basis of a Business Case. A published Business Case allows residents to scrutinise all of these points. If there is no Business Case available to review then how can residents feel comfortable in what is being proposed, which in many cases will have a major impact on their life.
It smacks of the administration saying “trust us we know what is good for you!”
. I, and several of my colleagues, have repeatedly asked for the Business Case to be published. But each time we have been met with silence.
In fact, the Assistant Director Highways and Transport has confirmed that there is only one Business Case available and that was the one presented at the Executive Meeting in September.
That Business Case simply said – “Current predictions for 22/23 estimate a loss of income of between £0.6M and £0.8M….” There is no information as to where these losses are being made; no detail of any alternative options being considered; No information is provided about the negative impact of the doubling of these charges and adding charges for Sundays, Evening and Market Traders.
So, no-one can actually scrutinise these proposals. Questions such as what will be the reduction in usage of the car parks after these huge increases? What is the financial impact on businesses through loss of footfall or increased cost for their workers? What are the contingency plans if the predicted extra income fails to materialise?
All of these questions should be detailed in the Business Case.
Published Business Cases are important to all residents to have confidence in both Council Officers and the ruling politicians.
Without them, it simply reinforces the negative view of local politicians. Residents deserve better.
Cllr Keith Baker is a Conservative councillor for Coronation Ward, in Woodley, and leader of Woodley Town Council
