By Isle of Wight Observer
After hours of argument, hundreds of officer hours, thousands of taxpayer pounds, and lots of PowerPoint slides, the Isle of Wight Council’s shiny new committee system — adopted barely two months ago — is already on the chopping block.
On Tuesday, the government announced plans to scrap the committee system the council spent a year implementing, labelling it “duplicative, wasteful and unclear.”
The proposed legislation will require all councils to adopt the leader-and-cabinet model — unceremoniously dumped by our councillors — before next May, in the name of clarity, efficiency and saving taxpayers’ money.
Independent Labour councillor Geoff Brodie, who championed the change, was not amused. In an email to colleagues, he branded it “a return to being undemocratic from a dictatorial government elected with fewer votes than Jeremy Corbyn’s democratic Labour in 2019.”
The government giveth and the government taketh away — and always with perfect timing!