Councillors satisfied with Executive Board as just 15 Member Questions tabled over a five year council period

Just 15 “member questions” were submitted by councillors for executive board and full council meetings over the last five years.

Under the council constitution elected members have the opportunity to ask questions on topics away from the main the meeting at the start of the monthly executive board meetings.

They can provide an opportunity to ask topical, specific questions of the Executive or even raising ward issues, and could be used to bring issues to the attention of the public rather than waiting for a scheduled Scrutiny Meeting. Critics have pointed out to Wrexham.com that such questions could be seen as ‘showboating’, and avoid doing an in-depth topic request form and probe via the Scrutiny process.

Questions can also be submitted for consideration at full council meetings as and when they are scheduled.

Queries must be submitted in writing to the Chief Officer Governance & Customer at least five clear working days prior to the meeting – something we have noted several times before causes a problem if you want to ask something based off the agenda of the meeting, as that would likely be unknown at that point in time.

The constitution adds that “One supplementary question without notice may be asked of the Member of the Executive Board to whom the first question was asked. The supplemental question must arise directly out of the original question or the reply.”

Questions and how they are taken, or answered, has been a thorny issue over the years with boiler plate answers preferred at one point and more recently there has been a clamp down on Points of Order – a method sometimes used to get a question in a meeting.

Members of the public also have the opportunity to submit and potentially ask questions, however this is something rarely seen at meetings.

A Freedom of Information request (FOI) submitted by Wrexham.com this summer asked:

• Between May 2017 and April 2022 – essentially covering the last five year council term – how many member questions were submitted for either a Full Council or Executive Board meeting.
• Can this information be provided with the name of the councillor who has submitted the question and the meeting date it was for.
• Information on how many of the member’s questions submitted to be asked at either the executive board or full council were refused and for what reason – if there is an easily classification eg. answered / chair refuses / refused on legal advice etc.

The FOI revealed that during the last council term – between 2017 up until the election in May of this year – just 15 questions were submitted by councillors.

A full breakdown of the executive board member questions and who asked them, can be found below:

• Cllr Marc Jones – June 2017 (two questions): Two questions relating to proposals which he alleged would lead to the axing of 24 full time firefighters’ jobs and one of Wrexham’s two whole-time fire engines, and seeking the Executive Board’s position on steps being taken to ensure there is sufficient funding to continue the level of service in the Wrexham area.
• Cllr Marc Jones – October 2017: A question querying whether an appraisal had been undertaken to determine if the Groves was still needed for educational purposes.
• Cllr Dana Davies – May 2018: A question relating to Wrexham Citizen’s Advice Bureau.
• Cllr Bryan Apsley – June 2018: A question relating to car parking charges.
• Cllr Trevor Bates – August 2018: A question relating to the community playing field, play equipment and recycling facilities in Pontfadog.
• Cllr Ronnie Prince – September 2018: A question relating to Glyphosate based herbicides.
• Cllr Dana Davies – January 2019: A question relating to Wrexham’s Citizens Advice Service.
• Cllr Carrie Harper – November 2019: Rejected due to pre-election period.
• Cllr Marc Jones – November 2019: Rejected due to pre-election period.
• Cllr Dana Davies – January 2020: A question relating to partnership working.
• Cllr Marc Jones – No date given in FOI response
• Cllr Gwenfair Jones – February 2020: Two Members submitted questions. The Chief Officer Planning & Regulatory responded to the first question regarding Kronospan, and the Lead Member for Place – Housing responded to the second question regarding void properties.
• Cllr Marc Jones – February 2020: Two Members submitted questions. The Chief Officer Planning & Regulatory responded to the first question regarding Kronospan, and the Lead Member for Place – Housing responded to the second question regarding void properties.
• Cllr Carrie Harper – February 2020: Rejected due to being outside of the timescales

The first executive meeting of the new council in June 2022, saw just one members question submitted by Cllr Dana Davies.

This was rejected and the answer was provided away from the meeting – something which caused debate over whether this was constitutional.

The opportunity to ask such questions has been open to all councillors, but appears to be neglected by many.