Green councillors vowed to deepen and intensify scrutiny of the new Labour administration following the first council meetings.
Green councillors will sit on key committees, including those scrutinising Planning, Audit and Licensing decisions made by the Labour Mayor.
Green Party Group leader Cllr Tom Crone said: ‘We know from comments made by the last Mayor that Green Party questions were key to forcing his disgraced administration on to the back foot and trying to hide its actions from proper scrutiny.
‘We are determined now to focus our time and attention on key areas and make sure we turn up to do our jobs.
‘Other opposition parties have a poor record on attendance and have decided to spread themselves thinly across too many committees. That will result in council decisions being taken without the proper questions being asked.’
No other party will attend as many meetings per councillor than the Green Party in the year to come. In fact, The Green Party more scrutiny seats per councillor than Labour or the Lib Dems.
Cllr Crone added: ‘We’re certainly not afraid of the workload. We’re in our communities every day working hard to make them better places to live. What we are afraid of is councillors just nodding through decisions instead of giving them the detailed scrutiny they need.
‘We were elected to ask the right questions and get them answered. You only achieve that you deepen and intensify scrutiny to get to the detail.’
