Neighbourhood forums branded a ‘waste of time’ could be scrapped in Tameside after five years in operation, councillors have been told.
Currently there are four forums serving different areas of the borough, named the East, West, North and South Strategic Neighbourhood Forums.
They were established as a cost-saving measure in 2018 to replace nine former town councils in the borough which were branded ‘ineffective’, and which themselves had been created less than two years previously.
It was thought the four forums would save around £25k a year over five years. They were a way that local residents and councillors could receive neighbourhood policing updates and discuss infrastructure and regeneration plans.
However there will be further changes to the structure of local meetings from April, which could see the strategic forums disbanded or restructured.
None of the forums have so far met during this council year, with meetings in June being cancelled.
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At a meeting of full council, the minutes of the town hall’s democratic processes working group were presented to councillors. It had been proposed that a working group be created to review the operation of neighbourhood forums.
Council leader Ged Cooney told members that a cross-party review of the neighbourhood forums would begin ‘shortly’, ‘with a view to implementing new arrangements for the next municipal year’.
He said that meetings of the forums would resume in October but that they had also placed the forum chairs onto other panels .
“Neighbourhood forums will continue in their present form at the moment but what I do want is this working group to get together and talk about how we face the public, but also businesses and local businesses in their area,” he added. “I don’t want it to be just one little area.
“We’re using the old ones but we’ve also got new jobs for the four area chairs as well, as well as working on the corporate parenting board. The most important thing is the working party get together and talk about the future.”
Stalybridge South councillor Liam Billington, who is a member of the East Strategic Neighbourhood Forum, said: “I’m happy that neighbourhood forums are being scrapped. I thought they were a waste of time which were brought in by the previous leader.
However the Tory councillor criticised the payments of special responsibility allowances (SRA’s) to forum chairs, given there were only two meeting left on the council agenda tabled in October and January.
“Chairs of neighbourhood forums are paid £10,526 as an SRA,” he said.
“So that would mean that chairs of the neighbourhood forums are going to be paid £5,263 per meeting chaired. How is that a valuable use of taxpayers money?”
Coun Cooney responded: “If we were only paid for meetings we wouldn’t be doing our job. What these chairs are also doing presently, I do know the work they are already doing which is important and engaging in their areas.
“If it was only about meetings that would be the wrong thing to do. What we’ve also done is actually put them on the corporate parenting board, besides this working group and they’re still going to carry on with the area meetings as they are now.
“They’ve only missed two of them.”
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