Sark conseillers defend value of private pre-debate meetings
SARK'S new overarching policy prioritisation committee will help manage workloads and give conseillers and the public more knowledge of what is going on across the whole of Chief Pleas, say political leaders.
The Policy Development Group's new chairman, Paul Burgess, deputy chairman Antony Dunks, and former member of the now defunct General Purposes and Advisory Committee – which paved the way for the new committee structure – Rob Cottle, have defended the new body against accusations that it would lead to decision-making behind closed doors.
Sark Newsletter editor Kevin Delaney said in the latest publication that the PDG, of which all conseillers are members, would see politicians effectively making crucial policy decisions before a repeat debate in the public forum of Chief Pleas.
Mr Dunks said that while there would be no meeting minutes or public access, the agenda and decisions would be published, with conseillers allowed to discuss arguments made with the public – as long as comments were not attributed to a particular member.
'We're aiming for the meetings to be very informal – for example, there could be several conversations going on at the same time,' he said.
Mr Burgess said the meetings would be a big step forward in terms of making information available monthly, rather than just ahead of Chief Pleas.
'Being a member of Chief Pleas was almost like being a member of the public because you didn't know what was going on elsewhere until the papers came out. It's a far better system now,' he said.
