Bureaucracy for the sake of it

It is reassuring in some ways to know that there are other communities in the country going through the same absurdities as we are in Norfolk but it is also worrying that the same bureaucratic nonsense is replicated throughout too.

The minutes of the Whitehill  Bordon Delivery Board meeting held on the 7th December 2010 are now available and make dismal reading as might be expected . The questions posed by members of the public are appended to the end of the report and one question, and the answer given, jumps out as reflecting the  bureaucratic nonsense already alluded to.

The question:
"As the proposed Specialist Groups are to
have no power to make decisions, merely to
make recommendations and suggestions to the
Standing Conference, the Standing Conference
is to have no power to make decisions, merely
to make recommendations and suggestions to
the Delivery Board and the Delivery Board is to
have no power to make decisions, merely to
make recommendations and suggestions to
East Hampshire District Council who will make
any decisions, what is the purpose of the
Delivery Board and the Standing Conference
and would it not save considerable
"bureaucracy" for the Specialist Groups to
report direct to EHDC?"

 The response:
"The governance structure aims to involve as
many people as possible, to ensure that there
is a strong focus on delivery and to influence
all the partners and statutory agencies, not
just EHDC.
The power to make decisions still rests in the
partner organisations who have statutory
duties and resources to deliver. For example
EHDC is the planning authority.
The partnership – represented by the Delivery
Board – is the arena where individual partners
can come together to agree their collective
strategies.
The Delivery Board will take advice from the
Standing Conference and the Specialist
Groups, as well as from partners and their
officers.
It will be for the delivery board to agree
strategic issues by consensus between the
partners."
This is a new structure. The systems are not
cast in stone and will be reviewed and can be
changed if better options come forward.

1 comment:

  1. Richard Williams20 January 2011 at 11:43

    Frightening how they can create an Orwellian situation to make it sound as though consultation means anything other than you will do what we say.

    ReplyDelete