Row over 'shocking' decision to block Ivel Valley School debate at Central Beds council meeting
A ‘call-in’ by councillors of the £46m upgrade for Ivel Valley School and College in Biggleswade has been labelled “frivolous” by Central Bedfordshire Council’s monitoring officer, sparking a debate around the definition of the word.
Her use of the word in a detailed response to block the request by CBC members is described in legal terms as “a matter having insufficient sound basis to pursue”.
A ‘call-in’ allows decisions made by the Executive, but not yet implemented, to be reconsidered by an overview and scrutiny committee.
A CBC spokesman said in a statement: “The council recognises the importance of addressing issues at Ivel Valley and delivering extra special school places as fast as possible.
“It’s disappointing that (social media) comments reflect only part of the reasoning behind the monitoring officer’s decision. The call-in was assessed as adding unnecessary delay on those plans, which everyone agrees should be delivered at pace.
“Instead, the monitoring officer recommended a more effective route for the matter to be brought to a future scrutiny committee meeting, where it can be fully considered without slowing progress and maintaining democratic oversight.
“The word ‘frivolous’ in this context has specific meaning. It’s used in CBC’s constitution to mean a matter that has insufficient sound basis to pursue. This doesn’t mean we think the decisions regarding Ivel Valley have no serious purpose or value.”
Conservative Heath and Reach councillor Mark Versallion told a CBC children’s services overview and scrutiny committee meeting: “I tried desperately hard, as did other committee members, to get the Ivel Valley build added to this agenda through a call-in.
“That was regrettable because it should have come to scrutiny before the executive. The monitoring officer and chief legal civil servant of this council has deemed the move to call this in frivolous.
“Conversations continue, but it’s not on the agenda today. The executive made a legally binding decision to pursue option 1(b), so the moment has passed for scrutiny to challenge (that) or support the other options.”
Co-optee Richard Sherry asked on what grounds “that decision about frivolity was made”.
Councillor Versallion replied: “That’s the nature of the ongoing talks. Council leader councillor Adam Zerny and I had a constructive and helpful discussion shortly after executive, where we made a commitment to reset the relationship.
“All of us on both sides were going to learn from this experience, the Ivel Valley piece of work, and move forward constructively. It would be so easy to descend into some kind of guerrilla warfare.
“The word frivolous I personally found insulting to the scrutiny function, but potentially it’s a legal phrase. I had a lengthy face-to-face conversation with the monitoring officer. I argued my case and I lost.”
The Central Bedfordshire SEND action group described the monitoring officer’s decision to block the call-in as “shocking” on social media.
CBC wants to increase the capacity of the special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) school in Hitchmead Road by 85 places to 330. This project would involve stripping the current premises back to the core and rebuilding it.
CBC’s constitution states: “A call-in will be deemed valid unless the monitoring officer, consulting the relevant scrutiny chairman, considers it frivolous, vexatious or clearly outside the call-in provisions.”