Dear Helen

I'm forwarding my recent emails to Patrick Harley because I'm trying to influence you over:

1. A public forum item at the beginning of the agenda of every committee is important for reasons of public participation and for trying to get a more engaged and educated public.
2. Councillors are extremely important to check, challenge and question the officers.
3. I would like to see CA councillors being regarded as having that little more weight and seniority than when they sit in their local council chamber.
4. I would like you to encourage CA councillors to attend, in person, every committee meeting now that Covid is less virulent.
5. They need to be voting on policy and practice, I think so that their committees are less of a talking shop.
6. Edinburgh City Council, when it came to their tram projects, seemed to have the right idea as regards small group discussions, then council debates and finally votes.
7. Can the Combined Authority trump the local authority in some ways?  Certainly, I would have thought, when it comes to the climate emergency and the urgency of cutting greenhouse gas emissions that must dominate every decision by our leaders - of which you are one, Helen.

Best wishes

I think your idea for each (or most) Cabinet members having a scrutiny committee seems fine to me.  I want councillors taking a much more important role, with a public forum agenda item, than the WMCA's proposed Citizens' Panel selected by lottery that I'm not keen on.  (To be honest: because I wouldn't get on it)  But scrutiny really must mean expert scrutiny by people who know what they are talking about and are prepared to challenge, check and question.

You will remain as leader of the Council, of course after the May elections, so I'm very pleased with that.  I vote for Andy Street in his elections because he holds public meetings and listens to the concerns of ordinary people.  I also like the Edinburgh Conservative Group opposing trams on grounds of cost and would be voting for them, if I lived in Edinburgh, for that reason.  The Green Party has never supported me and, anyway, wants trams and some, even High Scam 2 that I strongly disapprove of and will never use, on principle - even if I'm still alive when it's finally opened.