Council to reconsider decision over charging community groups to use school facilities

Leeds council is to reconsider plans to charge community groups to use school buildings - after an inquiry found the decision had been taken away from public scrutiny. Members of the council's children's services scrutiny board today overturned a decision to allow schools to charge local groups and organisations for using their facilities for meetings - a service which had always been free. Councillors agreed that the decision, which was taken under delegated powers by a council officer, should be referred back to the officer for reconsideration as they were unhappy with the decision-making process. The decision was called in to the scrutiny board by councilors on the Conservative, Liberal Democrat, Morley Borough Independent and Green parties, who said the final decision should be debated in public by senior councillors on the council's powerful executive board. The agenda for today's meeting can be found here . Conservative John Procter claimed the decision had been taken by council officers in private - and that he had been unfairly denied access by officers to the minutes of that meeting. He said: "It smacks of decisions being made behind closed doors in smoke-filled rooms. "It certainly isn't open in any shape or form and that is inappropriate by anbody's standards. To refuse me access to the papers is deeply unsatisfactory. It is discourteous to councillors and unsatisfactory to local groups who might want to understand how the council came to this decision." Procter also said that there needed to be greater consultation with local groups, that the move to charge for facilities should be explained in better detail and gthat there should be help and support from council officers for local groups. Conservative Alan Lamb added: "This report should be debated at Executive Board where schools, the general public and community groups can witness and participate in the debate. There is nothing to be gained by taking this decision behind closed doors Eleanor Brazil, interim director of children's services, refuted some of the claims. She said: "This was not a closed doors decision. The meeting was made up of the senior management team of the council, but we don't make policy decisions. This particular decision formed part of the budget for 2010-11 - the budget went through executive board and the full council voted on it. "It is important that people understand that the amount of work that has gone on to implement this decision as sensitively as possible. We have written letters to groups explaining the process." Brazil added that while the decision would give schools autonomy to charge for the hire of their facilities, the final decision on how much an organisation should pay - or event if it shoudl be free - would rest with the school. The decision would save the council £800,000 a year. Councillors voted 6-6 to decide whether to refer the decision back to officers. Liberal Democrat councillor - and meeting chairperson - Brenda Lancaster used her casting vote to tip it in favour of referral. Labour councillors had preferred to proceed with the application, but with the caveat of increased community consultation. Few of the councillors on any party objected to the principle of charging groups, just with the way the decision had been made. In taking their decision to ask officers to look again at the decision, councillors also criticised the lack of public consultation and strongly advised of the need for further discussion with schools and user groups about the impact of the changes in charging. Labour claim: "Tories have called in their own decision" After the meeting, Labour executive board member Judith Blake said that the Conservative and Liberal Democrat councillors had essentially voted to call in their own decision, which was made in their budget and which was approved by councillors at full council before the change in administration earlier this year. She added: "It is unfortunate that they have chosen to pick up on an issue of proceedure, holding up a very important decision. "At next week's full council, they have put forward a white paper criticising us of procrastinating over making cuts - here they've held up the process at a cost of £75,000 each month to the council. It just doesn't add up." Background The community use of schools budget was established in 1990 and provides a pot of £1m each year in subsidy to be provided to Leeds schools in reimbursements when groups and organisations use school buildings. The council is looking to cut the funding in favour of a hardship budget of £50,000 and giving schools more freedom to choose which groups they should charge and at what cost for use of their buildings. What do you think? Have your say in the comments section below.