Overview
- On Wednesday May 20 the new Reform UK majority voted not to reappoint Revd Canon Hilary Barber as independent chair of the Standards Committee and gave council officers authority to recruit his replacement.
- The same meeting abolished three subject scrutiny boards for Children and Young People, Place, and Adult Health and Social Care and folded their responsibilities into a single Overview and Scrutiny Committee to be chaired by a Reform councillor.
- Opposition group leaders from Labour, the Greens, the Liberal Democrats and an Independent councillor publicly thanked Barber and said the moves weaken independent oversight and break Calderdale conventions that usually give opposition parties committee chairs.
- Calderdale Council defended the changes as a mandate-driven coordination of scrutiny, said there would be no loss of councillor scrutiny capacity and cited an immediate saving of three special responsibility allowances totalling £11,025 a year.
- The Standards Committee handles councillor conduct, the Members’ Code of Conduct and alleged breaches, and critics warn that removing a long‑serving independent chair and centralising scrutiny could reduce transparency and limit routine public scrutiny of major council decisions.