THE former leader of City of York Council has called on the ruling Liberal Democrat group to "rethink" its approach to council meetings.

Dave Merrett, Labour group leader, has called on the Lib Dems to separate out scrutiny board meetings and meetings of the executive member advisory panel (EMAP).

The scrutiny board meetings take place straight after the EMAP meetings, with no separate timetabled starting time of their own.

Coun Merrett claimed this affected the level of scrutiny the board could provide.

Coun Merrett said: "Scrutiny is essential for holding the executive to account, but people need to know exactly when it is going to happen if they are going to get involved. Councillor Galloway (council leader) made great play of being open and accountable, so he should give scrutiny the weight it deserves by scheduling it properly."

But Coun Galloway said separating the meetings would lead to 16-a-month, instead of eight, on top of the usual committee meetings. Some EMAP and scrutiny board meetings were very short, meaning councillors and staff were being called for a matter of minutes.

Coun Galloway said: "It could be a waste of time and resources. The scrutiny people and the committee clerks had to organise two meetings, councillors had to come in when they could be out doing work on the streets."

Labour councillor Sandy Fraser, chairman of the social services scrutiny board, has complained the variable times mean expert witnesses needed for scrutiny board investigations could be left waiting around for a meeting to start.

"How can we reasonably invite someone to a meeting without being able to tell them when it will start?" Coun Fraser said.

But Coun Galloway said: "If they are getting witnesses in, there is no reason not to have an extra meeting, but not routinely.

"There are nine scrutiny boards now, it takes a lot of bureaucracy to support them, a charge on council tax payers we are looking to reduce."

Updated: 08:50 Friday, June 20, 2003