On Thursday evening, Ruislip’s Councillor Peter Smallwood OBE was elected as the new Chair of the Residents’ Services Select Committee. He has been sitting on two of Hillingdon council’s scrutiny committees: both the Children, Families and Education Select Committee, and the Residents’ Services Select Committee, where he had until now, been the vice-chair.
Hillingdon’s Select Committees have an important responsibility in monitoring council and other public services in our borough, scrutinising everything that the Council does, influencing policy and engaging with local organisations and official bodies. Each committee meets most months at the Civic Centre, for meetings which are usually around two hours long – where the public are invited to attend in person or to watch via YouTube.
The Select Committee meetings can be very interesting, with many and varied topics offering insights into how the Council works, how it interfaces with external bodies, and it gives a view of what goes on behind the scenes. As the clip above shows, the meetings are not all boring and dry – you can learn all kinds of things!
Councillor Wayne Bridges, ward councillor for Hillingdon East, had been the Chair of the Residents’ Services Select Committee, but following Ickenham’s Cllr Eddie Lavery moving from the Community & Environment Cabinet Member position to the Finance and Transformation position, Cllr Bridges moved from the select committee to the Cabinet.
It isn’t possible for a Cabinet Member to be part of a select committee – not least because the select committees scrutinise the work of the Cabinet, so late on Thursday evening, following the full Council meeting, Cllr Smallwood was elected as the select committee’s new Chair.
Ruislip – ever more important in the borough
Ruislip Residents’ Association’s five councillors include Cllr Philip Corthorne – Hillingdon Mayor, Cllr Susan O’Brien – Cabinet Member for Children, Families & Education, Cllr John Riley – Chair of the Corporate Resources & Infrastructure Select Committee, and now Cllr Peter Smallwood joining them Chair the Residents’ Serivices Select Committee means that Ruislip now has two Chairs of committees, the Mayor, a Cabinet member, and in Cllr Douglas Mills, also the longest-serving and most experienced councillor in the borough.
In neighbouring South Ruislip, Cllr Steve Tuckwell is another Cabinet Member, where he shares ward councillor dutues with Cllr Heena Makwana who Chairs the Children, Families & Education select committee. In the other direction, we neighbour Eastcote where Leader of the Council Cllr Ian Edwards sits alongside Cllr Nick Denys – the the fourth of the four Chairs of scrutiny Select Committees. Finally, our neighbouring Ickenham is the home ward for Cllr Eddie Lavery – the new Cabinet Member for Finance and Transformation.
These positions are both powerful and important – our councillors hold significant responsibility and influence in how the council runs for all residents – not just in and around Ruislip, but across the whole of the borough.
Congratulations to Cllr Peter Smallwood OBE in joining our other big guns!
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