A DECISION not to vote on increasing accountability and transparency at Enfield Council caused furore at a meeting last week.

Councillor Doug Taylor presented a paper to Enfield Council's overview and scrutiny committee on Wednesday saying there was a need for “more openness, better scrutiny, more transparency and more information.”

He said the paper had been drawn up in the wake of the BNP gaining two seats in the European Parliament and poor election turnout generally.

He said: “The vast majority of residents will not vote in elections. We are less popular than Britain’s Got Talent and the X Factor, but of course the decisions taken in this chamber affect residents of the borough virtually every day.

“I think this goes to the heart of how the council does business. The whole point of the council is democracy. The executive has to be held to account.”

Suggestions include monthly publications of all Freedom of Information requests and their responses, complaints against the council and salary details of all officers earning over £100,000 — an issue highlighted by The Independent in May.

Cllr Del Goddard, Labour, said: “I don’t think we have reached the level [of scrutiny] which is going to make us a good council. It seems we are being asked to do more with less.”

He said there was a need for more funding for better scrutiny, “otherwise we will end up being case workers, on actually changing services the impact we have is going to get weaker and weaker”,

Cllr Martin Prescott, the Conservative chairman of the committee said he had “some sympathy” with Cllr Goddard’s views on scrutiny funding.

However, council leader Mike Rye accused Labour councillors of presenting the paper as a “disguise” for propagating “party political ideas”.

He said: “I welcome the sentiments of the paper, however the premise on which the paper was written is not one I recognise."

He also slammed the Labour group for asking for extra funding “at a time when MPs are accused of having their noses in the trough”.

Deputy leader Mike Lavender said: “Our administration is simply a better administration than yours was – but it is simply an administration. We haven’t had the opportunity to influence policy.”

Despite howls of protest from the Labour camp, Mayor Eleftherios Savva ruled there would be no vote because the majority side was not in favour. Labour’s Achilleas Georgiou said that not to vote was undemocratic and against the spirit of the paper.

Last year’s mayor Cllr Lee Chamberlain, called the paper “just fluff” and claimed many of the resolutions had already been adopted.

Cllr Rye said there was “common agreement” that six of the 13 points were already in place.

The Independent is awaiting clarification from Enfield Council concerning publication of the salaries of officers over £100,000 and some of the other points raised in the document.