THE transparency, openness and accountability of the Hampshire Senate have been questioned by the minister in charge of local government, John Denham.

The Secretary of State for Communities also criticised the controv e r s i a l group for h o l d i n g some of its meetings b e h i n d c l o s e d doors.

T h e S e n a t e , which is made up of council leaders and repres e n t a - tives from the police, fire, army and hospitals, banned the press and public from a meeting at Southampton City Council late last month.

The unelected body was set up in 2008 to improve council partnership working, but has been heavily criticised by antitax groups and even one of its own members.

“I am concerned about anything that doesn’t lead to transparency and openness,”

Mr Denham told the Daily Echo.

“ We ’ v e said that if you are going to h a v e more c o - operation across local authority boundaries, the inevitable question is how do you make sure that it is still democratic, transparent and accountable?

“We are looking at how you make sure this doesn’t become a hidden body that takes decisions in secret. So if they are trying to meet in secret then they are probably moving against the whole thrust of everybody else in local Government.”

The Southampton Itchen MP added: “I think that residents in Hampshire would need to know whether this is really going to give them value for money. Is it going to cut out unnecessary bureaucracy?

“It seems to be duplicating structures like the Partnership for Urban South Hampshire which really are delivering effective local government and co-operation.”

Mr Denham was surprised to learn the Senate did not even have an elected chairman.

Councillor Ken Thornber, the Hampshire County Council leader, is the self-anointed chair of the Senate and no vote has ever been taken on his chairmanship.

“I am sort of surprised that other local authorities would participate in a body where they didn’t even have a say in who chaired it, but I guess that is a question for them,” he said.

He was also concerned by Cllr Thornber’s attempts to replace the Hampshire and Isle of Wight Local Government Association (HIOWLA), a legitimate body with joint committee status, with the Senate.

For the past decade HIOWLA, has met on several occasions each year to encourage cooperation between councils.

Cllr Thornber wanted £100,000 in subscriptions that are paid by every council in the region to run HIOWLA diverted to the Senate to fund new full-time staff.

Mr Denham said: “It’s a bit odd that HIOWLA is made up of the same local authorities - it seems to be robbing Peter to expensively pay Paul. But I think it is maybe a national trend, as there are a number of Conservative councils talking about pulling out of the Local Government Association at a national level.”

Government association to stay. THE self-anointed leader of the Hampshire Senate has suffered another humiliating blow to his authority.

Councillor Ken Thornber’s plan to make the unelected body more powerful and expensive has been heavily defeated.

As reported by the Daily Echo last October, Cllr Thornber wanted to abolish the Hampshire and Isle of Wight Local Government Association (HIOWLA) and divert all of its in funding – more than £100,000 – to the Senate.

He argued the two bodies “duplicated responsibilities” and that the Senate, which has no constitution, should become the voice of Hampshire in Westminster.

But his pleas fell on deaf ears at a HIOWLA meeting at Southampton City Council late last month when members, who include leaders of the county’s local councils, voted against the idea.

It comes just two months after Cllr Thornber admitted he made misleading claims that the Senate had reduced crime.

There are now renewed calls for the Senate, which was set up by Cllr Thornber in 2008, to be disbanded.

Senate member Councillor Keith House, the Liberal Democrat leader of Eastleigh Borough Council, said: “I have always taken the view that the Senate should be wound up and not HIOWLA.

“HIOWLA has done the job for many years, while the Senate has an unnecessary aura and grandeur about it, quite apart from the secrecy, unelected chairman and lack of constitution.”

He added: “There was no reason to ever set the Senate up in the first place. I hope that eventually sense will prevail and the Senate will be disbanded.”

Meanwhile, Councillor Jacqui Rayment, the Hampshire Police Authority chairman, has won back her place on the Senate after confronting Cllr Thornber.

Cllr Thornber last year attempted to have the Labour councillor replaced on the Senate by Chief Constable Alex Marshall.

But last night Cllr Rayment said: “We have come to a mutual agreement. Ken Thornber now recognises the Hampshire Police Authority has a statutory role to be on the Senate.”

Ken Thornber refuses to speak. THE Daily Echo this week asked Cllr Ken Thornber to explain why the Senate is holding meetings in private, why his chairmanship of the group is not elected and to release the agenda and minutes from last month’s secret meeting.

He wouldn’t answer and refused to release any of the requested information from the secret meeting.

However, in a letter sent to John Denham, and forwarded to the Echo, Cllr Thornber said the private meeting was only a “briefing session with our chief executives”.

He added the Senate was just another name for the Local Area Agreement Board for Hampshire and as leader it was his statutory role to chair it.