Any suggestions about how public accountabilty for Haringey Council can be excercised

I'm fully aware that this topic is not going to be of great interest for everyone (Would I be interested if I wasn't writing this?). But, it probbaly shoudl be.

We're all happy to gripe when we don't get what we want from the Council and REALLY we just want to vote once every few years and let our elected representatives get on with things.

The real bummer is, things don't seem to work that way. To have real influence you have to stay involved - even just a little bit helps. So here's another opportunity to feed in to holding the Council to account.

Subject to confirmation, Cllr Gideion Bull has been reelected as Chair of the Overview & Scrutiny Committee. Cllr Bull is has said that he sees the Committee as the opportunity for backbenchers and residents to hold the Cabinet, officers and partners to account and make suggestions for improvements to the way that services are delivered for the people of Haringey. Here are the reviews the committee covered last year and here is the published report on their work for 2009/10 (links to pdf).

I can't see anywhere what the plans are for this year, but I put in a call today to see if I can find out. In the meantime this page on Haringey's website explains how you can get involved - suggest a topic or give evidence.

In theory this tool is there for us. We ought to use it.

What would make it easier and more likely that people would actually seek to avail themselves of potentially powerful tool of local democracy?