Hertfordshire County Council has a budget in excess of £870m – to provide a range of services that include social care, highways, education, waste collection and public health.

And proposals for the 2021/22 budget – as well as financial proposals for the following three years – have been published in a document known as the 'integrated plan' (IP).

Over the next four weeks councillors will scrutinise the proposals, before they are considered – and voted on – by a meeting of the full council on February 23.

As part of the initial process, cross-party groups of councillors meet to discuss plans for each area of the council's work.

But those meetings are held in private – with only the recommendations from each group being presented to a later meeting of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee and to cabinet panels.

And now opposition councillors have questioned why the public are not allowed in to the discussions.

Speaking at a meeting of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee on Wednesday (January 20), leader of the Labour group councillor Judi Billing said it was "strange and unusual" that the scrutiny groups were not held in public.

And she referred to a fellow councillor from North Herts District Council who had been 'rather sad' not to be able to listen in.

Meanwhile leader of the Liberal Democrat group Cllr Stephen Giles-Medhurst said he echoed councillor Billing's concerns.

He said questions would be put in the scrutiny groups, but that no-one would know they had been asked because no-one was allowed to listen in.

And he even asked whether it may be possible for footage of the virtual meetings – or notes from them – to be made available publicly.

Committee chairman councillor David Andrews acknowledged the "valid point".

He suggested that some changes to the process had been considered, although he did not specify what. But he said they could not be implemented this year.

"I personally would like the public to engage with scrutiny," he said.

"I have been working during my tenure to improve and raise the profile of scrutiny. I entirely understand the concerns that have been expressed. "

However Conservative councillor Simon Bloxham spoke against any moves to give public access to this part of the council's budget-setting process.

"I am sure we are going to be transparent about all of this, but I think there is plenty of opportunity once we have scrutinised what we are doing, then to be able to engage with the public to tell then the whys and the wherefores.

"I take the points that have been made, but I really do think this is us looking at our work to make sure that before it goes out and gets put in to place it's properly scrutinised by us."

Following the private discussions of scrutiny groups, their recommendations will be reported to a public meeting of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee on January 28.

Over the following two weeks the proposals – including the scrutiny recommendations and the results of the public consultation – will then be discussed by cabinet panels, which each oversee a different area of the council's work.