Labour Councillors who had called a special Scrutiny Committee meeting of the Sustainable Communities Committee to investigate the impact of cuts on the people of Wirral were last night gagged by the Conservative Chair of the Committee and his Conservative and Liberal Democrat colleagues who refused to allow the committee to take place and moved a resolution labelling the investigation “vexatious” and adjourned it until after the Budget was set.
Speaking after the meeting, Labour Leader, Cllr Steve Foulkes, labelled this move as outrageous and a threat to the fundamental democracy of the Council.
Cllr Foulkes said:
“This is totally outrageous. Yet again we have been gagged and prevented from asking legitimate questions about how services will be affected for the people of Wirral.
There are real issues here that need to be debated before it is too late. Just what are they running scared of?
We have a Constitutional right as Scrutiny Committee members to consider and question any budget proposals. This right has again been denied to us.
In December they suspended the Council’s Constitution to prevent us scrutinising their decisions. Tonight they refused us the right to speak, even though the fact that these Special Committees could be called was one of the reasons given by the Monitoring Officer for not referring the matter to Scrutiny in December!
And I see from the agenda for Budget Cabinet on Monday that there are now proposals to change the usual procedure at Budget Council in order to prevent any amendments to the Budget being voted on first, or indeed voted on at all if the administration railroads their budget through first.
Actions speak louder than words. We have heard a lot of sweet words about openness and transparency and consultation with the public. But what they do is very different from what they say.
Hidden in the velvet glove extended to the public, it seems, is the old iron fist of dictatorship, brooking no challenge or scrutiny.
Do they not understand that their actions could make the Council’s budget unlawful?”