Council hit by gagging claim
A TROUBLED council has been accused of gagging debate after a bitter industruial dispute took a sinister turn.
Durham County Council has blocked a debate on controversial changes to teaching assistants’ contracts in the aftermath of a letter placing a bounty on politicians’ heads.
Coun Owen Temple, Liberal Democrat member for the Consett ward, tried to put forward a motion calling for the firing and rehiring of teaching assistants to be scrapped rather than suspended.
The move centred around scaling the pay of teaching assistants across Durham back to term time only prompting outrage as many workers said they could lose thousands.
Unions and the council have been in talks for months but Lib Dems have accused the Labourled authority of delaying tactics until after May’s local elections.
Coun Temple said: “Is it any wonder teaching assistants think their dispute has just been kicked into the long grass beyond the election, and that once the election is out of the way the Labour run council will just return to business as usual?
“I only brought this motion forward because I was approached by a teaching assistant who asked for a motion asking for withdrawal of termination notices in light of how long they have suffered for.”
However, the move was blocked by the council’s legal adviser.
The adviser blamed the upcoming elections nd referred to threats made in a poison pen letter to the Chief Constable of Durham Constabulary.
The adviser said: “What you are asking for, in essence is a public agenda to go out proposing the removal of a step to avoid a significant legal risk on the eve of the election period and for that reason, I do not consider it appropriate to go out on a coun- cil published agenda.
“I do not believe that I need to further explain my concerns about re-opening this issue in the current climate of threats to members on the eve of the election.”
Police announced this week a 39-year-old man had been arrested in connection with a malicious letter which offered between £20,000 and £50,000 for the heads of Labour council members in Durham.
Durham County Council’s dispute with teaching assistants has rumbled on for more than a year after the authority first suggested firing and rehiring teaching assistants on new terms on conditions.
The authority has said it had to act to avoid legal action from other school staff who are on term time only contracts.
The council said the motion couldn’t be debated due to the legal risk to the council if it was successful and teaching assistants were returned to their old contracts.