Stifling debate not in our best interest
IF there’s a more badtempered, suspicious set of councillors than the one populating Lancashire County Council, then they’ve yet to make themselves known.
Not content with having to contend with slashing millions of pounds from council budgets, our county representatives seem to tie themselves up in knots about how they should be treating one another.
That’s not to say there isn’t reason to be concerned when it comes to the behaviour of senior county councillors.
Last December, cordial relations between councillors of different political parties hit a new low when Geoff Driver, the leader of the council, and David Whipp of the Lib Dems had a heated stand-up row at County Hall.
It’s not, this column would argue, the best way to debate pay and display car park charges, which was the subject in question.
But there can be no denying it’s far harder to make your voice heard if you’re a councillor not of Tory colours, since the ruling Tories took power a couple of years ago.
As Coun Whipp says: “The Conservatives have guillotined debate in full council meetings, curtailed the right of councillors to question the executive at cabinet and scrapped the executive scrutiny committee - they are systematically dismantling democracy.”
At first glance, this might all sound a little petty. But there’s a serious point here. If opposition councillors feel they aren’t getting the chance to scrutinise and object to things the ruling Tories are proposing to do, a democratic Tory leadership would seek to help change that.
Instead, the Tories are now proposing even tighter measures to reduce the amount of time debating things they don’t control. A working group chaired by the Tory whip – a ridiculous role for a local council party to have, surely - has proposed setting a time limit on how long a notice of motion can be debated for at the full council meeting.
At the moment, notices of motion are pretty much the only way opposition councillors can get something debated which they feel is important.
So if you had a Labour county councillor wanting to call for a review of proposed tip weekday closures on the grounds it could cause more flytipping, he or she could put a motion to the council for it to be discussed.
Putting a time cap of 30 minutes on a motion, which the Tories want to do, might shorten meetings but it also stifles debate. Let’s not forget that councillors holding high office – such as the Tory cabinet members at County Hall - get decent allowances for taking on the responsibility.
If a long full council meeting once every couple of months is too much to bear, they probably need to consider stepping down.
Really important issues can be discussed as motions at full council, and with dozens of councillors representing all corners of the county, long debates should be expected.
Yet for some reason, the ruling Tories don’t seem to value debate, or being held to account. Increasingly, it feels like LCC is an authority whose motto is ‘our way or the high way.’
Perhaps these oh-solong full council meetings would be that bit shorter if democratic discussion was made more welcome on a daily or weekly basis at County Hall?
Not an issue to send voter turnout soaring, but one which should worry us all.