Councillors cut meeting short to watch match... but not everyone was happy

IT MIGHT have brought the country together, but England’s World Cup journey prompted a row in Leeds yesterday.

A motion was put to the City Council suggesting the Full Council meeting should stop at 6pm rather than 7.30pm, to offer councillors the chance to watch last night’s England-Croatia clash.

But not everyone was happy with the idea. Before the meeting, Coun Stewart Golton, leader of the Liberal Democrats on Leeds City Council said: “The actual scrutiny of decisions and the decision-making process has been dumped.

“It is supposed to be the opportunity for the ‘back bench’ councillors to question the leadership of the council and they are not going to be discussed.”

He added in the meeting, to jeers from fellow councillors: “It’s all well and good being patriotic, but we all have responsibilities as elected representatives.”

Coun Dan Cohen (Lab), responded: “It might surprise members that some of these proposals came from the Liberal Democrats. Half of his (Liberal Democrats) group seem to be supporting this. There are only six of them and they can’t even agree.

The chamber then erupted into applause, before a show of hands was held on whether to shorten the meeting. The motion was passed.

Meanwhile, Kirklees Council changed the start time of its Full Council meeting.

Members agreed to cut short the authority’s monthly full council meeting which traditionally lasts for three hours or more to allow elected members to see the game.

Originally set to start at 5.30pm, a decision was taken to move the meeting forward to 4pm and to keep it to 90 minutes.