The Lab / Lib ruling elite at Brentwood Council are running scared from proper scrutiny and showing contempt for the democratic process.
Until now, Council meetings have always been scheduled outside of party conference periods, in the full knowledge that a number of councillors from each party will be away and therefore unable to attend. When the Conservatives were in power, meetings were held on dates to ensure maximum availability cross party.
The Audit and Scrutiny meeting on the 30th September 2014 falls in the middle of the Conservative Party conference. Despite calls for the date to changed, the coalition has refused to budge, meaning the Shadow Chair and other leading Conservative Councillors will not be able to attend.
Shadow Chairman, Councillor John Kerslake said, “This is disappointing and frankly unnecessary. All it requires is to bring the date forward a couple of days, so that we can all be there and have the discussion in full and in the open. The final few days of the accounts closure are never easy but by excluding us, the only opposition party on the Council, it makes it appear that the Administration have something to hide and are trying to avoid being held to account. This is yet another example of them riding roughshod over democracy.”
In previous years, Conservatives have held the meeting earlier to ensure full attendance was possible.
Deputy Leader, Roger Hirst added, “To hide behind the need for the extra couple of days, thus taking the meeting to the absolute deadline in the knowledge that it will fall during the Conservative Party conference is an appalling abuse of power. We managed to do it, so why can’t they? In the name of fairness and transparency, I call upon the Leader, Barry Aspinell and the Chairman of the Panel, Graeme Clark to reconsider the decision, do the right thing and move the date so we can all attend.”