Leicester Mercury political correspondent
Just how urgent was Colin’s urgent item?
This week Lord Mayor Colin Hall decided that a motion, put forward by a fellow Labour councillor, was so urgent that it simply had to be added on to the agenda.
Adding an urgent item incurs the extra expense of printing and distributing details of that item. Last-minute additions also put opposition councillors at a disadvantage as they have less time to prepare a response.
This motion was about the budget – a serious issue which will affect the people of Leicester. But it wasn’t a motion to change council policy, or help the authority prepare for tough Tory cuts. Instead it was nothing but a bit of political posturing from newbie Virginia Cleaver, to rally the Labour troops. One eye on the local elections, which are just 11 months away, perhaps?
It read:
“Leicester condemns this coalition budget, for millions of families this is a budget from hell. The combination of a sharp and unfair rise in VAT, the callous freezing of child benefit and the deepest cuts on our public services will be a hammer blow to lower and middle income families.
“This budget is totally unnecessary by cutting the deficit further and further this budget flies in the face of all economic logic and will lead to slower growth and higher unemployment. Freezing child benefit has all the hallmarks of the same Tories of the 80’s and 90’s”
Questions must be asked as to why Coun Hall, a politician who is supposed to be apolitical for his year of office, felt that it was so urgent and vital to council business.
He also voted for it. Bear in mind that Lord Mayors often decline to cast their vote on overtly political matters due to their position of impartiality.
Let’s hope this isn’t a sign of things to come…
about 1 year ago
Millions of pounds of grants disappearing from the council’s funding, the withdrawal of support for regeneration schemes, the possible end of the schools building programme, 20% VAT for a city economy that has a large retail and entertainment sector and a promise to cut at least 25% of funding in all areas of council spending, that’s just for starters. If this isn’t an emergency I don’t know what is.
A little bit of research will show that the urgent business motion has been far more misused by Conservatives and Lib-Dems under the Lib-Dem Mayoralities then this example and that Colin allowed a Lib-Dem emergency motion at the same meeting.
As to Colin voting on a motion, it is a myth that Mayor’s abstain on votes (most previous Lord Mayors have voted on one side or the other at council meetings) it is just that usually the Monitioring Officer (previous the Town Clerk) asks the Mayor discreetly at the end of the roll call of councillors. I believe this was the first recorded vote for the new Monitoring Officer and he wasn’t aware of this practice so it was his lapse rather than the Lord Mayor’s.
about 1 year ago
Patrick, I agree that the implications of the budget are serious.
However the problem is that this motion was not constructive. It was just a chance for a bit of rhetoric which will make no difference to the way the council deals with funding cuts.
about 1 year ago
The opposition had about 10 mins to prepare, plus whatever research could be done on a blackberry during thr questions. Cllr Palmer came prepared with a printed set of stats and one of Cllr Gills leaflets. I am confident the later didn’t is not something Rory would carry around with him!
There is no money left and sadly cuts have to be made, I guess Labour are lucky in sofar as they don’t have to reveal what they would have done. But the truth is this: we didn’t get a majority but we did much better than the next nearest. A coalition was formed and brave choices have had to be made.