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The first council meeting for the recently elected HELP councillors. We believe that is was most noteworthy for what seemed to us to be a high level of disrespectful disdain expressed by some of the incumbent councillors towards the newly elected councillors.
This meeting was chaired by Cllr Harlow.
Public Questions
This part of the meeting used to be called Open Forum, but due to the new procedures which the council recently voted through, the public is no longer allowed to contribute spontaneously at meetings of Letchworth Parish Council.
Cllr Harlow did, however, read out a pre-submitted question from Mr Nigel Jury. Mr Jury noted that the parish council had publicly expressed its desire to promote the aspirations of the Letchworth people - he therefore wanted to know if this meant the parish council would work towards its own dissolution, because that was what the Letchworth people had democratically indicated they aspire to.
Cllr Harlow merely answered that a parish council has no power to dissolve itself (which we think missed the point). He then went on to speak at length about HELP, its supporters, its elected councillors and Mr Jury.
When Cllr Harlow spoke about HELP's (as yet unannounced) election manifesto for June 2009, Cllr Groves attempted to make a point of correction stating that HELP had not promised an immediate zero precept [due to the council's continuing actions to engage in long term commitments and thereby deliberately piling up a financial burden for the people of Letchworth]. Cllr Hodgson's response was to refer to Cllr Groves as an organ grinder's monkey - respectful, eh?
Motions
There followed lengthy, discussion on four motions, concerning parking, gritting, the museum, and the town centre. Because the motions were completely vague as to what they would entail, HELP's view is that the debate was pointless. Requests for clarification did not, however, elicit any more detailed explanation, but, as is usual in these circumstances, all the incumbent councillors obediently voted through the resolutions. The HELP councillors abstained from voting - the motions being too vague to allow them to make a reasoned or informed decision.
HELP's Motion
Cllr Heaton had submitted a motion for the meeting. The motion read:
This council resolves to acknowledge that the Local Government Act provides that all councillors of this council have equal rights to council documents, records, accounts and access to meetings, and as such any items held in confidence by the council are equally available to all elected councillors.
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[At this point it is necessary to give some background explanation as to why this motion was put forward...]
HELP councillors have been attending various council committee meetings (the various committees meet between the Full Council meetings, and prepare business to be actioned at the Full Council meetings). The Full Council meetings therefore appear to be little more than a rubber stamping exercise. So, it is necessary for HELP councillors to observe the preceding committee meetings in order be knowledgeable about on-going council matters, and best serve the aspirations of the Letchworth people who voted them in.
However, the Policy and Resources Committee meetings have been and are being held in secret - using the 1960 Admission to Meetings Act to expel press and public. Of course, that Act does not apply to councillors (only press and public) so we were very surprised when the meeting chairman insisted that the HELP councillors leave the meetings too.
Naturally we sought clarification of this. The advice we have received is that there is no legislation saying that non-committee councillors can be ejected from confidential meetings. We put the question to County Councillors, District Councillors and Parish Councillors from other parishes, and all said they had never heard of a councillor being asked to leave a confidential council meeting. We also contacted the Department for Communities and Local Government and asked their expert for Local Government procedural legislation. He said that he had never before heard of a case when a councillor has been refused access to a confidential council meeting, and confirmed that he knew of nothing in the legislation to allow for that, and that in his view all councillors should be able to attend all parts of all their council's meetings.
Also, we asked our Member of Parliament to get a definitive answer from the House of Commons. A written answer was duly provided from the researchers at the House of Commons Library Sevice confirming that councillors would normally be allowed to attend all parts of all their council meetings, and stating that the only way this could potentially be prevented would be if the particular council had implemented unusual Standing Orders specifically to override the norm. We have seen no sign that our parish council has adopted any such unusual Standing Order.
Against this backdrop, and given our inability to sense a satisfactory resolution of this matter, we brought this motion to the Full Council meeting to be considered for resolution.
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Cllr Heaton started to present the motion, but before he could finish Cllr Harlow cut in and gave what felt, from our perspective, like a long vitriolic rant about the issue. A guidance note from the National Association of Local Councils was read out. This was the document we had previously pointed out bore no supporting references or citation to legislation. Arguments were put forward about the staff and their confidential information, and it was asserted that by continuing Cllr Heaton would be considered unreasonable if he persisted.
To preserve HELP's position, Cllr Heaton said he would withdraw the motion at this time, reserving the right to re-present it at a subsequent meeting.
So, all in all, we feel we have been left with a highly unsatisfactory outcome - one which for us, looks to us like an alarming lack of transparency, which we believe we, and all the people of Letchworth, are entitled to.
Come on, Letchworth Parish Council, what have you got to hide?
Other recent Parish Council meetings:
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