Residents First

Labour's shoddy attack on the Mayor

At last week's Council meeting, Labour councillors backed an unpleasant and astonishing motion attacking the Mayor, Cllr Adronie Alford. This was because she had followed legal advice and allowed on vote on whether or not extra business should be added to the previous meeting an Extraordinary Council Meeting. In fairness it should be noted that several Labour councillors looked embarassed at the attack on the Mayor from their colleagues and refused to applaud the speeches from their own side.

This was the speech opposing the motion from her predecessor Cllr Alex Karmel.

May I first say that as the immediate past Mayor I fully understand the difficulties that chairing a meeting comprising 46 politicians presents, especially when it was an election year in my case. It is a challenging task.

The Mayor also has a civic role as the First Citizen of the Borough.. If you look on the table in front of you will see a report listing over 40 engagements that the Mayor has carried out in the last month. I am sure that we can all agree that Cllr. Alford has been exemplary in carrying out these duties.

Moving onto the subject of the motion before us I think that it is of vital importance that we consider this motion in the light of historical context. Extraordinary Meetings of this Council have only ever been for the business for which they had been requisitioned.

Mr. Deputy Mayor, this evening we have seen a display of hypocrisy that even by the low standards of the Opposition is breathtaking. Earlier this evening the Opposition attempted to use Standing Order 15 (e) (ix) to adjourn debate on an item. This is exactly the same Standing Order that was used to adjourn the Special Motions at the Extraordinary Council Meeting to their proper place on this Agenda.

At the Extraordinary Meeting the Opposition would have us believe that the use of this Standing Order was an affront to democracy. At this meeting it is suddenly in the Opposition’s eye the saviour of democracy.

The Mayor dealt with the two uses of the Standing Order in exactly the same way. This seems to me, Mr Deputy Mayor, to be correct and impartial way to deal with procedural motions – unless the Opposition believe in double standards, actually they must do or this motion would not be on the Agenda tonight.

Council pledges to halve non-housing debt over four years

Among the speeches at the June 30 full council was one by Cllr Mike Adam in support of the following motion:

“This Council:
(1) Welcomes action by 2006-10 Conservative administration to cut non-housing debt by £36 million.
(2) Notes that it currently pays £5 million a year in debt interest before it spends a single penny on front line services.
(3) Pledges to halve the level of non-housing debt within the next four years and to repay this debt in full over the longer term.”

The motion was passed. Mike's speech was as follows:

Thank you Madam Mayor. As your co-councillor, can I begin by offering my congratulations on your election and best wishes for your year in office.

Given the lengthy agenda, I'm going to be brief but I'm very pleased to second this motion both recognising the work to date in cutting the Council's debt burden and pledging to reduce remaining General Fund debt by at least 50% over the term of this Council and ultimately to eliminate it.

The fact that this Council is now recognised nationally for sound financial management represents a remarkable turnaround. Over the term of the previous Administration, H&F had of course embroiled itself in a £200m interest rates swap scandal. And in 2003 the Council hit the headlines again when massive underfunding of its pension liabilities was exposed and sparked a national debate on the financing of local authority pension schemes.