Lancashire Reform UK accused of ‘silencing opposition’ in county council debate row

The Reform UK group that runs Lancashire County Council has been accused of attempting to ‘silence’ opposition members - by limiting the number of debates they can control.

The party says it is simply making the arrangements proportional to the political make-up of the authority.

However, opposition councillors have claimed the changes - to what are known as ‘notices of motion’ - curtail their right to raise issues that matter to residents.

At each of the four ordinary ‘full council’ meetings held at County Hall every year, time is set aside for individual councillors to bring forward proposals, which - if supported by a majority after a debate - commit the county council to taking a particular course of action.

Successful motions can determine the authority’s own policy on an issue or require it to lobby government or another organisation over a matter that lies beyond its remit.

The opportunity is open to all 84 members and, until last year - when Reform took charge - was offered on a first-come-first served basis. However, a new rule was subsequently introduced which reserved for the ruling group two of the total four motions then permitted at each meeting.

Earlier this year, the overall tally was increased to five, with three of them being earmarked for the administration - broadly in line with their councillor numbers.

Now, however, amid concern about time running out to debate so many propositions, the total has been reduced to three, but in the same proportion - handing two motions to Reform and leaving just one between the six opposition groups.

County Cllr Mohammed Iqbal - a member of the Progressive Lancashire main opposition alliance - told a recent full council meeting at which the motions themselves were the subject of lengthy debate, that they were the “only avenue” by which backbenchers could “speak on the important issues of the day, which affect not only people in my own division, but also across Lancashire”.

He said the changes - recommended by the county council’s cross-party political governance working group, on which there is a Reform majority - pointed towards “an executive running scared of challenge”.

“Full council should be an opportunity…to present a motion which can be debated amongst us all - [and], whatever the outcome, we are doing our duty and can [say to those] that have elected us, ‘We raised your legitimate concern with all [members] - and the majority either disagreed or disagreed.’

“That's democracy,” said County Cllr Iqbal, who noted that a similar plan to apportion motions at Medway Council had been resisted by that authority’s Reform group, which had suggested it was illegal.

Labour group leader Mark Clifford was one of several councillors to highlight that, as the administration, Reform could bring forward any proposals it wanted through the cabinet. He claimed the party was “silencing the debate” and wanted to dominate the notices of motion in order pursue “[Nigel] Farage’s national policies” at a local level.

However, county council leader Stephen Atkinson said his group’s intentions were being “totally misrepresented”.

“There is an opportunity to ask questions in council, in scrutiny [committees and] at cabinet. So to say we are shutting down democracy is wrong - this is about managing this council meeting.

“All we're trying to do is create a fair system that represents what the people of Lancashire voted for in terms of the number of their councilors as a percentage of motions,” County Cllr Atkinson added.

He also pledged to ensure the proportion of motions brought across the year was “balance[d] up” - and rubbished the suggestion the move was legally unsound, when official advice from council officers said “nothing of the sort”.

Supporting the cut to the number of motions, adult social care cabinet member Tom Pickup said many of them amounted to nothing more than "political grandstanding”.

“Most of the time we speak for half an hour…about something that the county council can't even influence. You all just like saying your little speeches [and] you get [footage] for social media - [but] it doesn't make a blind bit of difference.

“We all know it's not doing a service to the taxpayer.

“If you want to contribute to the running of the county council, our doors are always open to doing it constructively,” County Cllr Pickup said.

However, Conservative opposition group leader Aidy Riggott noted that no ruling group had ever previously sought to reserve motions for themselves - not least because they had “the ability to amend [any proposals] and ultimately win, because [they] have the most votes”.

A 25-minute time limit had hitherto been placed on the debate of each motion. Under the new arrangements, that will be increased to 35 minutes - with a maximum of an hour and three quarters thus allocated for the notices of motion section of the meeting.

Progressive Lancashire county councillor Michael Lavalette said timing issues at the last full council gathering - which had resulted in a motion being dropped - were due to a comment made by one of Reform’s own cabinet members which had sparked a near hour-long adjournment and subsequent apology.

While he acknowledged that Reform had a comfortable 51-member majority, he added: “I would like to remind them that they got their position on 35 percent of the vote across Lancashire - and…it's important that the voices of the 65 percent are heard in the council chamber.”

Veteran Liberal Democrat David Whipp - who was first elected to County Hall back in 1981 - said the shift “reeks of stepping back in time to a period when backbenchers…were unable to put issues forward…because of the overwhelming majority in the council chamber just pushing through what they wanted”.

Meanwhile, Our West Lancashire group leader Adrian Owens asked the Reform group: “What are you afraid of?”

He contrasted the situation with that at West Lancashire Borough Council, where he is deputy leader.

“The administration puts no motions on the agenda, because we can do our business through the normal channels of the council,” County Cllr Owens explained.

Bids by Progressive Lancashire to block the proposed changes - supported by fellow opposition groups - were ultimately voted down by the Reform majority.

The overhaul will also mean any suggested amendments to motions have to be submitted 24 hours in advance of the meeting - ending the practice whereby changes could be suggested during the course of the debate about any of the topics under discussion.