The new Conservative administration has clearly set out its stall as the most negative, uncaring and undemocratic administration to date.

Faced with three very reasonable, harmless motions, the Tories voted them down without hint of an apology.

Opposition councillors had called for the setting up of a panel to look at reducing councillors’ extra responsibility allowances, a review of the cabinet/scrutiny model that prevails at the council and a report on the possibility of bringing people more into the decision making process on how to spend council money at a local level. All very noble things, nothing completely binding on the future actions of the council. Yet all were voted down without any decent explanations given.

Clearly the Tories don’t care that the scrutiny system is rubbish – their words – don’t want people to have a greater say on how their council tax is spent, and are happy to pick up more money whilst most people are still suffering from Tory austerity.

In addition, when I congratulated the Tory Leader for acknowledging that ‘credit must be given to the previous Administration for taking some bold and difficult decisions’ – his words – and asked him to elaborate precisely which decisions he was referring to, he failed to provide a meaningful answer and inferred that I had not read his report. Charming! And incredible how I managed to quote his words without reading them!

If those who voted Conservative this year had seen this meeting, they would have asked themselves what on Earth they had voted for!

Dan Barker
Cllr for Short Heath

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