Shepway Conservatives Rip up Council Constitution in "Arrogant Power Grab"

11.00.00am BST (GMT +0100) Mon 18th May 2009

At Shepway's Annual Council meeting on 13th May, Shepway Conservatives passed an amendment to its Council Constitution removing the right for the opposition to chair a Council Scrutiny Committee in direct breach of its own constitution.

The Constitution lays down the process whereby changes to the Constitution are made, and makes clear that amendments have to be reviewed by the Council's Constitutional Advisory Committee prior to consideration by full Council. The Constitutional Advisory Committee has not met since September 2007 and has never considered the amendments which the Council passed.

The move was slammed as "an arrogant, grubby power grab" by Liberal Democrat Councillor Tim Prater who tore into the Conservatives for backing the move. Tim Prater has referred the Council's decision to the District Auditor, calling the act a "blatant disregard for the procedures of Council".

Tim Prater said after the meeting:

"The Conservatives have a majority on every committee at Shepway Council. They are entitled to put forward changes to how the Council works, and amend the constitution if they wish to, but there is a process to doing so. They have ripped up that process, and ignored the rules the Council put in place. To be told the Council can legally ignore its own rules of procedure is astonishing, and that a group with such a big majority fails to even try to follow the rules laid down is arrogant beyond all belief.

"The Conservatives may be content to ensure that they lock out the opposition as much as possible, but it's bad government, bad politics, and bad for Shepway. I looked last night for Conservatives to do the decent and right thing - and instead they raised their hands and voted as a block for an unconstitutional motion. They should be ashamed of their actions and especially Council Leader Robert Bliss who proposed the move.

"Their power grab was motivated to remove the one single position of influence remaining to Opposition Groups from their control in the current Council. They had no need to do so. What are they afraid of? How lacking in self confidence as a Council must you be if the Chair of a Scrutiny Committee is such a threat - despite massive Conservative majorities in Council, in Scrutiny itself and all other committees.

"We saw the worst of Shepway Conservatives last night: manipulative, arrogant, dismissive, power-hungry and believing themselves to be above the rules. For a Council rated the least improved in the Country in its last audit report, a little more humility and understanding of team working would be a better look."

The Council's constitution is available at http://www.shepway.gov.uk/content/view/1541/1718/

Article 15.3 of the Constitution states;

15.3 CHANGES TO THE CONSTITUTION

a) Changes other than the amendments referred to in Article 15.3, to the constitution, will only be approved by the full council after consideration of the proposal by:

Part 1 - Summary and Explanation: Constitutional Advisory Committee

Part 2 - Articles of the Constitution: Constitutional Advisory Committee

Part 3 - Responsibility for Functions: Constitutional Advisory Committee

The first line of the constitution states:

"Shepway District Council has a constitution which sets out how the council operates, how decisions are made and the procedures which are followed to ensure that these are efficient, transparent and accountable to local people. Some of these processes are required by the law, while others are a matter for the council to choose."

The constitution goes on to say:

"Article 1.1 The council will exercise all its powers and duties in accordance with the law and this constitution."

The motion proposed by Cllr Robert Bliss and backed by all Conservative Councillors read:

"1. To receive and note Report A/09/01.

"2. To adopt as Part 3 of the Council's Constitution the appendix to this report;

"3. To designate the Community Overview Committee as the Council's crime and disorder committee under section 19 Police and Justice Act 2006 and to amend the Council's Constitution to reflect this as set out in paragraph 3 of this report.

"4. To instruct the Monitoring Officer to make the necessary amendments to the Constitution to ensure that:-

(a) The main opposition party retains the right to Chair the Corporate Scrutiny Committee in circumstances where they have 20% or more of the overall membership of the Council;

(b) Where the main opposition party has less than 20% of the overall membership of the Council, the Chair of the Corporate Scrutiny Committee will be determined by the committee in the same manner as other committees of the Council.

"5. To instruct the Council's Constitutional Advisory Committee to undertake a review of the Constitution taking into account the remaining observations from when this matter was considered by Council on 29 April 2009, (i.e. all the observations except the one relating to the chairmanship of the Overview and Scrutiny Committees) and to report back with recommendations to the September Council meeting."

As revisions had not been considered by the Constitutional Advisory Committee, points 2, 3 and 4 were against the Council's constitution. Votes called by the Liberal Democrats and People First to remove the unconstitutional sections were defeated by the Conservatives.