City councillors fail to turn up for public consultation

[dutchman]

Not a single Coventry city councillor showed up to the first public consultation ahead of planned budget cuts totalling £15million.



The first of a series of meetings had been scheduled to allow members of the public to have their say over the wide-ranging cuts to be made during the next financial year.

They include plans to close service centres and libraries as well as axing school crossing patrols and scaling back events such as the Godiva Festival.

But council officers, led by director of finance Chris West, were left to explain the changes in the absence of any of the 54 elected councillors.

That left many people angry, feeling they were unable to question the city’s decision makers or share their views with them.

Around 30 members of the public – mainly people who undertake work in the community – attended the consultation at the Council House on January 7.

Dave Nellist, leader of the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition, was at the meeting.

He said: “It was a disgrace that none of the councillors, who are at the point of making such major cuts, had to courage to come to the consultation meeting and justify their decisions.”

He added: “It was basically a marketing exercise to see if people are willing to take on some of the 1,000 jobs that are being cut and deliver council services themselves.”

He also called on the council to delay cuts by using cash reserves and lobby against the central government funding cuts which will cause a £65million budget shortfall in Coventry by 2017.

Labour’s deputy leader Phil Townshend, blamed an administration error for the no-show after Coun Damian Gannon, cabinet member for finance, became too ill to attend.

He said: “On behalf of the Labour group I apologise for the fact we did not have representation there.

“There was a failure of internal communication. We were in the wrong and we will put it right.

“We will attend the next consultation event and I am sorry if people feel they were not fully engaged with.”

Tory opposition leader John Blundell said the emphasis should be on the controlling Labour group’s attendance, rather than the whereabouts of the 11 Conservative councillors.

He said: “I am surprised Labour didn’t put forward another member of cabinet. When we were the administration we would certainly have attended these events.”

[rebbonk]

Nothing short of scandalous; Nellist is right.

We really must ask ourselves if these muppets are really the right people to represent us and our interests. I await the next election of councillors with interest...