Agenda item

Motions on Notice

a)    By Councillor Brimacombe:

 

In response to mounting financial pressures within local government generally and disclosed budgetary pressure of £1.4 million within RBWM in particular, officers are being required to restructure and rationalise management of the organisation. In June 2018 Council received a constitutional changes report that anticipated a reduction in the number of Councillors receiving Special Responsibility Allowances from May 2019.

 

This Council:

i)             Believes that Councillors should lead and set an example to officers, they should not adhere to “Do as I say, not as I do” behaviour

ii)            Notes that in June 2011 the Cabinet had a total of only 8 Members including four who still serve today, with no remunerated deputies.

iii)           Requests the council’s Independent Remuneration Panel consider reducing the number of Special Responsibility Allowances by deleting all paid Principal Member and Deputy Lead Member posts with immediate effect, signalling to officers and residents that the Executive will take its share of the rationalisation and not leave it to others to bear alone.

 

Minutes:

Councillor Brimacombe introduced his motion.  He began by acknowledging the changes to Cabinet announced by Councillor Dudley as a result of Councillor Rankin’s selection as a Parliamentary candidate. He had received the notification at 17:12 that evening and it was certainly a step in the right direction. Councillor Dudley had picked up the ball and was running with it and for that he was grateful. He noted the potential reduction in allowances for the two remaining Principal Members. At the same time the Motion went significantly further and was therefore worthy of debate. The £40,000 potential saving announced by Councillor Dudley indicated the scale of savings promoted by the motion.

 

Council had already agreed the earlier constitutional amendments item arising from the recommendations of the Constitutional Working Group so ably led by Councillor Lisa Targowska, and which was last discussed at Council on 26 June 2018.  Another recommendation was the removal of Principal Members and Deputy Lead Members and this had been agreed from May 2019 onwards.  So the question now was ‘why wait? New information was that the council had mounting financial pressures that had caused a reassessment of the officer management structure with a view to streamlining to reduce costs.

 

Councillor Brimacombe asked that should the council not show leadership and bring the reductions in their own numbers forward? The argument that the SRAs were need because there was so much work to do made a nonsense of officer rationalisation. The Executive may only have 21 Councillors to call on in total in May 2019 and in June 2011 it only had eight members in the Cabinet and no deputies. He hoped that it would not prove to be the case either stated or implicit in the debate and voting that Members simply wanted to hold on to their allowances.

 

Councillor Dudley stated that the council was continually striving to cut the costs of democracy; this had been the driver for the boundary review. The reduction in the number of councillors to 41 would reduce the cost of local politics by at least £250,000. The administration was looking to make the council efficient in all areas but did not support the motion as proposed.

 

Councillor Hill commented that he was disappointed that such little leadership had been shown. The overall budget was overspent by £1.4m just four months into the current financial year. This was poor budgeting. The council was going to lose some very capable officers that would be needed to take the council forward. Officers were taking the pain for the failure of the administration.

 

The motion was proposed by Councillor Brimacombe and seconded by Councillor Hill, however upon being put to the vote, the motion fell

 

(29 Councillors voted against the motion: Councillor  N. Airey, Bhatti, Bicknell, Bullock, Carroll, Clark, Coppinger, Cox, Diment, Dudley, D. Evans, Grey, Hunt, Ilyas, Kellaway, Lenton, Lion, Mills, Muir, Quick, Rankin, C. Rayner, S. Rayner, Sharpe, Shelim, Story, Targowska, Walters and E Wilson.  7 Councillors voted for the motion: Councillors Beer, Brimacombe, Da Costa, Hill, Hollingsworth, Jones and Werner).

 

(Councillors McWilliams, Bateson, Hilton, M Airey, Love, D. Wilson, Bowden and Gilmore declared Disclosable Pecuniary Interests and took no part in the debate or vote on the item).