Trafford Conservatives are distraught to learn that the Labour administration is seeking to remove the power to petition the local Council in public, along with a series of other changes to Trafford’s constitution that will make scrutiny of the administration much more difficult.
The most concerning of these changes is the attempt to move the hearing of petitions from full Council meetings to Executive meetings, which even then will only be heard at Executive at the discretion of the Executive. Trafford Conservatives wonder whether inaction over previous petitions is part of the reason for this change.
Some of you may also remember the Liberal Democrat supported petition, in November of last year, to introduce a pedestrian crossing on Park Road in the vicinity of the Heyes Lane and Stoney Bridge Lane junction in Timperley. This was a petition that was fully supported by Trafford Conservatives, and we note the Council is quick to take action on issues affecting the north of the borough but slow to take action on issues affecting the south of the borough. To date, no action has been taken to introduce a pedestrian crossing. (see point 36 at: Agenda for Council on Wednesday, 22nd November, 2023, 7.00 pm (trafford.gov.uk))
Trafford Conservatives wonder whether the Labour administration is now reducing the people power of petitions at full Council to avoid the scrutiny of the public on issues that directly affect and matter to residents. This is concerning as the chain of the events that has led to the suggestion of these constitutional changes arose out of Trafford Conservative’s desire to ensure Trafford Council focused on local issues directly affecting residents.
On Wednesday the 20th of March of this year, some may remember that the Conservative Party Group put forward a motion asking the Council to limit the scope of Council motions to focus on local issues. This motion was then amended to set up a Constitutional Working Group. The recommendations of the Constitutional Working Group will undoubtedly make scrutiny of the Labour Council much more difficult. Some of these recommendations include:
- Petitions will not be read at full Council meetings but will instead by heard by the Executive at Executive meetings.
- Questions are going to be limited to two questions per party group.
- A time-limit of ten minutes per Council meeting will be allotted to questions as a whole.
- Questions will not be read out in full at Council, instead only supplementary questions will be read out at Council meetings.
- The number of motions at Councils is going to be limited to one motion per opposition group.
- The total number of motions per Council meeting will be limited to 5 motions.
These changes to the constitution of Trafford Council are going to make it much more difficult for opposition party groups (The Conservative Party Group, The Liberal Democrat Group, and the Green Party Group) to scrutinise the actions of the Labour administration. Astonishingly, the entire point of the Conservative motion, to ensure motions are relevant to local resident’s issues, has been discarded- and the Constitutional Working Group has instead been used to limit the ability for opposition groups and members of the public to scrutinise the administration. The Conservative Party Group intends to pressure Trafford Council to consider the serious damage these changes would do to the ability to scrutinise administrations.
The report is public and can be read online at:
Trafford Conservatives encourages all interested members of the public to read the recommendations in this public report.
