Those who follow our Twitter stream may have seen tweets from recent council meetings pointing out an apparent ‘boycott’ of the newly formed Executive Advisory Committees by Conservative councillors.
Back in November, when the idea of a new form of Governance was debated at full council, Cllr Stewart confirmed that some members of his group had indicated they would not serve on any of the Advisory Committees under the new hybrid model.
No response from Group Leader
True to his word, as far as we understand, not one Conservative councillor has put themselves forward to sit on any of the Executive Advisory Committees.
OnTheWight got in touch with Group Leader Cllr Dave Stewart on Monday morning, but despite a reminder, he has failed to respond to several questions posed over the apparent ‘boycott’.
Cllr Seely: “This for me is about principles”
As we’d had previous press contact from Conservative Cllr Bob Seely, we asked for his view on the situation. He told us,
“I can’t speak for the Conservative Group on this, only myself, but I would not wish to serve on these Executive Advisory panels.
“My role is to play a constructive role in Opposition, supporting the Independents when they do the right thing (Community Transfer), for example, and highlighting to the public when they are doing the wrong thing – as they may well be doing over parking.
“If we start making policy for the Ruling Group to implement, we lose our ability to think and speak independently of them – and that is bad for democracy and transparency. This for me is about principles.
“The Indies are in power. They need to exercise that power responsibly for the public good. We need to be separate to them, so that we can support or criticise, for the good of the Island, when necessary. I am very uncomfortable with the way some members of the Ruling Group want to co-opt everyone.”
OnTheWight also approached Conservative Cllr Whitehouse for his view, he said,
“I can only speak for myself. I serve on the Overview and Scrutiny Panel and am therefore precluded by the Constitution from serving on Executive Advisory Panels.”
Cllr Stubbings: “Every member has a responsibility towards the electorate”
Deputy leader of the council, Cllr Steve Stubbings, expressed his disappointment at the lack of Conservative councillors taking part in the governance of the Island.
Following a Group meeting with other Island Independent councillors this morning, he told OnTheWight,
“We are, of course, disappointed that the Conservative group in council have elected not to be involved in policy development. The view of this administration is that every member has a responsibility towards the electorate to contribute towards all aspects of the Council’s work including the decision making process.
“The idea of Advisory Committees, within the hybrid governance system, came forward through a recommendation from the all-‘party’ Constitution reform group which included Conservative members and was then passed by full council. We are encouraged that all other groups within the council continue to contribute.”
Conservative councillors ‘prevented’ from taking part
Cllr Stubbings went on to say,
“I am informally advised by several Conservative members that they would welcome the opportunity to sit on advisory committees but that Conservative group prevent them from doing so. In the absence of support from Conservative members it is our intention to strengthen the process by soliciting input from outside bodies with expertise in the field to which each policy advisory committee relates.”
If we do get a response from Cllr Stewart, we’ll be sure to update the article with it.
