At tonight’s Cabinet meeting, Labour councillor Geoff Lumley was asked to leave the chamber after a brief, heated exchange with the leader of the Isle of Wight council, Cllr David Pugh.
Following the presentation of the proposed budget, Cllr Lumley asked how many times Cllr Pugh had lobbied Government for more reasonable terms on their local settlement grant.
Pugh: A number of “conversations”
Cllr Pugh replied that he’d met with Government previously and that a number of conversations with different Government departments had taken place. The Government have set out their position clearly, he said, and that he felt the IWC’s representations were best achieved through local government organisations such as the LGO and the Rural Services Network (Sparse).
“Lambasting the Government … is going to get us nowhere.” he said.
Cllr Pugh went on to blame the current austerity measures on the previous Labour Government, a common occurrence by Conservative councillors in the council chamber over the last few years.
One man against 25
As anyone in the chamber would have expected, Cllr Lumley challenged the claim, citing the banking bail-out as the reason for austerity measures.
The discussion became heated for a few moments and after Cllr Lumley refused to stop ‘ranting’ (as Cllr Pugh referred to it) he was asked leave the chamber.
As he was packing up his paperwork preparing the leave the chamber, Cllr Lumley said the decision to remove him from the chamber was ‘bordering on fascism’ and referred to the council leader as a ‘clown’. “I’m one man against 25”, he said.
As he left the chamber, Cllr George Brown wished him “good riddance.”
‘Gagged’ once again
After the meeting Cllr Lumley told OnTheWight, “Once again I have been gagged by the Conservative administration at County Hall for being determined to challenge their warped views of the world.
“Cllr Pugh succeeded in having me gagged at a Full Council meeting last July and now he has prevented me from going on to ask further questions about important Cabinet decisions on tonight’s agenda. For example the appalling Ofsted report into local safeguarding of children, and the business case for the next waste contract.
“He accuses me of bullying and ranting, but I am entirely mystified as to how one Labour councillor can bully the 25 Conservative councillors who run County Hall.
“As for ranting, it may sound like that to the Leader, but it is the way I sometimes speak as I feel passionate about the destruction of local services as a result of the government’s failed austerity programme.”
Image: Mr Bill under CC BY 2.0
Update 13.Feb.13 6:42: Slight change to headline and opening sentence.
