There were fireworks in the council chamber on Wednesday evening as Labour councillor Geoff Lumley tried to ensure that the decision to move the fire control centre to Surrey could be debated and voted upon by the members.
As VB readers will remember, Cllr Lumley was successful in getting eleven other members to support a motion to debate the decision at full council. He was calling for the decision (made under delegated powers by Cllr Barry Abraham) to be reversed and the loss of £125,000 savings to be taken from the reserves.
However, when we arrived at the council meeting on Wednesday evening, we found a revision to the motion.
In addition to the motion as reported last week, was the following ….
Additionally I will move the following before the Motion:-
That Procedure Rule 11 is suspended for the following items of business (motion submitted by Cllr Lumley and others) so as to enable the motion on the future location of Fire Control to be debated at the meeting.
What is Procedure Rule 11?
The rule states that if the full council are to make a decision that will affect the current year’s finances, that it must go to Cabinet first.
Procedure Rule 11
Any motion which is moved at a Council meeting which would have the effect of materially increasing the expenditure upon any service or would involve capital expenditure shall, unless that motion has been previously considered by the Cabinet, stand adjourned without discussion to the next ordinary meeting of the Council, and the Cabinet shall consider whether it desires to report thereon back to the Council
The problem was that unusually, this month the Cabinet meeting is being held after the full council meeting. It’s normally held the other way round.
Cllr Lumley introduces his motion
With what seemed like a very heavy heart, Cllr Lumley explained that he’d had to jump through many hoops in order to get his motion onto the agenda, only to then be told that this procedure needed to be voted upon before his item could be debated.
He called upon the other councillors to vote to suspend the Procedure Rule in order that the motion could be debated and councillors could “speak as representatives of the Isle of Wight.”
This was seconded by Cllr Welsford, who said that he didn’t necessarily agree with the motion to reverse the decision on the fire control centre, but felt strongly that it was important for the decision to be debated by councillors in public at the full council meeting.
Pugh: “I won’t be voting for this”
At this point, Leader of the council, David Pugh addressed the chamber.
He made it instantly clear that he would not be voting for either motion, going on to blame the national deficit on the former Labour Government and also claimed that the Independent budget was ‘flawed’ (or words to that effect).
At this point Cllr Lumley shouted out, “Liar” several times as Cllr Pugh attempted to finish his speech.
Cllr Lumley continued, “I’ve been silenced again. Fascists! You said last month you’d give me the right to speak publicly. I demand the opportunity for a ‘Personal explanation’. The leader is telling lies.”
Chairman, Cllr Williams (during his first full council meeting since being elected) asked Cllr Lumley to respect the rules, to which Cllr Lumley replied, “Respect is earned, not assumed.”
“Misled by council officers”
Cllr Lumley went on to say that he’d been advised by officers about the procedural change and believed that he’d been misled by officers of the council. Continuing, “they are preventing me from doing my job”, he spoke about the importance of openness and transparency for Island people.
This was met with huge applause from the public gallery and boo-ing from the Tory majority.
Cllr Pugh then carried on, telling members that they shouldn’t debate this item. “Rules are there for a reason – and should not be suspended….I call to move.”
“It’s dangerous ground,” says Bingham
Cllr Bingham told the chamber that he’d spent the day reading the constitution from cover to cover and was left concerned about the motion.
He reminded the members that the rules are in place for the protection of councillors. Going on to say that the councillors could be personally responsible for costs. “Let us have the debate, but in accordance of the rules. This is dangerous ground.” he finished.
Cllr Abraham, who made the delegated decision suggested that it was time to move to a vote.
“You’re really testing me”
This wasn’t popular with the public in the gallery who voiced-out their concerns, to which the chairman warned, “Would you be quiet please! You’re really testing me!”
Independent councillor, Paul Fuller, said that he would like the issue to be debated at full council, to which Cllr Lumley replied, “That’ll be too late.”
Cllr Pugh then stated that the transfer of the fire control centre would not take place until November.
Voting to vote
You needed you wits about you to follow what happened next, which eventually resulted in the chamber voting on whether they should vote to suspend the Procedure Rule 11.
The tory majority (20) voted in favour of voting to vote, with nine against and four abstaining.
Majority voted against the motion
The chamber then voted on whether to suspend Procedure 11, the only way that debate could happen.
This saw the votes reverse with the Tory majority of 20 voting against the motion, seven voting in favour of it and four abstaining (two people had left the chamber during this vote).
Cllr Lumley was then able to make his motion speech, but once completed, could not be debated as the chairman read out Procedure Rule 11.
The meeting then moved onto the next item.
