At last week’s full council meeting, members were asked to vote on a motion proposed by Labour councillor Alan Hollands to open as many public toilets as possible.
His motion read
That Council resolves to re-open as many of the public toilets as possible closed by the last administration, in recognition that this is a tourist Island with inclusive needs by both visitors and residents.
Lumley: “People don’t forget”
Fellow Labour councillor, Geoff Lumley, said he would be supporting the motion and went on to add,
Who can possibly stand in here as an elected councillor and vote against this? Someone who wants to get re-elected in three and a half years time? That three and a half years will catch up with you all very fast and people don’t forget.
One vote against
After many councillors had their say from across the chamber, a vote was taken.
Thirty two members of the council voted in favour of the motion, five abstained and just one councillor, Conservative councillor for West Wight, Stuart Hutchinson, voted against.
Hutchinson: “Frivolous motions”
We were curious as to why Cllr Hutchinson chose to vote against this motion. He explained to us that he would continue to vote against motions “which have no practical value whatsoever”.
He told OnTheWight,
“Voting to open ‘as many toilets as possible’ could well mean none, who knows. Certainly none of the members who voted for it.
“We had no information on which to base a rational decision, only to vote for it as a ‘feel good’ option.”
Motions should be back up with analysis
He went on to tell us,
“I personally don’t think members should be allowed to put any motion that is not accompanied by thorough analysis and research, and neither should they be allowed to do so without a basic minimum number of members (perhaps at least five) supporting the addition of the motion to the agenda.
“This would help to prevent, or at least reduce, the sort of shambles we had last week with frivolous motions being put, some almost discussed and then withdrawn, wasting everyone’s time when there are important management issues to consider.
He made the point that many of the issues raised in proposed motions were embedded in the Cabinet Members’ reports, which as the meeting was so prolonged, didn’t leave much time to question.
Root and branch review
During the debate, deputy leader, Cllr Stubbings, confirmed that public toilets were included as a priority in the root and branch review of council services currently being conducted.
Cllr Hutchinson said,
“Whether additional public toilets should be opened will be an element of expenditure which after that review, competes with others for scarce resources. The proper time for voting as to what should have priority, is when the review is complete, spending increases and reductions are presented at the next budget round, and we are balancing competing needs.”
He finished by saying,
“Recently I returned from Menorca, an Island of similar size to ours and at least as many tourists. No public toilets at all. It doesn’t seem to deter visitors.”
Image: Deb Collins under CC BY 2.0
