To receive any questions from members of the public, of which due notice has been given in accordance with Council Procedure Rule 8, to be submitted and answered.
Minutes:
The Mayor advised that one question from members of the public had been received under Council Procedure Rule 8.
1. Question from Dr Robert Chris
“After the May election, the Conservative Party has exactly half of the 48 seats on the Council. In the wards contested in this election, the Conservatives received 37% of the votes cast across the borough. Including the previous two elections, all the Conservative councillors now in post received only 35% of the votes cast. Moreover, only 9 of the current 24 Conservative councillors received a majority of the votes cast in their wards, the remaining 15 all being elected courtesy of vote splitting among the opposition parties, and one on the toss of a coin. By any reasonable measure, Tunbridge Wells Conservatives are a long way from being the majority, or even representative of the majority, of the borough’s residents and taxpayers.
No one disputes that our first past the post electoral system legally entitles the winner to take all. Tunbridge Wells Conservatives have done precisely that. After using the device of the mayoral casting vote to elect the new Mayor and then again to elect the new Council Leader, they have appointed only Conservatives to the Cabinet, and every council committee has a Conservative chairman.
In short, councillors representing little more than one third of the electorate have excluded councillors representing the other two thirds from all key positions in the Council.
Would the Council Leader explain how assembling such an unrepresentative Council Executive and set of committee chairmanships will engender confidence and respect among the majority of borough residents and taxpayers that their concerns and interests are finally being listened to and heeded?
Answer from Councillor Dawlings
“I am fully aware of the outcome of the last election but the implication that I determined not to work with the opposition parties could not be further from the truth. Since the Calverley Square project was abandoned two years ago we have had a cross-party group looking into the matters that project was intended to address. I’ve been involved with this group since it was formed, and a report was presented to Full Council in December 2019. Covid stopped the work of the group for some months after March 2020 but we have had constructive discussions in the last few months addressing how to make the best use of the surplus office space, likely to arise in the Town Hall, to the benefit of both the Council and the town.
After the May election, which left the Council evenly divided, all the opposition groups announced they would not work with the Conservatives. Having worked constructively with opposition members for two years, the first thing I did after being elected leader of the Conservative group was to contact the opposition group leaders and asked to meet to consider how to run an evenly divided Council – beginning with the annual council meeting, the appointment of a mayor and committee positions. In subsequent email exchanges I proposed that opposition members should chair or vice-chair several committees. We had arranged to meet on the Saturday morning [before the annual meeting] but on the Friday evening the opposition met and then contacted me to cancel our planned meeting because they saw no point in meeting. I telephoned to register my disappointment, but it was apparent the decision not to work with me at that stage was final.
Since then, I have offered the opposition group leaders the opportunity to be involved in giving direction to officers by reorganising the leadership group of portfolio holders and officers to include the opposition group leaders. That offer was also declined.
I have outlined the priorities that I see as Leader of the Council. The opposition groups have advised they will not oppose matters if they agree with them and they have done this in the last year, notably in supporting the Council’s budget and Local Plan. We are also continuing in holding group leader meetings, that is opposition group leaders and me with the Chief Executive, in which the Chief Executive and senior officers brief on major matters which the Council needs to address. These meetings were first set up by Alan McDermott, the former Leader of the Council, to keep opposition councillors fully advised of what was happening at the hight of the Covid emergency.
So, it was the opposition group leaders’ choice not to be involved in the formation of the Council’s committees which were agreed at the annual meeting, but I have made arrangements in agreement with them to keep them fully informed about the issues the Council is addressing.
In the six weeks I have been Leader, I have spoken to the Town Forum and Parish Chairs and local press about my priorities and plans and I will continue to do this to ensure residents’ concerns and interests are heeded and addressed.”
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