Constitutional chaos at Uttlesford? (Saffron Walden Constituency Liberal Democrats)

Saffron Walden Constituency Liberal Democrats <info@saffronwaldenlibdems.org.uk>

Constitutional chaos at Uttlesford?

October 4, 2007 10:01 PM

Map of the Conservatives' plan for a new town at Elsenham

Last night the Tories clearly whipped their members on Uttlesford's scrutiny committee to defeat the motion to refer the housing decision to next Tuesday's Full Council meeting by 4 votes to 3.

Council leader Jim Ketteridge said he didn't want the call-in to proceed along proper procedural lines but instead offered to place a motion of his own before next Tuesday's meeting (7.30 p.m. in Saffron Walden). "Do it my way!"

Apparently his motion would make all four options the council's preferred options. Does this mean 16,000 homes rather than 4,000? It is not clear to most observers how a council can prefer everything.

The problem is that there is no proper procedure that Cllr Ketteridge and the Conservative administration can use to place any new motion before next Tuesday's meeting. The agenda has already been published and deadlines for motions passed six days ago. Their only legitimate route was to accept last night's call-in, but they rejected it.

The council's legal staff have advised that the only other possibility would be to suspend standing orders. That means throwing out the council's carefully constructed set of rules that prevent the council and its committees being bounced into ill considered decisions by autocratic political regimes.

Does that sound familiar? It's very dangerous constitutional territory.