Furious councillors walk out in protest at West Berkshire Council budget meeting

Opposition leader Lee Dillon accused Conservatives of trying to silence them

A WEST Berkshire Council meeting descended into chaos last night after the opposition Liberal Democrat and Green councillors virtually stormed out in protest at debating time being cut short.

Leader of the opposition Lee Dillon (Lib Dem, Thatcham North East) called on his councillors to leave the meeting after he and others were blocked from speaking on amendments to the Conservative-led council’s revenue budget.

The three Green councillors then followed suit, meaning neither opposition party voted on the final revenue budget, which saw council tax rise by 1.99 per cent.

A closure motion was put forward at around 10pm by Alan Law (Con, Basildon) due to pressing time constraints, with the council’s constitution limiting the meeting to a finishing time of 10.30pm.

This meant there was just 30 minutes remaining to approve the council’s revenue budget for the forthcoming year.

Speaking as he left the meeting, Mr Dillon said the Liberal Democrats had been “silenced”.

He said: “I proposed that when councillor Law proposed the motion be put, we could table an amendment on speaking rights.

“The leader of the council [Lynne Doherty] reluctantly agreed to move the motion without allowing any further debate after debate had been prepped and agreed and no one had gone outside their speaking limits.

“I’m in no way willing to take part any further in this meeting and so I’m going to leave the chamber and I’d like my group to leave with me.

“We haven’t had our voices heard, we are democratically elected representatives of West Berkshire wards on the biggest council budget of the night and you have silenced us.

“So I will silence you and leave the meeting. Goodnight Mr Chairman.”

Green party leader Carolyne Culver (Ridgeway) added: “We walked out of last night’s meeting in solidarity with the opposition Liberal Democrats because of the Conservatives’ attempts to shut down democratic debate.

“Shortly after debate began on the Liberal Democrats’ amendments to the revenue budget a Conservative requested that debate end and we move to a vote.

“Yet earlier the Conservatives had been happy to waste time, queuing up to highlight all the great projects that their own wards will benefit from.

“West Berkshire Council is an elective dictatorship.

“The only way to end this is to elect parties that will abandon the ridiculous executive system and use the more democratic committee system.”

Council chairman Graham Pask (Con, Bucklebury), who allowed councillor Law’s motion to proceed, said he’d had no choice but to cut short the debate.

He said: “I would love to elect every member to speak. Our constitution does not allow us to go beyond 10.30pm, and we have to set a budget.”

The budget was then approved by the remaining Conservative councillors, with the one remaining Liberal Democrat councillor Geoff Mayes (Burghfield and Mortimer) abstaining.

Speaking after the meeting, council leader Lynne Doherty said: “It is regrettable that the Liberal Democrat and Green groups chose not to engage in the substantive budget debate tonight, choosing instead to depart the meeting in a theatrical argument over speeches.

“Thankfully, their attempt to derail the democratic purpose and leave West Berkshire without a valid budget failed – but it was a close run thing.

“Even without them in the virtual room, and with shortened presentations, the meeting only just ended in time – the council’s constitution has a cut-off time for meetings of 10.30pm and we just managed to conclude all of the business necessary at 10.28pm.

“Despite the theatrics, we Conservatives have set a budget that is good for the district, and affordable for our residents.”