A number of people have reached out to me asking for more informtion about Derbyshire County Council Conservatives blocking opposition votes on Care Homes closures.
Derbyshire County Council has a Conservative majority and is run via a Cabinet system. Similarly to national government they have a Leader, currently Barry Lewis of Wingerworth and Shirland, and a cabinet, made up of other Conservative councillors. More information can be found about this here but essentially Barry Lewis and his cronies hold the bulk of decision making power.
The Conservatives have been accused of abusing their position to push through plans to close seven Care Homes out of the twenty three in Derbsyhire.
Two weeks ago opposition members – made up of Labour, Lib Dem, Green and a single Tory – ‘called in’ this motion as they felt the Conservative cabinet were acting unconstitutionally and beyond their remit. In short, they felt that the leader and his cabinet had acted beyond their power and that their decision required further scrutiny.
Despite having called this in over a fortnight ago, it was only on Friday 3rd at 4:55pm that opposition members were informed that they would not be able to debate nor vote at the ‘call in’ - or scrutiny meeting - at 11am on Monday 6th.
This was on the last-minute advice of DCC’s legal officer who presented a ‘new rule’ which had 'no basis in law' according to independent advice.
There was a stressful scramble over the weekend by opposition councillors to get legal advice and to challenge this. The Council's new Managing Director was unavailable to help over the weekend despite her whopping salary - but that is a seperate issue which I wont get into just now.
It was only at 10:40am, just 20 minutes before the 11am meeting on Monday that the Conservatives folded and made the u-turn which allowed opposition members to participate.
Unfortunately the motion passed anyway, which is unsuprising given the Conservative majority.
My open letter to Council Leader Barry Lewis, whom I stood against in the last County Council elections and finished 2nd to. It was the events of the weekend which sparked my criticism however, I was calling out his consistently reckless attitude towards our democracy. For those of you which didn't see the letter I have attached it again here.
Barry Lewis' response arrived this morning. It read...
'I disagree with all the points raised in your letter.
Please consider this your full response on this matter'.
Yet another demonstration of his inability to face scrutinty and his distaste for our democracy.
I have also attached some useful links. I have tried to provide a broad view of the press coverage, although there has been quite little reporting on this...BBC News...Buxton Advertiser...Derby Telegraph
I will not stop fighting against injustices like these and will continue to work hard to make Derbyshire a better place for us all.
Myself and my campaign team are keep the pressure up on Barry Lewis and we are committed to winning the elections against him next time round. We have a real chance of defeating him.
We do need your help to do so though. If you can donate or volunteer your time, please do