Peter Kent-Baguley

Stoke Labour Group bolt for the bunker 

The Staffordshire and Cheshire Co-operative Party welcomed the Stoke-on-Trent Labour Local Government Committee and all with a sympathetic interest in the future governance of local authorities to a meeting at the Council Chamber, Stoke Town Hall, yesterday evening. I was one of the invited speakers. The Deputy Elected Mayor, Cllr Mohammed Pervez had accepted an invitation to speak in support of the Elected Mayor and Cabinet model of governance but together with the whole of the City Council Labour Group bolted for the bunker and boycotted the meeting. A more abject lack of manners and political engagement is difficult to imagine. This is yet another example of the unfitness of the Labour Elected Mayor, and the whole of the Labour Group which he is dragging down in the process, for the leadership position to which he was elected.

It is also yet another example of the inappropriateness of the system of governance so favoured by the Labour government. Surely now it can only be a matter of time before those Labour Councillors of integrity speak out and resist further public humiliation attached to the ineptitude of the Elected Mayor.

This last minute withdrawal from the public meeting can only be seen as an unwillingness to engage in open, honest debate about the options for the new form of governance which will take effect after next year's local elections.

Equally serious, it fuels the widespread suspicion that the Elected Mayor is engaged in a last ditch attempt to prevent a referendum being held so that the Council, jerrymandered by the Elected Mayor, NOT the public decide the outcome. Already, people are asking why the full page advertisement on Friday in the local daily newspaper, The Sentinel, makes no reference to the promised referendum. In fact it gives definte impression that the Council will make the decision! When Councillors were sent a draft of the 4-page A4 leaflet, on which the advertisement is based, I strongly suggested to the Council Manager that reference to the referendum as part of the decision-maing process be included. The public's dismay, sadly, comes as no surprise to me.