Bad Night for Ealing Labour Group
Labour Pressure!
The meeting of Ealing Council was feisty last night. Two excellent announcements by the Conservatives:
- Doubling the tree planting budget
- Introducing recycling in flats across the Borough
And a rather pathetic stroppy walk-out by the Labour Group.
Labour tried to hijack the recycling in flats initiative by tabling a motion calling for the same thing. Their briefing note to their own councillors said they should “cheer loudly” if we announced a scheme for recycling in flats, claiming that we were bowing to Labour pressure. Labour pressure! The punctured tyre on my daughter’s bike has more pressure than this Labour group.
The fact is that recycling in flats is difficult. Each block is different, with a range of managing agents to get on board. That’s why over a year ago we started a series of trials in 40 blocks to work out the issues. Cllr Emment, the Cabinet member whose portfolio covers recycling went to scrutiny last year and said she would be bringing plans forward in due course. So it was a cynical ploy to try and pre-empt something that was happening anyway and then claim credit for it!
As for the Labour walk-out – that really was bizarre! Labour had tabled a number of motions for debate and the Mayor, Cllr Yerolemou, who chairs the Council meeting had decided to only take a couple of speakers on each so that we would have the chance to hear other debates. The next debate on the agenda was on the regeneration of Acton (another Labour motion). However, Cllr Liz Brookes took umbrage at the curtailing of the debate and sparked the walkout. It must be the first time in history that a political party has walked out of a meeting because the chair wanted them to be able to discuss their own motions.
Worse still was the disrespect shown to the Mayor by some of the Labour councillors. We may fall out with each other during debates, but we must respect the rulings from the chair – otherwise we just end up with anarchy. It was a bad day for the Labour Group on Ealing Council and I hope that after some reflection, a few letters of apology will be heading to the Mayor’s office today.
Tags: Cllr Barbara Yerolemou, Cllr Liz Brookes, Ealing Labour Group, Recycling from flats, Trees, walkout
You can comment below, or link to this permanent URL from your own site.
15 July 2009 at 10:10 am
Ian, I am sure that the Labour group would have more respect for the Mayor if you had not broken with tradition by appointing four consecutive Conservative mayors during this session.
As for Labour “pressure”, I am sure that you are well aware that 20 or so Labour councillors against 40+ Tories is difficult when all of the Tory group toe the party line even when they may not agree. Cllr Popham must be doing an excellent job as chief whip!
15 July 2009 at 5:43 pm
Broke with tradition? In the 12 years Labour controlled the Council from 1994 – 2006 there were 11 Labour Mayors and 1 Conservative. As a result there are a lot of long-serving Conservative councillors who’ve never had the chance to be Mayor. We’re giving them an opportunity
Fr info the list is
1994/95
Councillor V K Sharma
1995/96
Councillor S P Pound
1996/97
Councillor M N Patil
1997/98
Councillor J Clements-Elliott
1998/99
Councillor U Chander
1999/00
Councillor P Portwood
2000/01
Councillor D Bond
2001/02
Councillor R Dheer
2002/03
Councillor K Gavan
2003/04
Councillor G Singh
2004/05
Councillor I M Potts
2005/06
Councillor M Elliott
15 July 2009 at 7:55 pm
Sorry about my mistake. I was under the impression that there was an informal convention for alternation.
Anyway it is necessary for Cllr Cllr Yerolemou to regain control and the confidence of all if she is to remain in her capacity until next year irrespective of opportunist councillors who throw a tantrum once in a while.
16 July 2009 at 10:20 pm
Surely the Tories have stormed out of Council meetings in the past. Didn’t they do just that with regards the redevelopement of the Sinclair House site in West Ealing?
I think it’s quite healthy that Ealing’s Labour Party has finally sprung noisilly back into life – some 10 months from the Council elections.
Also just because the other ’side’ behaves badly it doesn’t give your side carte blanche to copy them. Show a bit of adult leadership here.
21 July 2009 at 12:28 pm
Either this little hissy fit was a dead cat bounce or the local Labour party has realised it at last wants to come out of its Michael Foot type wilderness.
We need to see a great deal more evidence of opposition activity before they can gain credibility.
22 July 2009 at 10:02 am
It would be good to see a credible opposition, but this sort of behaviour is a million miles from that.
Instead of having a go at the Mayor, who is effectively non-political – they should be challenging the administration. Last night at Cabinet I presented reports on the Children and Young People’s Plan (a report that sets out what we want to deliver over the next few years regarding children – eg safegaurding in the light of Baby Peter etc) and an update on primary school places – showing that potentially we might need another 13 to 16 new forms of entry by 2012 on top of the 7 we’ve approved so far. Both strategically important with wide impacts but Labour didn’t bother to speak on either of these. Instead the only report that I presented that they wanted to discuss was a minor point on a report addressing improvements to the entrance to Greenford High School.
Another bad night for Labour in Ealing.