Six-minute session puts Torbay back on course

But opposition councillors blast 'petty politics'

It took just six minutes for a Torbay Council skeleton crew to fix a hole in the ship that had left it effectively dead in the water for a fortnight.

But the row over how the council’s political groups deal with one another looks set to rumble on long after the ship has been put back on course.

There were no Liberal Democrat councillors in the room at all as an extraordinary full council meeting gave officers back the power to do their jobs.

The council has had to call on the services of a top King’s Counsel barrister to help it get under way again.

But the Lib Dems stayed away, saying the one-off meeting was a waste of council resources.

The row between the Conservative administration and the opposition has been simmering for months, and came to a head at a meeting in May when the Tories reneged on an earlier agreement to support the appointment of a Liberal Democrat mayor for the coming year.

It was a crucial vote, because with the chamber split at 18 Tories and 18 opposition members since a by-election in Wellswood last month, the casting vote of the mayor in the event of a tie becomes all-important.

The row has deepened divisions in the council chamber, and the issue came to a head again last month when votes on a number of issues at one meeting were divided down strict party lines, leaving the Conservative mayor to use his casting vote to get them through.

And things got even worse late in the meeting when one Conservative councillor was given permission by group leader David Thomas (Con, Preston) to leave early.

A vote on allowing officers to use what they call delegated powers to make routine day-to-day decisions without having to refer everything back to the council should have gone through as a formality, as it has every year since 2019.

But with one member missing and the opposition sticking to party lines, the motion was lost by 18 votes to 17, and the council was left stranded, unable to function properly.

In the opinion of the King’s Counsel, contained in a paper presented at the six-minute session, the work of the council could continue in theory, regardless of the problems created by the lost delegation motion.

But the KC warned that the consequences of taking decisions without authority were ‘potentially serious’, and the council should avoid the risk. A meeting should be called as soon as possible to sort it out.

The KC said that if no delegation was agreed, the authority would need to meet for every decision. “This would fundamentally undermine the delivery of council services,” said the KC.

Only the council’s three independent members sat opposite the administration councillors during the six-minute ‘extraordinary’ session, and the motion to restore officers’ powers was passed unanimously without any debate.

Cllr Thomas explained: “This is a really important part of the way the council functions.

“There is no point in dwelling on what happened at the June meeting. This is clearly a really important piece of infrastructure.”

In a statement, the Lib Dems said they had considered and discussed what the KC said, and believed the matter could have waited until the scheduled full council meeting on Thursday 18 July without the expense of holding an extraordinary meeting.

And, they said, they were becoming increasingly concerned at the ‘growing dysfunction’ of the no-overall-control council to the extent that they were calling for professional mediation.

They have branded a complaint from Cllr Thomas that Lib Dem councillors failed to ‘nod’ in respect to the mayor as they walked out of the May meeting as ‘vexatious and petty’.

Lib Dem deputy leader Cllr Swithin Long (Barton with Watcombe) said “It is vital for the best interest of our bay and residents that the administration stops using council resources to play petty politics and recognises that as an no overall control.

“It is essential for the future of Torbay that we find common ground.”