Conservatives accused of 'game-playing to keep topics off the agenda' at County Hall

During a meeting on Friday (July 15), they voted on virtual attendance at meetings, cancellations, and the use of substitutes for those unable to attend governance meetings.

But it was a change to the rules laying out how often subjects can be raised for debate which caused the most concern with opposition members.

The old rules allowed subjects – known as notices of notion – to be re-submitted for discussion at full council meetings every six months.

That has now been changed to every four years.

Liberal Democrat leader Kirsty Lord asked the Conservatives if full council meetings were ‘just a charade’ where only uncontroversial topics were debated and accused them of ‘[fiddling] with the constitution pretty much every time we come here’.

She added: “You have the majority – you could vote down anything we attempted.

“Why not have the courage to do just that instead of all this game-playing to keep things off of the agenda?

“We should be debating difficult issues that matter to our residents. We won’t necessarily agree, but we should debate them.

“You don’t seem to want to do that in this meeting any more.”

Richard Burrett (Con, Pound Hill) said the aim of the change was to avoid a ‘Groundhog Day’ where the same subjects were submitted for debate over and over again, ‘crowding out other subjects’.

He added: “We’re told this is somehow stifling democracy – it’s not. It’s increasing democracy because it’s increasing the range of things that we can look at.”

Mr Burrett pointed out that notices of motion were only debated at five full council meetings per year.

He added: “This is about enhancing democracy and it’s about stopping this council getting bogged down with a few subjects coming back time and time again when, actually, we’ve got a large number of issues that are relevant to the people of West Sussex which we need to be debating in this chamber.”

The meeting ended before a motion calling on the council to set up an emergency fuel fund for registered carers could be debated.

Under the new rules, it will not automatically be tabled at the next meeting.

Instead, it will be up to chairman Pete Bradbury to decide whether or not to include it.

Afterwards Kate O’Kelly, Lib Dem deputy group leader, said: “There are 33,000 registered carers in West Sussex and, as fuel prices continue to rise, they are worried about being able to continue to care for their loved ones.

"Our proposal called on the Conservatives to create an emergency travel and transport fund for carers. West Sussex County Council has £6m of additional revenue support funding available this year.

"This proposal would have cost only a few hundred thousand pounds but would have made a substantial difference to our carers, many of whom have given up or reduced their working hours to care for their loved ones and are at the sharp end of cost of living price rises.”