Councillors have been asked to explain why questions that appeared on meeting agendas were later removed.
At Brighton and Hove City Council’s public question time on Thursday (24 October), Bev Barstow said that once published on formal agenda papers, a public question should not be removed.
Ms Barstow, who has twice stood for election, for the Women’s Equality Party in 2019 and the Brighton and Hove Independents in 2023, spoke out at Hove Town Hall.
She said: “I’m aware of a number of questions or deputations that have been straightforwardly rejected by giving the explanation that the meeting is not ‘the appropriate forum’ to deal with the question when plainly it was.
“It isn’t a healthy state of affairs that bad reasoning becomes protected by ‘our decision is final’?”
In September, Julie Ash had her question about mouldy homes published with the formal agenda papers for a council cabinet meeting.
But before the meeting, the question was removed because it was deemed “not the correct forum” and was said to contain personal information.
Ms Barstow also asked about Allison Hooper’s deputations about the lack of single-sex rape counselling services. These were refused twice.
Ms Barstow asked councillors if they were not ashamed of the “wall of silence” vigil outside Hove Town Hall during the meeting, protesting about the council ignoring Ms Hooper’s request.
Council leader Bella Sankey said that she did not recognise the characterisation of silencing described in the questions.
The Labour leader said: “I can reassure residents that we are a listening council and I’m absolutely committed to ensuring that we do hear residents’ voices and that we’re able to shape our services in response to engagement.”
Councillor Sankey added: “I was really pleased to receive our first two deputations at cabinet last week. I’m also pleased to see we’ve got lots of items of public engagement listed for today, both questions and reports.
“Questions to council and cabinet are obviously only one way of engaging with us and where it is possible we will do what we can to facilitate questions coming forward.
“There are some circumstances where a public meeting is not the right forum for a discussion. In those cases, we will always suggest another option.”
It’s not just that though, I watched the meeting online on Thursday and was quite shocked by how many Labour councillors asked their Labour colleagues questions during the section when councillors can ask them. Surely priority should be given to use the time for opposition councillors to ask questions, This part of the meeting is for councillors to ask the administration questions – if admistration councillors eat into the time for showboating purposes – it allows less time for questions that scrutinise the administration to be asked.
The mayor refused the request made to extend time to allow opposition councillors to get their questions in.
Those in power need to respect that people have different views. Tightly managing which and whose questions it takes and answers in this way is really quite shocking.
Elected representatives need to be prepared to hear view they may not agree with, and they have the right to respectfully disagree once questions have been asked. Stifling questions in the first place erodes democracy and is hugely questionable.
Bella Sankey Is clearly running from questions, she is an ideologue who believes a woman can have a penis and puts the wants of men above the needs of women- it is no surprise that questions disappear, that questions are not selected and she somehow misses every protest, letter, email and comment bringing this to her attention.
Tell me – do we want someone working for us who is so focussed on her own agenda and not that of her constituents?
New new Labour authoritarianism at it again
Now we’ve got a Labour government hopefully the local Tory party will step up their game. This administration needs careful scrutiny.
More ultra vires cancel culture communism.
Interestingly a recent FOI to the council refused to answer if all Labour Councillors are whipped to vote the same way in a majority council, which would make each worse than useless as a representative for their Ward.
We need an apolitical council to run the city and listen to the citizens.
Any other type is unfit for public office and it has been a race to the bottom since national political parties took over local councils.
I have long maintained that national politics should not feature in running a council
I agree with you, Chris. A great example that has been featured here recently illustrates your point regarding Cllr Minstry. She was helicoptered in by national executives to the detriment of the area for six months whilst she practised absenteeism.
Also, I agree with you in the sense that if you want to practice national politics, be successfully elected as an MP. Councillors are for the local wards.
Residents’ have far fewer opportunities to raise questions at Cabinet meetings than they had before the Council got restructured.
Also, keep an eye on the Council’s ePetitions webpage in case any completed ePetitions simply disappear, as one did last month.
What do you think about a citizen panel?
No accident that Brighton used to be a regular feature in private eye’s “rotten borough” column. Soon to return no doubt.
This administration do not care about you, they never have. There is no representation for the people of Brighton and Hove, the councillors are idiots and were voted in by idiots who got caught up in the moment last May. Honestly you were all duped, they are in it for themselves and do not listen or care about you or the city. If any of you took the time to meet them before you voted you would have quickly cancelled your vote.
I’m pretty happy with my councillors, and find a number of them very good, and passionate about what they do from across the political spectrum, even if I don’t agree with them all the time. There is an argument for the quality of some members. I agree that representation needs looking at, and every time I see that, I’m thinking rebranding the Area Panel to a Citizens Panel, or even upgrading it to a Citizen’s Assembly is a good idea as a solution to a lack of representation.