Greens thwarted in quest for ‘spare’ committee seat

Green councillors were left disappointed after trying to secure 10 out of 63 seats on Brighton and Hove City Council committees.

At the annual council meeting at Hove Town Hall yesterday on Thursday (22 May), councillors were asked to agree the political balance of the council’s regulatory and scrutiny committees for the coming municipal year with 43 going to Labour.

Labour’s proposals were published after noon on the day of the meeting. Green councillors Sue Shanks and Chloë Goldsmith asked to table an amendment but permission was refused.

Councillor Shanks tried to propose a change from the floor of the annual council meeting. She called for Green councillor Ollie Sykes to become a member of the council’s Place Overview and Scrutiny Committee.

But the new mayor, Labour councillor Amanda Grimshaw, said that the deadline had passed and she would not accept a late amendment.

Councillor Grimshaw said: “I do understand the final report was published today at 12pm. However, I also know that you’ve been made aware of the calculations in the report for some weeks.

“The detailed calculations were shared directly with you as well as being presented formally at leaders group – and there was also a whips meeting this week where you could have raised your wish to move an amendment.”

Councillor Shanks said that the report showed that Labour was one over in its allocation and could have given the opposition another seat on a scrutiny committee.

She said: “Scrutiny is very important in the cabinet system. We’ve been asking for a review of the cabinet system which also seems to have gone. We don’t know where. You have a majority but it isn’t working for opposition groups.

“I’m sure it’s working in some ways but it is also not working for many residents or for the trade union sector.”

Councillor Shanks said that on some councils, scrutiny committees were chaired by the opposition, enabling a closer look at the work of the administration but there was no opportunity to do this in Brighton and Hove.

Outside the meeting, Councillor Goldsmith said: “It’s shameful that Labour are using their outsized majority to shut down even debate on political balance.

“They are forcing through allocations that give them more seats than they are owed in a move to further stifle out opposition voices and amplify their own.

“To not even allow a vote on this amendment shows how little respect this Labour administration has for representative democracy and for anyone in this city who didn’t vote for them.”

Labour deputy leader Jacob Taylor said that the seats were calculated by the council’s chief monitoring officer who was independent from the political leadership.

Councillor Taylor said: “As set out as common practice in every council in the country and indeed in regulation, where there is a spare seat, it is allocated to the largest party.

“That is what’s happened every year in this council for many decades and in every other council in the country.”

He argued that Brighton and Hove Independents had a similar claim to the Greens to the “spare seat” and could have asked for it but hadn’t done so.

There are 63 seats across all committees, excluding the cabinet. Labour has 36 councillors out of 54, giving the party an initial allocation of 42 seats.

The Greens are the official opposition with eight councillors and nine seats on committees.

The Conservatives with five councillors, have six seats.

The Brighton and Hove Independents have seats on two committees and each of the three other independent councillors have a seat on one committee each.

Two committees have had a change of chair with Labour councillor Alison Thomson taking over the Planning Committee and fellow Labour councillor Gary Wilkinson becoming the chair of the Health Overview and Scrutiny Committee.