We are not ‘gagging’ public says council leader

3:26pm Thursday 22nd May 2008

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TOWN Hall bosses are trying to gag' the public at meetings, say critics.

Residents will have to submit questions in writing five days in advance of the full council, rather than be allowed to speak on the night.

Council leader Bob Bibby says this is to ensure the council operates more efficiently, and that people get more accurate answers to their questions.

This follows his move to strip opposition councillors of their votes on the ruling executive, which will now comprise nine members of the ruling group: the two opposition members will be reduced to co-opted status.

The Tories were going to impose the change at last week's annual council meeting, but discovered they had not given sufficient notice. It will now be discussed by the democratic arrangements forum and come back to a future meeting.

Coun Bibby said the public had no automatic right to speak at council meetings and Bury had been very flexible - other nearby authorities, such as Manchester, did not allow it at all.

"The public will not be gagged," he told the annual meeting. "There may be different forms of communication, but they will not be gagged."

But Lib Dem councillor Vic D'Albert said Bury should be applauded for allowing the public a greater say than other councils, rather than curtailing that input.

Residents can still ask verbal questions at the ruling executive at the discretion of the chairman, i.e. Coun Bibby. Speaking rights at scrutiny panels, licensing, standards and planning will remain unchanged. Councillors, during the public part of executive meetings, will be limited to one question, which must be specifically about their own ward and again, asked in advance.

The opposition parties have asked for more support for the scrutiny panels, especially as their role on the executive is now diminished.

l Whitefield councillor Michelle Wiseman has stepped down from the executive to help her focus on unseating MP Ivan Lewis.

Coun Wiseman, who has represented Pilkington Park for five years, is also the Conservative Parliamentary candidate for Bury South.

On the council, she was executive member for safe and secure communities, but will now become chairman of the Whitefield and Unsworth LAP (Local Area Partnership).

Her day job' is chief executive of Manchester Jewish Community Care, which runs the Nicky Alliance Day Centre in Crumpsall.

Coun Wiseman said it was entirely her decision, one she made just two days before the appointments were ratified. "I felt that I could not give the role justice," she said.

Coun Wiseman's place on the executive has been filled by councillors Jack Walton and Sam Cohen.