The body set up to administer Lake Windermere (Lakes Admin Committee) has had to withdraw price rises due to an expensive legal error, and will have to refund any payments which have already been made. This will produce an £85K black hole in the accounts which will have to be met from the Council’s reserves.
Mindful that Councillors would want to question how this error occurred, the Chairman of the Committee (Acting Liberal Democrat Leader) asked at the beginning of the meeting that anything of a contentious nature be discussed in Part 2. Part 2 is where the members of the public and press are excluded!
When the Agenda item regarding the refunds was addressed, one Councillor (Liberal Democrat) called for the recommendations to be moved i.e. voted through. The Chairman (Acting Liberal Democrat Leader) then went straight to a vote. Members were a ’little unsure’ but in good faith voted the recommendations through. They were given no alternative. A number of Councillors then expected to move into Part 2 in order to properly discuss how this mistake was made. However the Chairman promptly thanked everyone and closed the meeting.
The Chair did not want the issue to be debated, and was not prepared to question how this mess was created. A senior Lib Dem even commented to one of our Councillors that they had been stitched up and that this was no way to run a council.
It doesn't matter which side of the political divide you come from, this is no way to run a council, no way to chair a committee and no way to sort out a problem.
A Conservative Councillor wrote to our local newspaper but they didn't feel it necessary to print the story, so we have done.
Your local Conservatives believe in open and honest political debate, not sweeping mistakes under the carpet. The Conservative group is considering its next move.......watch this space