Shameless behaviour ranging from barracking to bullying at yesterday’s Wiltshire Council’s extraordinary meeting was condemned today (Wednesday) by Paul Gaunt, the business consultant who launched a petition against massive increases in councillors’ allowances.
He witnessed his petition, signed by 2,673 people, as it was presented to the council meeting by Mike White and Allan Stellard amid groans and moans from Tory councillors.
“I was almost ashamed to be there,” he told Marlborough News Online. “We went to the council meeting in good faith. We didn’t go there to upset people. To barrack the two people who delivered the petition was just plainly rude and totally unacceptable.
“If they want to encourage democracy, to encourage people to come and take part in meetings, it is outrageous if they systematically discredit anything said by anyone willing to stick their head above the parapet.
“Our petition was not political, it was the voice of the people, one per cent of Wiltshire’s population.”
Mr Gaunt, who lives in Broughton Gifford and describes himself as apolitical, a supporter of people rather than political parties, was bitter at the backlash against independent Councillor Jeff Osborn, who lost his motion to rescind the allowance payments by 60 votes to 24 with six abstentions.
This came from Conservative councillor Chris Devine, who told the meeting: “Jeff Osborn says this is not personal. He has put forward something he knows he can’t win.
“Jeff is a good guy in scrutiny but he has no value outside of that…that’s what he is, a ruddy nuisance.”
And he added: “Jeff, I am sick to death of your sanctimonious humbug. I know what Jeff is, he’s a moonraker. He sees the moon in the water and he can’t get it through his head that it’s unobtainable.
“I voted for the increase and I will vote for it again. I am proud of this council. We are worth it, we do a damn good job. I am a councillor, this is what I do and I love it.”
Mr Gaunt objected to the abuse. “That attack on Jeff Osborn was out and out bullying. What he said – and the way he laid into Jeff — was utterly unprofessional. As a member of the public it just put me off ever taking up anything political again.
“The council chamber is not the House of Commons and Prime Minister’s Question Time. It’s a work place. And if this had happened in any work place that councillor would have been up on an extreme disciplinary charge.”
He pointed out that the council’s front line workforce, who were called out over Christmas to deal with floods and storm damage, didn’t have the opportunity of taking the 22 per cent allowance increase now available to members of the council’s Cabinet.
Yet they were the ones who suffered stress from the responsibilities they had and they had suffered the staffing cuts introduced by the council.
“Those who voted against rescinding the allowances don’t live in the real word,” added Mr Gaunt. “It is hugely unfair that these councillors who are supposed to be leading our local authority are not leading by example.
“After the meeting I needed some time to calm down because of the outrageous behaviour.”
Council leader Jane Scott, who has declined to take the 36.5 per cent increase in her allowances, nevertheless spoke against the motion. So did Councillor Jon Hubbard, leader of the council’s Lib-Dem opposition, who originally voted against the rises last November.
“Today I am not going to vote to rescind it,” he said. “To rescind a decision is to say the basis on which we made that decision was unsound.
“I am a net beneficiary from this increase because I am chair of two committees of this council. I work on average somewhere between 50 and 55 hours per week. I am in the council three days a week from 8.30am to 6.30am, and I spend weekends out in my ward with my constituents.
“All this I do as a councillor and I do it with pleasure. We should be giving the opportunity for younger members of our community to earn enough money to live on.
“It’s scandalous that I am the second or third youngest person on this council – and I am 33. Let us have a system that enables people, if they chose to give up their career and spend time on the council, to earn enough money to be able to do that.”
Labour Councillor Ricky Rogers told the meeting: “I don’t know of a single item in 25 years that has caused such unrest in my community. It has caused public concern and we all need to recognise that.
“I don’t think anybody should be able to come here and be out of pocket, but there is a balance and this is out of balance.”
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Now was not the time to boost those Wiltshire Council allowances Marlborough’s two Wiltshire councillors both repeated their belief that the council’s Tory leader Jane Scott deserved a pay rise but both intimated that the increase in the council’s allowances system had been mismanaged. Tory Councillor Stewart Dobson, who abstained in the vote, told Marlborough News Online: “I was interested to learn that I appear to have been the only councillor of any persuasion to have requested immediately after the November meeting that I did not wish to take my allowance increase. “I repeat once again that I believe that Jane Scott the leader of the council, well deserves the increase in her allowance, as she works incredibly hard for the benefit of the people of Wiltshire.” But he added: “I believe that an opportunity was missed yesterday following adverse public opinion to rethink the scale of the allowance increase in the light of the current financial plight so many of our residents are facing. “I also believe that any increase would have been better phased in over the next few years.” Independent Councillor Nick Fogg, who voted for the motion to rescind the pay rises, pointed out that they were recommended by an independent report and he appreciated the reasons for the increases. “While clearly the allowance allows quite a number of hard-working people to function as councillors, I came to the conclusion that this was not the moment to do that other than vote a modest increase in line with those received by staff at County Hall,” he told Marlborough News Online. “The public and media reaction to the increases meant that the council itself had become the issue and that’s never a good place to be.” |
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