Labour councillors have hit out at the local LibDems and Conservatives following a council meeting in which the Chair of the Council, Ian Gilchrist, disallowed emergency business put forward by Labour, calling for the rejection of the Metro Mayor element of the proposed devolution plans for the West of England.

The motion was disallowed on the grounds that it was not urgent business.

Cllr Robin Moss (Labour, Westfield) proceeded to utilise a rule in the council’s constitution which gave powers to the leaders of the Conservative and Lib-Dem groups to allow a ten minute debate. However, both Tim Warren (Conservative leader of the Council) and the Lib-Dem Chair would not permit the debate.

Despite the argument that no time had been set aside to speak on the subject, it seems that all of the parties are actually singing from the same hymn sheet – by agreeing with devolution plans, but not the idea of a Metro Mayor.

Leader of the Labour group, Councillor Robin Moss, says: “B&NES Labour group supports plans for devolving powers to local decision makers from central government, but we do have strong concerns about a Metro Mayor being imposed as part of that deal. We see no point in having an additional election for a Mayor when the four council leaders already formally work together effectively. Imposing a Metro Mayor is particularly unreasonable, given that people in B&NES already made their views on Elected Mayors very clear, when they voted overwhelmingly in the recent referendum to reject a District Mayor.

“It is astonishing that the Conservatives and Lib-Dems do not consider this urgent business in the light of the District Mayor results. Both parties have quashed the debate for no good reason.”

Speaking to The Journal last week, Conservative Leader of B&NES Council, Tim Warren, said that a Mayor would not be his ‘preferred option’, but that he saw major benefits in devolution. He said: “There will be ample opportunity for all councillors to have a full debate on this important issue before a decision has to be taken in June. I do not think that having just a ten minute debate on such an important matter would have done the issue justice and I’m surprised that Labour councillors disagreed with that. All councillors will have the opportunity to be fully briefed on this issue before debating it properly and arriving at a view.”

Following the exchanges, Lib-Dem leader, Cllr Dine Romero, (Southdown), said: “We already have a fully-functioning and very effective Partnership involving the four councils of the West of England area. Responsibility and accountability for devolved powers should be managed through this tried and trusted mechanism. Why should residents have to bear the considerable costs of a Metro Mayor?

“I believe the Chair was correct not to allow an impromptu debate on this issue at the meeting. Council officers have not yet supplied briefing information to Councillors and having a debate without knowledge of the facts would be interesting, but perhaps not useful.”