Bedford Borough Council’s executive has been accused of treating public consultations “with contempt”. The claim was made during Wednesday night’s Executive (19 November) following questions on the handling of two recent consultations.
Cllr Hilde Hendrickx (Lib Dem, Riverfield) asked why the Executive put forward budget savings proposals consultation, but then “publicly campaigned” against their very own proposals, particularly the green waste charge proposals.
Bedford mayor Tom Wootton (Conservative) said: “I thought I’d been nicely sat on the fence without green waste – I didn’t think I’d damned it.
“I said I wasn’t going to particularly encourage it, but I was going to listen to what the people said. I think that’s what I said, but I will stand corrected.”
“What is the point?”
Read: Opposition pressure forces rethink on Bedford Borough Council fee rises
Cllr Hendrickx said: “What is the point of issuing a consultation on plans that you have no intention of implementing anyway?
“A flawed consultation, by the way, that buried all the proposed savings, such as cuts to the ground maintenance, cuts to library service, removal of grounds, the removal of free parking, removal of toilets, etc.
“These were buried in an appendix, which few consultees will have opened, while the consultation only asked one clear, yes/no, the question about green waste.
“Given the financial mess you landed yourself in, it means making tough decisions and, importantly, taking ownership of these decisions. What it is not is shying away from the difficult decisions and abdicating responsibility,” she said.
Green cllr Ben Foley (Greyfriars) referred to the council tax reduction scheme consultation.
“Remarkably quickly after that consultation closed at midnight on Wednesday last week, on Monday, you signed off a decision to recommend to full council exactly the scheme consulted on,” he said
“Despite there being more answering ‘disagree’ than ‘agree’ to the most crucial question. Why there wasn’t there serious reconsideration given the outcome of that consultation?” he asked.
Read: £11.5m Bedford Borough Council savings plan includes cuts to staff, voluntary service and libraries
Petition
Mayor Wootton replied: “I strongly disagree, because I think there was some serious disagreements and arguments going on in the administration about that.
“I think we weighed very heavily on the arguments that were in that consultation, and we thought long and hard about it.”
Cllr Foley said: “You thought long and hard for what, two working days? It feels like the result of the consultation has been put aside so quickly and in doing so you’ve been treating the consultation process with contempt.
“It’s the second separate consultation we’ve heard about tonight where it seems like you’re treating the consultation process with contempt. I’m horrified to find myself feeling that after this I need to run a petition to stand up for the idea of consultation,” he said.
He has since launched a petition calling for the plans to be withdrawn.
By John Guinn
Local Democracy Reporter
Update: This article was updated at 20:03 on 21 November 20205 to amend part of Cllr Hendrickx’s quote, changing the word ‘fraud’ to ‘flawed’. Cllr Hendrickx has written to us to say she believes this may have been due to the reporter mishearing what she said. We are happy to make this change.
