Thursday 24 January 2013

Ban on councillor contacting parish clerk goes to court

TAXPAYERS in Henley will have to cough up over £4,000 more than last year to their "dysfunctional" parish council whose action in banning one of its members from contacting the parish clerk is currently subject to a judicial review.

A 5.56 per cent increase in the council's budget was agreed at a meeting on Monday night at which both the council chairman, Cllr Les Goodman, and vice-chairman, Cllr Chris Milsom resigned in advance of the legal ruling.

The judicial review has been instigated by Cllr Bill Leech as a result of the council banning him from contacting parish clerk Jenny Walsh. The ban arose out of his campaign against the council administrative costs.

The resignations are the latest developments in a long-running dispute between Cllr Leech and the rest of the council. The council's difficulties in working together were investigated by Stratford District Council in 2011 when the parish council was described as "dysfunctional" at a meeting of the district council's standards and ethics committee.

At Monday's meeting there was standing room only as the Henley public packed into the Baptist Church Hall to see the council elect a new chairman and set its budget for 2013-14.

Cllr Roger Hubbocks was elected chairman over council newcomer, Cllr Mike Willmott. Cllr George Matheou was elected vice-chairman over Cllr Elaine Field. Chairman of Henley Independents, Cllr Willmott was first elected in a by-election last November but was disqualified after he failed to attend his first council meeting. He was then returned unopposed in a second by-election earlier this month.

The voting highlighted the deep division of the council with the four Independents voting together against the eight other councillors.

An irate Henley High Street resident, Sarah Cossey, berated them voting in their cliques. She said that at least the vice-chairman should be a Henley Independent to fairly represent the council, concluding: "Shame on you for letting Henley down yet again." This was met with applause from the public.

Before that, Cllr Goodman explained that he resigned over the judicial review into the council's treatment of Cllr Leech, currently sub judice, being considered by a judge at Birmingham Administrative Court.

Cllr Goodman said: "I obviously had great difficulty with that situation and leaving a meeting in December that did not leave me with a lot of hope, I had a difficult situation to consider.

I have spent Christmas and the New Year considering my position and I am therefore resigning as chairman."

But when he began to talk about the council's defence of the judicial review, his out-going speech was interrupted by Cllr Leech who told him that the matter was subjudice and should not be spoken about in a public meeting.

The council is requiring residents to fork out £82,412 for its 2013-14 budget, compared to the £78,070 budget for 2012-13, a 5.56 per cent increase for the 4,500 people of Henley and Beaudesert.

The four Henley Independents, particularly Cllr Elaine Field, questioned the need for such a hike considering the council will probably have around £45,000 in reserve at the end of the financial year.

Alluding to the judicial review, Cllr Matheou said: "In our case quite a lot of our reserves will disappear for something that we cannot talk about tonight."

Cllr Goodman announced the clerk's salary next year would be £23,450. This accounts for 27 per cent of the council's budget. He said: "The average costs [of salaries] for most parish councils is 64 per cent. We are well down as far as that is concerned."

He also defended the 5.56 per cent council tax increase, which will add £2,000 into the reserves.

Ms Walsh also pointed to income support cuts made by central government that were previously paid directly to parish councils. She said in 2013-14 these losses were being covered by Stratford District Council's council tax support grant—£9,070 for Henley—but warned that if the district council removed this service the year after, then the parish council would have to implement a 15 per cent tax rise in 2014-15 if there was no council tax increase this year.

Report by Matt Wilson, Stratford Herald 24th January 2012