Informal Council Meeting - 20th May21

[andrewbowden]

Well, we the people did vote for a divided council. Over the last few years the people of Stockport have voted in such a way that we now have 26 Lib Dem councillors, 25 Labour, 8 Conservatives, 3 Heald Green Ratepayers and 1 Green. 

Perhaps the issue then is the way the council is organised.  The council uses the Leader and Cabinet system.  The cabinet's made up of the ruling party which is currently Labour.  I'm sure there are benefits to this system but it doesn't feel very collaborative.  Other councils use a Committee system where all the parties are involved.  Wouldn't that be better for a council that's not likely to move out of No Overall Control any time soon? 

(In general I am very much in favour of collaboration in politics - our whole political system is far too combative.)

Inevitably, lots of information on the ways councils can be run on Wikipedia:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Executive_arrangements#

[jimblob]

Having just watched the webcast of the recent Informal Council Meeting which proposed a motion by the Lib Dems, that they should hold the leadership of the council, as the party with the largest number of seats (26 to Labour's 25), I'm inclined to get out of Marple as quickly as possible for the benefit of my own sanity and for the purposeful use of my £3k a year council tax; Marple loses out enough as things stand today! Whether you agree with the motion having been successful or not, the sense of acrimony, division and bitterness that I at least took away from having listened to the meeting that appears to exist between the factions within the 63 people tasked with running Stockport fills me with horror. It’s bad enough that Stockport council itself and its officers appear unaccountable and interested only in their own agenda, sadly, the people we elect to hold them to account appear too divided to be effective.