LIBERAL Democrat councillors at Warrington have mocked the ruling Labour group on the borough council over the “secret U-turn” on charging for replacement wheelie bins.
Cllr Ian Marks (pictured), leader of the Lib Dem group said: “It begs the question, just who is running the council?”
It was just before Christmas that an earlier decision to charge residents £30 for a replacement wheelie bin was scrapped.
But the news only emerged last week – as a result of enquiries made by Labour MP for Warrington North Helen Jones.
Cllr Marks said: “When the Labour party took over from us in May 2011, their leader made great play of the fact that they would be ‘open and transparent’. Not only were the public and opposition parties not told about this change of policy, it appears that none of the Labour members knew of it either!
“Hardly a good example of openness and transparency.
“I thought the Labour Party was trying to get away from being officer led which they certainly were when last in power. But here we have a classic case of the officers setting policy and not the councillors.
“It also exposes the ongoing rifts within Labour because it takes their own MP to expose the shortcomings of the council Labour group.”
3 Comments
I see the Lib-Dems have caught up.
And you represent a party who with the tories allowed officers to take control of this authority and do the damage that the present council has to be put right. A party that in coalition in central government level is intent on cutting back funding to all public services. Let's see at the next elections if you still have a party to represent
I believe that Helen Jones is now campaigning for the end to the meat ration and has petitioned Mr Churchill about it 😉