Labour leadership survive vote of no confidence

VIDEO: WARRINGTON Borough Council’s Labour Leader Cllr. Russ Bowden and his Deputy Cllr. Cathy Mitchell, survived a vote of no confidence during an extraordinary meeting at the Parr Hall, called by opposition Tories.

A motion put by Tory finance spokesperson Cllr Ken Critchley calling for an urgent independent and open inquiry into the failure of the council’s investment into Together Energy and an amendment from the Lib Dems, to commission an inquiry after administrators have provided initial findings, were also both defeated.

A second motion calling on the council to resolve to change its financial strategy to include lessons learned from the investment in Together Energy and an amendment from the Lib Dems, replacing the word “change” with “review” were also both defeated.

Defending the leadership of the council, Cllr. Bowden accused the Tory opposition of stoking fear with misinformation, saying the public of Warrington had given their vote of confidence at the ballot box last May.

“Leadership is not about accepting austerity, it is about making tough calls. The vast majority have been the correct ones. This leadership is a team trying to deliver the best for this town in difficult circumstances.”

During the lengthy meeting, there were some heated debates with Lib Dem leader Cllr. Bob Barr accusing the Tories of organising a “lynch mob.”

Cllr Critchley said he and many others had “very serious concerns regarding the due diligence processes and decision-making that took place when the council invested in Together Energy Ltd.

“This is public money that is being invested.

Warrington Borough council is not set up to be a hedge fund or a high-risk venture capital organisation, the council exist to provide services to the people of Warrington. Not to speculate with public money, and I quote from the paper that went to Cabinet in September 2019, “Together is seen as a minimum to long term play for the Council”. The word “play” says it all.

“In less than 2 1/2 years of the “play” an initial investment of £18 million in preference shares giving and an accompanying £4 million credit facility had grown to a potential exposure to the council of £52 Million The eventual exposure is now to be determined by the administrator and the creditors of the company.”

Cllr. Bowden said: “Perhaps the opposition is creating this debate to deflect all the disgraceful behaviour of the Prime Minister and his ‘Down It’ Street parties, when the rest of us were being respectful and compliant of the rules to be created in 2020 by the PM himself? Here we all made sacrifices and the Prime Minister has acted with contempt taking the Warrington public as fools. The Prime Minister apparently wants to create a ‘New office of the Prime Minister’. I have an idea for him – why not call it the ‘Department for Revelling Up’?

“Sorry I nearly forgot despite the Conservatives arguing they are careful with the nation’s finances, there is also the issue of the £500 million awarded to the VIP list of the supply of PPE during the pandemic. Procurement rules broken to support Conservative chums. To make matters worse £2.7billion of PPE is to go to waste as they are deemed now ‘unsafe’. Pure negligence. So please don’t lecture us tonight on prudence.

“There will be no implications from the Together Energy situation of risks to reduce Council services or Council revenue budgets. Our opponents seem to know the cost of everything but the value of nothing. You the opposition don’t want to reveal its ‘costs everything’ approach but rather create misinformation and spin to deflect attention away from the fact that the Tory Government has refused to fund this Council adequately. Our local Tories are all criticise and bluster but don’t offer a solution!”

Meanwhile, Cllr Barr said: “I wish we weren’t here tonight. I wish that the advice from my Group, that investing in Together Energy was too risky, had been heeded.

“I wish that, despite our warnings, Together had not collapsed. A collapse triggered in part at least by irresponsible meddling in the Energy Market by the Conservative Government. We don’t know what the outcome for Together Energy will be.

“While the Conservative Group and the MP for Warrington South push out what is expected to be a worst-case scenario, the administrators are trying to protect customers and creditors, including the residents of Warrington, and need to be left to complete their work without additional pressure.

“What I am most upset about is the behaviour of the Conservative group in calling this meeting before the outcome for Together is known. The slightest sense of fairness and decency would have held up this action until the administrators report. But no. The Conservative motions are all predicated on the worst possible outcome before it is known.”

Commenting on Cllr Bowden’s leadership Cllr Barr added: He, and his officers’, investment strategy may prove to be defensible, but they have failed to defend it adequately, despite me pressing them to do so for over two years. He has allowed a narrative, led by social media, to paint what is almost certainly a totally false picture of Warrington’s Investments.

“He has also allowed the myth of the so-called Warrington Debt to be believed throughout Warrington. He personally is no longer believed.

“He has allowed Warrington’s reputation as a well-run Council to be destroyed in parts of the national press, taking their lead, and no doubt informed and encouraged, by our Conservative Group and their social media friends.”

Proposing the vote of no confidence in the Labour Leadership team Cllr. Nigel Balding (Con), said: “The Together Energy debacle and the resulting potential losses of public money Sit squarely with the political leadership of this council.

“It’s this leadership that has supported the high-risk, high borrowing, low return strategy and that, reportedly against the advice of senior officers ploughed ahead with the financially questionable together energy investment. Why did they disregard the advice of senior officers?”

He added:” I have concerns that the Cabinet, Council members and the Warrington public were potentially misled at this Cabinet meeting regarding the true circumstances of together energy, the truth of this will only be known when we see the part two papers that were presented to cabinet on the 11th of October. For this and other reasons, I support this motion of no confidence in the leader and deputy leader.

While all but two of the Lib Dems abstained on the vote of no confidence, Cllr Ryan Bate (LibDem) said he believed the residents he represented had lost trust in the council’s leadership and in the public eye it was a straightforward vote of no confidence and he would not be voting with his colleagues but supporting the motion.

But the controlling Labour group voted against the motion which was lost.

While all three motions tabled by the Tories were defeated a 4th motion from Cllr Bowden calling for the council to write to the town’s MPs to call for more funding from central government and for any opposition with an objection to the council’s investment strategy to put forward an alternative budget, was approved.