By Carmelo Garcia – Local Democracy Reporter
There are fears the move which deposed Gloucester City Council’s leader was orchestrated to allow Government commissioners to be brought in to take control of the authority.
The council, which is responsible for services such as planning, housing and bin collections in the city, is currently without a leader.
A vote of no confidence backed by Conservative, Labour and Independent councillors saw Liberal Democrat leader Jeremy Hilton ousted on September 24.
The motion was tabled due to dissatisfaction with how the Kingsholm and Wotton councillor had been leading the council.
However, after succeeding in deposing of Cllr Hilton, no other candidate was put forward by the opposition and it led to the resignation of the Lib Dem cabinet.
Community Independent deputy group leader Brendan O’Donnell (Matson, Robinswood and White City), who seconded the motion, claims the reason for this is so that Government-appointed commissioners are sent in.
Commissioners are sent in when the Government finds serious failures in leadership, governance, or financial management at a local council.
The city council has been in a dire financial situation and was granted access to up to £15.5m in emergency funding from the Government earlier this year. It is also understood they will need to ask for millions more soon too.
And after last week’s meeting the authority finds itself with no elected leader to run it.
“The reason no other party put a nomination forward is so that we can have a commissioner come in,” Cllr O’Donnell said in a post online.
“And we will finally get a forensic investigation into what exactly has caused such a massive loss of finances, all of the missing and unaccountable millions have gone which when I asked for this about a year ago the leader point blank refused.”
Councillor Hilton blasted the opposition for having “neither the courage or a plan” to govern.
“If their solution is to call in Government commissioners to do the job they should be doing themselves, they should say so plainly,” he said.
“They created this vacuum and have offered nothing to fill it.
“Commissioners do not come cheap. Each is likely to cost around £1,250 a day, plus expenses and costs that will fall on a council already in severe financial difficulty and reliant on exceptional financial support.
“Handing key decisions to Whitehall while asking Gloucester taxpayers to foot the bill because Labour, Conservative and Independent councillors cannot agree who should run the council would be an extraordinary act of political cowardice.
“If commissioners are their plan, it is an abdication of responsibility on a breathtaking scale.
“They created this crisis; their job now is to step up, take responsibility, and resolve it, not expect Gloucester taxpayers to pay for Government appointees to do it for them.
“The Labour MP should hold his own group to account.”
Tewkesbury MP Cameron Thomas, who represents parts of Gloucester, also took aim at Labour and said their councillors have “spinelessly ceded our county’s capital city to vandals, and offered absolutely nothing of merit as an alternative”.
“They may not like the way that Cllr Hilton does business, but he clearly led a united cabinet, and Gloucester residents should have been able to trust opposition councillors to act like adults.”
The city’s Labour MP Alex McIntyre said last week’s meeting was “deeply damaging” for Gloucester and the City Council needs stable and collaborative leadership.
“We all need to do better,” he said. “The Liberal Democrats remain the largest party on the council and therefore responsibility sits with them to form a new administration to lead our city.
“One that will command the confidence of the council going forward. I stand ready to work with them to deliver a brighter future for Gloucester.”
The Conservatives have ruled out that their plan is to bring in commissioners and that Cllr Hilton’s removal did not require the rest of the cabinet to resign.
Tory group leader Stephanie Chambers (Quedgeley Fieldcourt) said: “That is a distraction Cllr Hilton has introduced to avoid addressing the central fact: councillors from different political groups had lost confidence in his ability to lead and work constructively with others.
“The Liberal Democrats remain the largest group and could have proposed a different ;eader but instead instigated a farce by proposing Cllr Hilton as Leader straight after he has just been voted out. Cllr Hilton’s removal did not require the cabinet to resign. That was a political choice.
“We voted no confidence in Cllr Hilton, not no confidence in Gloucester. His response was to make the consequences for the whole council as disruptive as possible.”
Community Independents group leader Alastair Chambers said Gloucester “deserves better” and there are still options which include a new Lib Dem leader, power sharing among the groups or Government commissioners.
“My preferred option is for independent commissioners to be brought in from Whitehall to examine the council’s finances and governance,” he said.
“Gloucester residents deserve complete transparency. They deserve to know how the council got into this position.”