By Carmelo Garcia – Local Democracy Reporter
Gloucester City Council “is like a playground” as “bickering, nastiness and finger pointing from councillors” was called out in a “ridiculously” long budget meeting.
Civic chiefs were grilled for almost four hours at North Warehouse last night (January 20) over their spending proposals for the next financial year.
However, many of the questions and much of the debate during the fractious single-item meeting had little to do with the authority’s budget for 2025/26, according to the scrutiny committee’s vicechairman.
Time was spent debating whether the UK Government should ban the controversial herbicide glyphosate which is used by councils across the country, accusations of councillors keeping information hidden regarding issues affecting rent with the indoor market.
Council chiefs were also asked about how the council counts how many roughsleepers there are in the city and how graffiti was being tackled.
Three and a quarter hours into the meeting, vice-chairman Tree Chambers-Dubus (L, Moreland) told chairman Andrew Gravells (C, Abbeydale) she was a bit lost about what the meeting was actually about.
“I thought it was a budget meeting,” she said.
“Why are we getting into nitpicking at people, pointing the finger at people, making accusations at people.
“We should be talking about how the finances translate to what our priorities should be. That has not been what has been happening.
“We probably could have got this meeting done in a fraction of the time. A lot of what has been said, and the bickering, nastiness, quite frankly, is not actually going to have done anything or any good this evening other than keep people sitting here.
“It’s ridiculous. It’s like a playground.”
The conduct of some members at the authority has been a concern for some time according to insiders at the council.
Dozens of complaints are understood to have been submitted recently regarding councillor behaviour and a special panel has been set up to deal with them.
Last May, former mayor Kathy Williams said in her outgoing speech that there was bullying at the council and that she would campaign to get the law changed so that councillors require Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) checks.