WOKINGHAM Conservatives have hatched a secret plan to disrupt council meetings as much as possible.
A briefing given to councillors lays out a number of tactics including interfering speeches, accusations of bias and taking credit for the policies of other parties.
The confidential document, obtained by Wokingham.Today, is titled Using Council for Effective Opposition and sets out a strategy for the party to get their “own way” during council meetings.
This includes challenging rulings made by the borough mayor, Cllr Caroline Smith, and disrupting the administration to keep them “constantly on their toes”.
In a section headed “Disruption and Getting Our Own Way” councillors are encouraged to use points of order and personal explanation to “raise points”.
A point of order is raised when someone draws attention to a rules violation, usually interrupting a speaker during debate.
A point of personal explanation is used to clarify something which has been misunderstood.
Cllr Pauline Jorgensen, leader of the Wokingham Conservative Group, raised a point of order at the extraordinary council meeting on Wednesday, June 22, during Cllr Clive Jones’ speech on proposals to move Wokingham to elections once every four years.
When asked to name the point of order by the mayor Cllr Jorgensen was unable to, so it was ignored.
Later in the same meeting, Cllr Pauline Helliar-Symons, Conservative for Wokingham Without, raised a point of personal explanation during a speech by the deputy leader, Cllr Stephen Conway.
Cllr Conway said the point was “not a personal explanation”.
Conservative councillors are also being told to challenge rulings made by the mayor.
The mayor is a non-political position and the constitution states that rulings made are final.
Cllr Smith is a Liberal Democrat councillor and follows on from Conservative Cllr Keith Baker.
The position runs for a municipal year, and sees the councillor act as the borough’s first citizen, as well as chairing meetings of all councillors.
In the document, Conservative councillors are being encouraged to dispute rulings “in order to make a point”, this includes making “accusations of bias”.
When setting out their position on policies, if they agree with the Liberal Democrat stance Conservative councillors are being told to say so – “but take credit for it”.
Cllr Clive Jones, leader of Wokingham Borough Council, has heavily criticised the tactics, describing them as “shameful”.
He said: “To hear about these tactics is extremely disappointing and it is very, very bad for local democracy.
“It shows the Conservatives to be a bad loser as well as childish and immature.”
Cllr Jones is now calling for an apology.
He said: “We expected this behaviour was going on but now it is in black and white, I don’t expect it to continue.
“This is not grown-up politics.
“The leadership should apologise for thinking this is acceptable.”
A spokesperson for the Wokingham Conservative Group has said it is the “democratic responsibility” of the opposition to “robustly challenge” the actions and comments of the administration”.
They added: “The administration may not like this, but it is an integral part of our political process.”
The spokesperson also defended the motivation behind the document and the tactics employed as they are “within the rules”.
They said: “Faced with a biassed referee in Cllr Smith, Conservative councillors are perfectly entitled to operate within the rules to ensure that their voices are heard and that a real debate takes place.
“The council’s Code of Conduct includes the Nolan principles, requiring councillors to ‘act with honesty and integrity’.
“Where the administration just makes things up, as happened at the last council meeting, councillors on both sides can and do use the rules to challenge inaccuracies.
“The motivation behind the presentation was to ensure that people understood how to raise points of order in the correct way to avoid them being rejected out of hand by the mayor.”
