Council Watch: UPDATED - Who Is "In Control" of Mendip District Council?

UPDATE (15th June 2020): Councillor Edric Hobbs, elected last year as an "Independent", has joined the Liberal Democrats. But the Liberal Democrats still do not have an overall majority.

That's why it is now IMPERATIVE that Mendip District Council immediately publishes a statement of what "THE DEAL" is with other councillors, as we set out yesterday, below.

We have asked Councillor Hobbs if he would like to explain his reasoning, and how much extra allowance (public money given to councillors instead of "wages") he gets from being a Cabinet Assistant.

We will communicate any response.

Further, as we said yesterday, so-called "Independents" (more on that another time). Yes, we will be doing a piece...

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At the council elections in May last year, voters removed the Conservatives out of controlling Mendip District Council.

Voters elected so-called "Independents" (more on that another time), Greens and Liberal Democrats, and voted out 22 of the 32 Tory councillors.

Whether this had anything to do with local issues, or was a spectacular anti-Somerset Tories vote, or was the result of the Tory Government's handling of Brexit, remains to be determined. It was probably some combination of all three factors.

After the election, new Council Leader, Liberal Democrat Councillor Ros Wyke, said  immediately after becoming being elected Leader by other councillors:

"nobody will be invisible and nobody will be ignored"

and that she would:

"hold developers to account"

and that under her leadership, the councillors and Council should:

“……remember the people who put us here. We're public servants to the citizens of Mendip, and it's in that spirit that our work begins tonight."

Over a year on from the elections, what exactly has changed since the Conservative Administration of Mendip?

It is hard to tell, as there appears to have been little, if any, change.

How did the Liberal Democrats get to be in control of all positions in the Cabinet and Executive, when there is "No Overall Control"?

The arrangements between the Liberal Democrats and opposition councillors are as clear as mud. According to media reports, there is no "formal" coalition according to SomersetLive but LevellerLive says: "The council now in place is a LibDem administration supported by Independents." Neither of these statements really tell us the full truth of who did what deal with whom, when, and why. The public and the voters need to know.

And how did Councillor Wyke become Leader of the Council, when her party does not have a Majority?

Somerset Independents has been trying to find out. Yet finding documentary evidence of the arrangements has been difficult. The Council website and the official minutes of meetings are missing the required information.

The Minutes of the 2019 Annual General Meeting, when the Leader was elected, are flawed.

The Minutes do not tell us how it was that Cllr Wyke became Leader - only that the Liberal Democrat group, the largest group, decided that she be Leader, and for the Council to make decisions that are not voted down by the opposition councillors.

But the numbers do not stack up.

It isn't just up to the Liberal Democrats to make this very important decision. The Lib Dems would need the support of other councillors to make Cllr Wyke the Leader, and to keep Cllr Wyke as the Leader.

As confirmed to us by Council officers, and as stated on the Council website, there are 47 councillors:

1. 22 Liberal Democrats
2. 10 Greens
3. 10 Conservatives
4. 3 Independents
5. 2 "Other"

To have a majority, the winning line is 24 councillors. So the Liberal Democrats would need the help of 2 councillors to reliably vote with them, to have a stable Administration that can can enable the public to be served, as Cllr Wyke claimed.

Somerset Independents has been trying to find out what the arrangement is.

We have asked councillors. They were evasive.

We have asked Council officers. They did not have any notes of how it came to be - apparently their notes are destroyed once the Minutes are agreed (confirmed by a Council officer)!

So we do not know what the full arrangement is, from documentary evidence.

We can guess how it has "worked" and how it is "working", from what we have heard from Somerset residents. But we do not know for sure.

In other councils, such as East Devon and BCP (Bournemouth, Christchurch, Poole), it is clear to the public that there is an agreement between those in the Administration. And like in Mendip, as in most Somerset councils, the Conservatives are now not "in control".

Yet in Mendip, there is no publicly stated agreement between those keeping the Liberal Democrat Administration propped up. The public need to know.

Bizarrely for a council, as shown in the Minutes of the "Budget" Full Council in February (how the Council spends your money - which is itself botched - more another time), even the opposition parties all voted for the budget.

Only two councillors abstained (the "Independent" Chair and Vice-Chair), and not a single councillor voted against the Liberal Democrats' Budget.

Normally, opposition councillors would vote against or abstain, or even provide an alternative Budget. Yet the Conservatives and Greens (and so-called "Independents") all voted for the Liberal Democrats budget! The Minutes show a recorded vote of how each councillor voted.

How? Why? What was the arrangement?

When we came to see how the joint Scrutiny and Cabinet councillors met, earlier in February, the Minutes of the meeting were not available. They were not available. We had to ask for them. Only then were they published on the Council website. And the minutes do not show how it was that the "arrangement" was maintained. It is unusual, to say the least.

What do they have to hide?

The public is left to wonder how and why the Lib Dems are "in control" of the Council, when they do not have the numbers.

And whether their decisions are justified, including many questionable decisions and expenditure of millions of pounds of public money - YOUR MONEY. For example, on their "Commercial Investment" risk of £25 MILLION of public money.

How can the public hold the councillors to account, when it is unclear who is making the decisions?

Please let us know if you know what the arrangements are!!!!!

Somerset Independents calls on Councillor Ros Wyke and the other parties to any agreement, to make that agreement public and in writing.

Contact us at the details here, and let us know your thoughts.