This scene at Tuesday’s meeting looks like ‘back to budget school’ for Waverley councillors who were tested on the paperwork before taking a momentous step for the future of Waverley and Guildford Borough Councils.
Yesterday we posted the Waverley Web’s take on a major decision which was taken in Farnham on Tuesday evening. This included a video of the opening statement made by Waverley’s council leader Paul Follows to councillors attending a meeting held at the Great Hall in Farnham Maltings. A large enough venue to enable councillors to self-distance in line with Government COVID rules.
We understand from council sources that a considerable number of councillors were absent, believed to be in the region of 18. These included the former leader of the Tory Group Julia Potts.
We understand that after full debate in public, the final vote held behind closed doors due to the sensitive nature of information being discussed. Then the coalition of Liberal Democrats, Farnham Residents,’ Labour, Green Party and an Independent voted unanimously for the recommendation. However, the Tory Group to a man and woman either voted against or abstained.
‘Your Waverley’s’ Big Night Out in Farnham develops into ‘A Big Fight Out.’
However click on he link here and you can read the single official statement released in the name of both councils. A statement that aims to reassure both residents of both boroughs and their council staff.
The vote for this was in public too btw, the item contained some exempt papers with specific numbers re the Chief Execs salary and benefits etc for both councils.
The item the followed this (which was nothing to do with this) was totally in exempt.
Why were the CEO salary and benefits held in exempt? surely the pay package is in the annual accounts? I am not against this move in theory but the actual figures of how much it is going to cost in redundancy and golden handshakes (one off payments) as against the annual savings should be a matter of public record so that we, the voting fodder, are aware at all times how OUR money is being spent.
Why were 18 Councillors absent from this meeting that was surely the most important in years? Is there a list with their reasons for not attending?
Answers on a post card please.
Surely you should ask the Councillors who didn’t attend? Maybe the thought of going back to driving to meetings rather than Zoom was too much trouble? You’d think with all the fuss that some made about not having the papers in front of them there would be a move to make WBC paperless. It isn’t difficult to provide tablets for every councillor.
Couldn’t agree more! Why in this day and age hadn’t everyone read the paperwork over the weekend. There is absolutely no excuse. If individual members had not received the e-mail on Friday, they still hd several days to rectify the situation. Utter nonsense for a supposedly intelligent group of people.
I don’t think it was quite 18 – I think it was 14/15 but will check. On the administration side there were a handful of track and trace required isolations that forced a few out of a physical meeting and a small handful that were clearly anxious enough re covid that they didn’t want to attend.
I’m not sure if the Tory apologies but it was about 7/8 of theirs in that number.
And the pack contained a large number of items including advice from South East Employers which is currently on pink paper too.
Bits of it probably don’t need to be and the meeting that will happen in public in early August for us (and late July for Guildford) will have more info in the public domain.
One of our concerns too Rosaleen. Why were so many councillors missing for such an important decision? We have some of their names – and it was quite surprising they were absent. Unless of course football is more important?
For those interested, there will be a list of Councillors who did not attend, listed on the minutes of this meeting under “apologies for absence” as and when the minutes are uploaded to the Waverley website. I understand that Councillors do not have to give a reason, only inform they will not be present. For comparison, only 2 Councillors missed the Council meeting held by Zoom in April.