Attempt to Gerrymander the Constitution Thwarted for Now

I’m writing this week’s blog from the airport, as my wife and I head off to Malta to celebrate our first wedding anniversary. We’re actually breaking a general rule to avoid flying unless absolutely necessary (which has led to some very fun long distance train journeys), but a flightless trip to an island required a bit more time than we had available!

It’s been a very busy year since the wedding, with the small matter of an election and subsequently becoming leader of the opposition in Hounslow. Caroline has been a total rock the entire time, and I felt I couldn’t miss the opportunity to start this article by saying how lucky I am to have her.

Allotments Success

On Sunday it was the annual Chiswick Horticultural and Allotment Society Autumn Show. It’s a brilliant event which allows local growers to show off their plants, veg and associated entries.

As well as being exceptionally patient with her husband’s late night council meetings, Caroline is also an exceptionally good cook. So much so, her brioche loaf came first in the autumn show’s bread baking competition. I will claim a small part in her success, being the chief taste tester during the previous week’s trial baking - it’s a tough life!

I was glad to be joined at the show by Cllr Mike Denniss, who managed to snag the biggest squash I’ve ever seen during the auction of entries - I am yet to hear what he used it for!

Inspiring Cricket

After the show, we jumped across to Osterley following an invitation by former councillor Allan Joseph to attend a women’s cricket tournament at the Gymkhana. The day long event, put together by Inspiring Indian Women, brought together teams of all ages and abilities for a mini tournament.

The charity does some great work supporting women’s health and wellbeing across the borough, and it was a pleasure to watch a few games and celebrate the winners at the evening’s prize giving ceremony.

Borough Council Farce

Unfortunately, last week was not all good news. On Tuesday we had a full meeting of the Borough Council.

As some may be aware from reports in local media, this meeting was slated to discuss a number of constitutional changes to our local council, some of which were extremely controversial. Historically when changes to the council’s constitution have been made, all parties have been invited to a non-political working group to find common ground and propose changes that all sides (more or less) agree on.

That process wasn’t followed this time. Instead, the leader of the council proposed a series of changes designed to further restrict what opposition councillors can do - shorter council meetings, fewer motions, the end of a question period for council reports. He did this without any cross party consultation (of course), and even refused to turn up to the audit committee meeting where these proposals were supposed to be scrutinised.

This was, in effect, a reckless attempt to gerrymander the constitution in a way which propped up his shaky majority of one. It succeeded in uniting all opposition parties, across the political spectrum, against the proposals.

Unfortunately for the leader of the council, the move backfired - ironically because he didn’t understand the constitution he was trying to change. An obscure rule in the existing constitution meant that, having proposed and seconded the changes, no further debate or vote was allowed to take place until the following meeting in November. A reprieve from these ridiculous changes, and more time for the opposition to stop them taking effect.

The practical implications of this failure to understand how the council works could actually be severe for our borough. In addition to these politically controversial changes to council procedure rules, we were also supposed to debate and vote on legally required changes to the planning committee. These followed new legislation which limits the number of members of the committee, and also changes the rules around call-ins. Because the leader of the council tried to link these legally required changes with his procedure rule changes, there is an argument that neither could be legally voted on.

There is a lot of concern within the council now that this means Hounslow will miss the deadline to change its constitution in line with the new planning laws, which is the end of October. The council may in effect break the law - all because the people in charge tried to bend the rules to prop up their own administration.

Tuesday was a sad reminder that the current administration in charge of our council are all too happy to put their party, and their own positions, above the good of our borough. I suspect this is one saga we haven’t heard the last of.

Cllr Jack Emsley

jack.emsley@hounslow.gov.uk

07977 396017

DEMOCRACY: DATES FOR YOUR DIARY

Anyone can attend public meetings of the council. Hounslow House is fully accessible. Hounslow Central tube station is not step-free. The 237 bus stops nearby. Parking in local roads is limited.

Principal meetings are broadcast live on the Council’s YouTube channel

CONSERVATIVE COUNCILLORS CONTACT INFO

Chiswick Gunnersbury ward

Cllr Joanna Biddolph joanna.biddolph@hounslow.gov.uk 07976 703446

Cllr Vickram Grewal vickram.grewal@hounslow.gov.uk 07904 184099

Cllr Ron Mushiso ron.mushiso@hounslow.gov.uk 07976 702887

Chiswick Homefields ward

Cllr Michael Denniss Michael.Denniss@hounslow.gov.uk

Cllr Jack Emsley jack.emsley@hounslow.gov.uk 07977 396017

Cllr Linden Grigg Linden.Grigg@hounslow.gov.uk 07779 436258

Chiswick Riverside ward

Cllr Gabriella Giles gabriella.giles@hounslow.gov.uk 07966 270823

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