At an urgent meeting of the Council Business Management Committee, the Labour administration forced through changes to the timing of the budget meeting on 24 February (in just 11 days), moving it from 2 pm to 11 am, and rescheduled the March Council meeting from 17 March to 24 March, citing Ramadan.
This decision was taken despite the emergency meeting itself not being called in line with the Council’s constitution, which requires three clear days’ notice before a meeting can take place.
It is believed that the Labour group would struggle to secure sufficient attendance to pass their tax-raising, service-cutting double whammy budget if the meeting time was not changed.
This is despite the fact that the Council already provides rooms for councillors observing Ramadan to break fast and to pray.
Cllr Robert Alden (Con, Erdington), Leader of the Opposition & Birmingham Local Conservatives, said:
The date of the budget meeting was set a year ago. That meant all 101 members of the Council had time to make arrangements around work, childcare, and other commitments. Now the Labour leadership team are expecting everyone else to change their plans at less than two weeks’ notice for the most important Council meeting of the year.
It’s clear they believed they couldn’t get their councillors to stay to the end of the meeting to vote for their double whammy of higher taxes and fewer services if they didn’t change the time.
This is the latest action by an increasingly desperate Labour administration in their final days and follows months of defections from the ruling Labour group, which has seen their majority collapse from 33 to 5, lost votes at full Council, and the Cabinet Member for Highways and Waste only surviving a no-confidence vote by 3 votes after 5 independent Councillors went home early at the last full Council meeting.
Robert added:
In forcing through this meeting and late change, the Labour Group argued that measures in the constitution to protect decision-making did not apply to them. It is exactly this mindset which has seen them waste hundreds of millions on failed procurements such as the botched Oracle IT rollout and has left residents facing month 14 of their 3rd bin strike in the last 10 years. Once again, Labour Councillors simply think the rules don't apply to them.
