Following alleged further splits in the ruling Green Group on Brighton and Hove City Council over controversial council tax plans, Labour Group Leader, Warren Morgan has issued a call for Green councillors to “get a grip, or quit”.
Green Party proposals to increase council tax by 200%, with residents then having to apply for a means-tested rebate, prompted at least one senior Green councillor to threaten to resign his seat at a meeting this week.
Cllr Warren Morgan, Leader of the Labour & Co-operative Group, said:
“Enough is enough. The city cannot go on with the Greens pushing through schemes without proper consultation or agreement, at the same time as not even being able to sit in the same room together.”
“They are now making the council and the city a laughing stock, and we need a sensible plan to get us through the next 18 months to the elections. If the Greens can’t run the council then they should resign their seats and allow the election of Labour councillors who can.”
Labour is calling for:
1) a moratorium on all new Green schemes unless it can be proved that they have genuine public support, offer value for money and can guarantee funding in future budgets to sustain them.
2) full involvement in the council’s budget setting process, with an “open-book” approach.
3) genuine dialogue with the opposition parties on controversial matters such as parking and 20mph limits, instead of ignoring consultation results and pushing them through.
Cllr Morgan added:
“The Green split between ‘mangoes’ and ‘watermelons’ might be funny to some, but we have very real concerns about the future running of the city, not least how the Greens will be able to set another difficult budget when they are so split, and when we are facing such huge cuts by the Conservative-led government. I’m pleased the taxpayer isn’t paying for the mediators they have called in; we are almost tempted to pay for them ourselves if the result is that city is run sensibly.”
The referendum needed to approve the Green council tax proposals could cost £300,000, with tens of thousands more needed to assess claims for rebates and deal with the arrears and homelessness of those who don’t claim.
Pushed on why he does not call for a ‘no confidence’ vote allowing a Conservative/Labour coalition to take over Cllr Morgan insisted there would be no-back room deals to install a Conservative administration committed to cutting local services. “It must be up to voters to decide who runs the city” he concluded.
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