Time to end Torbay Council stalemate?

A political stalemate which has left Torbay Council consulting barristers with its officers unable to do their work could be resolved next week.

The council was pitched into chaos during a bad-tempered meeting last week when a motion to delegate powers to officers – which should have been a formality – was voted down.
It meant, in theory, that officers had no authority to make decisions on anything – no matter how minor – without seeking the approval of the council.
The mechanism is designed to make the day-to-day running of the council more straightforward, and to give council officers a mandate to do the jobs they are employed to do.
It is enshrined in the council’s lengthy constitution, which comprises a list of articles, schedules, standing orders and protocols which govern how the authority works.
One section deals with the ‘Officer Scheme of Delegation’, and it was this that fell during the meeting last week.
Towards the end of a lengthy agenda, the ninth item was the ‘scheme for delegation of council functions’, and it slipped past almost unnoticed. It is normally voted through as a formality.
Throughout the meeting, councillors had wrangled over the chairmanships and vice-chairmanships of committees. Since the Wellswood by-election earlier this month, the council has had 18 Conservative members and 18 opposition members. When votes are tied, the decision rests with the casting vote of the Conservative mayor.
This had already happened a number of times during the meeting.
But one Conservative councillor left the chamber before the end of the session, having been assured that the remaining business was just a formality. That meant one crucial hand was missing when it came to voting on the delegation motion proposed by the Conservative administration.
That led to the opposition’s block vote defeating the Tories 18-17 and effectively leaving council officers suddenly unable to do their work.
Efforts were made to call councillors together again to resolve the issue the following day, but the call for a fresh meeting was made with just two-and-a-half hours’ notice, and some members couldn’t be there.
The emergency session was then cancelled at the last minute.
Verbal advice from King’s Counsel – high-ranking barristers who are experts in their field – said the most vital business of the council could continue at the discretion of the chief executive, and a crucial planning committee went ahead on Monday to pass the time-sensitive £14 million Paignton seafront redevelopment.
But other things such as the work of the bay’s harbour committee will have to go on hold until the delegation issue is resolved.
Now yet another meeting of the full council has been scheduled for 4pm on Wednesday 3 July, with the ‘formality’ vote on delegated powers the only item on the agenda.