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| Front page of this week's Kilburn Times |
Former councllor James Powney takes up the issue of the Labour Group vote in favour of a Council Tax rise, and the leadership's decision to ignore the vote in his blog LINK
Cllr John Duffy has made a formal complaint to the Coinstiutional officer of the Labour Party over the issue.
This is what James Powney said:
Reports of the discussion of Council Tax increases cause me some embarrassment as a member of the Labour Party. It seems that the Labour Group debated and voted on the issue, deciding in favour of a rise just short of what would trigger a referendum. This seems eminently sensible to me for reasons I have explained.
It now appears that the Executive plan to simply ignore the majority of the Group, and freeze the Council Tax. I have never heard of such a thing in Brent or in any other authority, or indeed any other party. Such blatant disregard makes everyone involved look ridiculous.
It is normal for Budgets to be subject to Group whipping, but since the majority voted in favour of an increase, I would have thought the Labour whip is in favour of the increase rather than against it.