Last night's Full Meeting of Brent Council must have left the new Chief Executive Carolyn Downs wondering about the tough task ahead in getting the Council out of its slough of despond, while Christine Gilbert could be forgiven for celebrating her forthcoming liberation by performing cartwheels in the Civic Centre atrium.
The showdown between the two groups of Tory Councillors dominated the business part of the meeting but when the gunfire died down no one could agree on the final outcome.
The 56 Labour councillors may have decided to recognise the Kenton Tories as the principal opposition with the status and funding that goes with that or the decision may have been handed over to a constitutional working party to negotiate on before the next meeting of the General Purposes Committee.
CLARIFICATION (sic) These are the responses I got this morning:
Meanwhile the tweets can tell the story:
The showdown between the two groups of Tory Councillors dominated the business part of the meeting but when the gunfire died down no one could agree on the final outcome.
The 56 Labour councillors may have decided to recognise the Kenton Tories as the principal opposition with the status and funding that goes with that or the decision may have been handed over to a constitutional working party to negotiate on before the next meeting of the General Purposes Committee.
CLARIFICATION (sic) These are the responses I got this morning:
Brent Council Press Office:
The group led by Cllr Kansagra was voted in as the principal opposition last night.
Cllr Michael Pavey (Deputy Leader - Labour)
As it stands Kenton are the principal Opposition. There is a meeting of the constitution committee next week which will review the situation, but only a vote by Full Council or a change in the number of members in either Tory Group can change this.
The next challenge is to try and allocate Committees between the two.
Cllr Joel Davidson (Briondesbury Park Conservatives)
What happened is that Mo Butt has chosen the Kenton Group to be Principal Opposition, that's what he got his Group to vote for last night. That means that Kansagra and Colwill will once again draw the allowances - 12k and 8k - that come with being Leader and Deputy Leader.The constitutional working party, if there is one, is supposed to negotiate between the 2 Opposition Groups - Brent Tories and Kenton/Butt Group - as to who sits on the 6 main committees - GP, planning, equalities etc.If we can't agree, as seems very likely, then Council will again vote to give all the main committee posts to the Kenton/Butt Group. It's another sad day for democracy in Brent when a Dear Leader can hand-pick a pliant Opposition which has no political affiliation and is committed to giving him as easy a ride as possible. As I asked Butt last night - is 56 Labour Cllrs not enough that you need to co-opt 3 more AND make them the 'Opposition'??
Meanwhile the tweets can tell the story: