Deadlock of ‘rudderless’ council may soon be broken

May 26 2008 by Ben Schofield, Liverpool Daily Post

THE deadlock in Sefton Council that has left the borough “rudderless” could be broken this week .

Members have been called to an emerg-ency meeting to fill key positions vacant since local elections.

They are being asked to appoint a council leader, two cabinet members and two deputy leaders.

Negotiations are expected to take place ahead of the meeting to find a way to break the impasse. Labour leader Cllr Peter Dowd said the three party leaders had not met to discuss the issue since the mara-thon four-hour coun-cil meeting on May 8.

The two new deputy leader posts, most likely to be filled by leaders of the Labour and Con-servative groups, could help towards a resolution.

Cllr Dowd said the deputies should be called on to attend important meetings – such as those con-cerning the Liverpool City region – when the leader cannot go.

He said he still thought the leader of the largest party, Liberal Democrat Cllr Tony Robertson, should be the out-right leader and said the Labour party would not be nomina-ting anyone.

But the Lib-Dems are sticking to a long-held demand that power in the council is allocated propor-tionally.

The previously-harmonious borough was thrown into tur-moil when the Lib-Dems withdrew from the administration two weeks ago. They were due to make up a third of the all-powerful cabinet.

Their move was in protest at changes pushed through by the Labour and Con-servative parties that changed the cabinet from having a 4:3:3 share of seats, the Lib-Dems holding the most, to a 3:3:3 split.

The apparent Labour-Tory coalition also stripped the Lib-Dems of their status as chairs of key scrutiny committees.

Cllr Robertson said: “Our position is that there needs to be a reasonable attempt to achieve proportion-ality on the council. I don’t see any reason to move from that.

Last night, Cllr Dowd said he was sure a conclusion would be reached, but added: “The balance is not quite there.

“We have to see if we can make any headway.”

benschofield