Re: Democracy - Refusing the Vote
To be honest John, a growing number of people are less concerned with the councillors who did not vote but with the way the LOTS delegation managed to "steer" the meeting to include their report .. this now has been adopted by the council as their reasons for refusing the Tesco's application without them even reading it in full, I have to wonder if this is a breech of the Herefordshire Code of Conduct for Councillors specifically the following -
'Personal judgement – members may take account of the views of others, including their political groups, but should reach their own conclusions on the issues before them and act in accordance with those conclusions'
I would say adopting wholesale the LOTS report is far more than taking into account the views of others. I'd also wonder if it breeches another of the conduct codes -
'Honesty and integrity – members should not place themselves in situations where their honesty and integrity may be questioned, should not behave improperly, and should on all occasions avoid the appearance of such behaviour.'
Sometimes this council does begger belief.