Berkhamsted Town Council Conservatives in Confusion as Tory Council Leader Humiliated and a Conservative Member Resigns

Amidst extraordinary scenes in the Berkhamsted Town Council Chamber on Monday evening, 14th December, 2015, criticism of the Conservative Group's poor record on governance and administration was made the subject of a vote of "No Confidence". This was proposed by the Conservative Member, Cllr John Higgins, and seconded by Liberal Democrat Cllr Mrs Freda Earl.

Cllr Higgins had given due warning of his intention to table a No Confidence motion and had in fact circulated a lengthy paper to all councillors beforehand. In this he listed a number of complaints against the behavour of the ruling Conservative Group and its failure to adequately involve councillors in consultations and decision-making.

In his paper he claimed that the council "ignores its own governance structures" and standing orders said that "senior councillors do not embrace the principles of open government" and "stifle debate".

He also listed topics - the provision of cycle racks, the organisation of the council's business and the design, location and operation of the proposed multi-storey car park - on which, he said, full consultation, review and discussion had been promised beforehand by his fellow Conservative councillors. In the event, these matters proceeded without either him or several other councillors being involved at all.

Elsewhere he referred to the Conservative Group running a "highly fragmented" organisation and providing "little regular scrutiny of the management accounts by the full council"

The Gazette reported that Cllr Higgins, who has lived in the town for more than 30 years, said before the meeting: "I have talked to nearly all my fellow councillors. They were very sympathetic and saw a lot of merit in what I was saying, but I did not extract any promises of voting on Monday."

The vote of No Confidence was in the end lost by 4 votes in favour and 10 votes against - a result which, it would appear, reflected more on the Conservative Party bloc vote than on the personal convictions of the councillors concerned.

This failure to receive any voting support from his fellow group members then led to Cllr Higgins formally resigning as a Berkhamsted Town Councillor. There is now a vacancy and this has been advertised.

He was partially vindicated however, by the humiliation of Cllr David Collins, who was first elected to Berkhamsted Town Counci in 2007 and has been the Council Leader for most of that time.

Councillor Higgins tabled a second motion asking that "a new Working Group should review the current organisational structure and committee terms of reference, update standing orders and make recommendations to an emergency Full Council Meeting at the end of February"

Councillor Collins was unable to answer the crticism embodied in the motion and had to accept it. He was reduced to meekly proposing an amendment to give the council another 12 weeks until the Annual Council Meeting on 23rd May 2016 for this work to be carried out. Unchanged, apart from the extension of the time period, the motion was passed unanimously.

Finally, a third significant motion was proposed by Cllr Higgins and debated. Following an amendment by Cllrs Stevens and Earl it was passed by 8 votes for and 7 votes against to the effect that "the Council and all Committees should be chaired by 'town-only councillors' where feasible". Given the fact that 6 of the 15 councillors are also on Dacorum Borough Council - including David and Elaine Collins - this could have a significant effect on the relations between the Town and Borough. If so, this would definitely be for the better.