Lib Dems force voting change in Hopwood Hall

Councillor Keith Swift

The row that has simmered and boiled over the representation of Hopwood Hall councillors on both Heywood and Middleton Townships continued in the Council Chamber with angry exchanges between Lib Dem and opposition councillors.

The result of the debate at the full council meeting was as predictable as ever with the vote going along party lines and hence the Liberal Democrats majority ensured they got the result they wanted, and end to Hopwood Hall councillors voting at both townships.

In May Rochdale Online reported on council leader Councillor Alan Taylor’s proposal that representation of the Hopwood Hall ward on the Heywood and Middleton Township Committees and membership of the Township Committees be amended.

http://www.rochdaleonline.co.uk/news-features/2/community-news/8720/hollin-from-middleton-to-heywood

In July the Lib Dems presented a report to each of the Township Committees setting out the following options:

1. The members for the Hopwood Hall ward be appointed to serve on Heywood Township only and the Hopwood Hall ward fall within the Heywood Township only.
2. The members for the Hopwood Hall ward be appointed to serve on Middleton Township only and the Hopwood Hall ward fall within the Middleton Township only.
3. The members for Hopwood Hall ward have their representation on the two committees split and they be appointed to serve on the basis of two members on Heywood Township Committee and the remaining member on Middleton Township Committee.

Heywood Township rejected all the options; Pennies Township decided it was not a matter for their consideration; Rochdale Township declared it was a matter for the councillors affected to decide on which committee they would sit; Middleton Township called the proposal “vindictive” and rejected all the options.

At last night’s full council meeting, Councillor Keith Swift, the Cabinet Member for Townships and Corporate Management, insisted the proposal was a fair proposal intended to ensure “one member, one vote” and end the anomaly of one councillor having two votes, one at each township committee. He said the councillors were still able to attend and speak at both Township meetings, they would simply have to choose which committee they would have voting rights on.

Conservative leader, Councillor Ashley Dearnley, whose party has no representation in the ward, concurred that Conservatives believe in one member one vote, but contested that was an issue in this case. He explained that since the restructuring of wards in 2004 the Hopwood Hall councillors had represented both their Heywood and their Middleton constituents on both committees, and voted on behalf of their constituents on both committees, without any objection from any party or from any member of the public. He reiterated the charge that the proposed change was being pursued as an act of vindictiveness by “certain members of the Liberal Democrats”. He noted there are other wards within the borough similarly split between Townships and asked “is this a slippery slope we want to go down”?

Councillor Susan Emmott (Labour) called the proposal an “abuse of power” and her Labour colleague Councillor Carol Wardle called the proposal a “peevish motion” and expressed surprise that Councillor Swift had presented it. She went further with the invective when she said the person who thought up the motion was a “sad muppet”!

She did make a very pertinent point when she asked what would happen if a Conservative councillor was elected to the ward, currently the ward is represented by three Labour councillors; what, Councillor Wardle demanded, would happen, would the council be split in thirds, with one third of the councillor representing Middleton and two thirds representing Heywood?

Chairman of Middleton Township, Councillor Peter Williams, called the proposal a “disgrace” and said it was “interesting” that Councillor William Hobhouse was “involved”. Councillor Williams warned Councillor Hobhouse that his wife, Councillor Wera Hobhouse, who is the Lib Dem parliamentary candidate for Heywood and Middleton, would suffer at the hands of the electorate in the future parliamentary elections when, he said, he expected she would poll the lowest vote ever of any parliamentary candidate in the ward if the Lib Dems forced the motion through.

The Lib Dems predictably did just that and used their majority in a named vote to carry the motion 32 votes to 27.