New Councillor causes uproar in Council Chamber

Liberal Democrat Councillor for Heywood North, Peter Rush, caused uproar in the Council Chamber at last night's (Wednesday 26 July) full council meeting when he stuck two fingers up at the Labour and Conservative benches.

Councillor Rush had asked his Lib Dem colleague and the Cabinet Member for Townships amp; Corporate Management, Councillor Keith Swift, what he was doing to ensure that the public take full advantage of the Open Forums at Township Meetings. The opposition benches were quick to goad Cllr Rush by pointing out that if he had attended the last one himself he would know, to which he responded with the two-fingered salute usually reserved for the more guttural corners of the town rather than the Council Chamber.

Outraged Labour and Conservative Councillors, led by Councillors’ Brett and Beswick, complained vehemently to the Mayor, Cllr Jean Hornby, who demanded an apology from Councillor Rush. Councillor Rush rose to his feet and issued a "sincere" apology in less than convincing manner!

Also courting controversy was another new Lib Dem Councillor, the Councillor for Balderstone amp; Kirkholt, Dale Mulgrew. Councillor Mulgrew moved a notice of motion regarding the detrimental impact on services of bus deregulation and his tediously long-winded speech to introduce the motion was heckled when he promised not to regale the Chamber with a flurry of statistics to back his case and then proceeded to do just that!

Councillor Mulgrew invited further derision with a sycophantic commendation of his party leader's - Leader of the Council Alan Taylor - written report to the council.

Faring better on his full council speaking debut was Lib Dem Councillor Mark Birkett who asked his colleague, William Hobhouse, the Portfolio Holder for Finance, to comment on the possibility of the council approving greater Township Fund allowances being given to each Councillor in order to devolve direct decision making powers and increase the scope of individual Councillors to support local community initiatives at grass roots level.

In his reply Councillor Hobhouse revealed that £250,000 of additional money had been allocated to Townships, approximately £8000 per Councillor, and Councillors could "bid" to use this money to support community projects in their wards.