Walsall Council ‘playing with fire’ changing constitution at eleventh hour

The ruling Conservatives put forward several amendments to the fundamental rulebook at a meeting of full council on April 13.

One of the proposed changes was the removal of a preamble for members of the public and councillors who wish to ask questions at full council.

It is understood the reason for doing so was to allow for more questions to be heard during the 30-minute time slot.

But it was heard that members could not remember a single occasion where time had ran out.

Another proposed change was restricting Notice of Motions to only topics that Walsall Council has control over.

In the past motions have been brought before members regarding the government’s decision to cut the Winter Fuel Tax, NHS funding for Acorn’s Children’s Hospice in Walsall, and Israel’s war on Gaza.

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On all of those occasions, the heated debates have resulted in Walsall Council writing to the government calling for specific agreed actions.

But under the proposed changes, none of those motions would have been allowed since the council has no direct control over them.

Councillor Aftab Nawaz, leader of the Walsall Independent Group, said the changes were an ‘attack on democracy’ and put forward amendments.

While he approved of some of the changes, he called on members to support reinstating the preamble and Notice of Motions for non-council related topics.

He said: “I believe that some of the tidying up is necessary and I’m happy to accept that.

“But the democracy in this chamber works. So why are we changing something that already works?

“I think this is an attack on the democracy of this borough and it limits the power of elected members to represent their constituents.

“One of the changes that they put forward which we are going against, is the preamble. The difficulty in that is that somebody has to set out a narrative before they ask a question. Setting a narrative is important.

“Madam mayor, you have the skill to ensure that the person who asks the question doesn’t get carried away and doesn’t ask a preamble that’s too long. That power is already there.

“We’ve never remembered running out of time for members or members of the public to ask questions. It’s important for the democracy of this chamber that this preamble is allowed to happen.

“The Notice of Motions as well is quite a concern. If this chamber disagrees with what the government is doing, we want to share an opinion on it in this chamber.

“If we follow the suggested changes, it means we can only talk about things that the council has power over.

“We must be able to express the views of our constituents. We are here to represent them.

“If we accept the changes without my amendments, that will inhibit the democracy of this chamber.

“Constitutions are vital, it’s the bedrock of this chamber and the bedrock of democracy. We are playing with fire if we try to change these rules.”

Leader of the council, Councillor Mike Bird, said he would accept the amendments put forward by Councillor Aftab Nawaz.

Many members noted that it was a strange time to be changing the constitution, with Councillor Pete Smith describing the council as in its ‘dying days’ before the all-out elections next month.

But council leader, Councillor Mike Bird, said the proposed changes were a result of ‘many months of work’ to eliminate loopholes in the constitution. He added that any new administration could change the constitution to meet their agenda should they wish.