Yesterday was the “Annual Council” meeting of Bury MBC attended by all 51 councillors - including the 17 that were elected or re-elected on 1st May 2008.

Annual Council is in two parts - a civic “Mayor Making” and the Annual Meeting itself. At Mayor Making councillors elected Cllr Peter Ashworth to serve as the Mayor of Bury for 2008-2009. Peter is a Conservative councillor for Moorside Ward in north Bury and we wish him well in his year as the borough’s “first citizen”. Councillors appointed Cllr Farook Choudrey, who has been the mayor for the last year as Deputy Mayor. This is the normal convention in Bury.

In Bury we’ve become used in recent years to Annual Council meetings being significant occasions when the council was in “no-overall control”. As the Conservatives now have a majority of one seat on the Council, the drama was missing from this year’s event somewhat! The only thing of note is that the Council’s Executive Committee will now just consist of Councillors from one Party (the Conservatives), whereas previously under both Labour and the Conservative minority administration last year, the two Opposition Leaders have been included on the Executive Committee as “without portfolio”. We will still be there, but as co-opted and non-voting members. Obviously as the ruling group the Conservatives have the right to do this. Bury has been somewhat unusual including the opposition on the Executive, but somehow it seems a backward move to me.

Some proposals for amending the questions at meetings from both members of the public and from ordinary councils were to be discussed, but these have now been referred to the Democratic Arrangements Forum (which brings together all three Parties on the Council) for further discussion. I think we all recognise that some reform is needed, but I am concerned that we still keep the right balance between openness and public participation, and efficient working.

The Annual Council appointed Councillors to the various Committees, Scrutiny Panels and Working Groups. Liberal Democrats are entitled to a mix of one and two seats on each committee and we’ve appointed to all these places. We have been allocated one Scrutiny Committee to Chair, and this will be my ward colleague Wilf Davison. Apart from Leading the Lib Dem Group, my main role will be as the new “co-opted non-voting member” on the Executive Committee.

Any questions, please ask!
tim