Confusion over extraordinary council meeting disappoints Bassetlaw Conservatives

Conservative councillors say the meeting which will now only last 30 minutes will not be sufficient time for councillors to debate the motion of no confidence in council leader Simon Greaves.

The group says they submitted a request for the meeting last year, then on January 27 a request from the Labour party was allegedly made to withdraw and resubmit the no confidence motion to allow the council to hold a separate extraordinary meeting (EOM) on an urgent matter relating to a Labour councillor’s attendance.

They said an agreement was then made between Gerald Bowers, Jack Bowker and David Armiger that the EOM was withdrawn and once it was resubmitted the meeting would take place on March 7.

The group are upset that last week it was announced that the January agreement was not kept and instead the motion is to be discussed before a full council meeting on March 3.

They say the EOM is now only scheduled for 30 minutes and does not "provide enough time to allow councillors to debate the many failures under the current leader and why change is necessary for the future of our district."

A spokesperson for the Bassetlaw Conservatives said: “We therefore formally request that Cllr Jack Bowker reconsiders the date of the EOM and allocates enough time so all Councillors can have the time needed to make their views known and voices heard.”

In response, David Armiger, interim chief executive at Bassetlaw District Council said that ‘no request’ had been made by the Labour Party for the Conservatives to withdraw and resubmit the EOM.

He said: “A request for an Extraordinary Council Meeting was made to the Chairman of the Council by the Conservative Group.

"This was then withdrawn as the Conservative Group objected to the proposed date.

"As far as I understand there was no request made for the Extraordinary Council Meeting to be withdrawn and resubmitted.

"There was also no agreement for the resubmitted meeting to take place on March 7, the Chairman simply said that he would “see what he could do”.

"The Conservative Group originally requested the resubmitted meeting be held on March 9, but this would have clashed with Planning Committee.

“As there was already an existing Full Council Meeting on March 3, the Chairman indicated that the meeting should be scheduled on this date to make efficient use of resources.

"The meeting is due to start at 6pm and the Chairman of the Council will delay the start of the following meeting if necessary.”