Oldham Liberal Democrat Leader councillor Howard Sykes MBE has criticised council leaders for “making all the wrong calls on transparency and trust” but welcomed Civic Centre bosses back tracking over a decision to remove recordings of council meetings.
Last month the authority stated that it had changed it procedures so that meetings would only be broadcast live and would no longer be available to replay online. Councillor Sykes wrote the Chief Executive calling on the decision to be reversed in the interest of public “accountability and trust.” The Liberal Democrat Leader has previously criticised Oldham Council for attempting to cut down on debating time during meetings.
Councillor Sykes said, “We’ve had two council Leaders in as many years. The public has made it clear that the administration needs to regain trust. Yet in the time since the last local elections the Council has slashed the amount of meeting time available for opposition councillors to debate issues and has tried to restrict access to council meetings by withholding recordings.”
“I am very pleased that the leadership has climbed down over the broadcasts, but I’m not satisfied with the two different explanations that have been offered. I see no reason why the recordings needed to be taken down or why the council felt the need to restrict future broadcasts to begin with. It feels like Labour are making it up as they go along and making all the wrong calls on transparency and trust.”
Councillor Sykes slams Labour bosses for restricting opposition