Cannock Chase Tories walk out of long-running council meeting

Councillor Darrell Mawle put forward the motion raising concerns about the state of the district’s roads at Wednesday’s meeting, following a similar item presented by Green Party colleagues at neighbouring Stafford Borough Council last month.

But almost three hours into the full council meeting at Cannock, which started at 6pm, he decided to withdraw his motion and present to the next session instead, which is not due to take place until December 4. His decision, made just before 9pm on Wednesday, followed a mass walk-out by Conservative councillors after all members were presented with a four-page amendment to his motion by Labour cabinet member David Williams.

Concerns had been raised by Conservative group leader Olivia Lyons that more time was needed to fully consider the amendment being put forward at the 11th hour. All but one Tory councillor left the chamber while the meeting was still in progress.

An earlier motion, put forward by Councillor Lyons in response to controversial national plans to means test winter fuel payments for pensioners, had also prompted a lengthy amendment being presented by Labour group members at the meeting. On that occasion, the session was briefly adjourned to allow members time to read the three-page document they had just received.

Council leader Tony Johnson said lengthy motions had been presented at full meetings “time and time again” by opposition group members, however. And Green Party group leader Councillor Andrea Muckley called on members to treat one another with respect.

The practice of presenting amendments to motions without prior notice was questioned by councillors on Wednesday. But they were told that it was allowed as part of the council’s constitution.

The motion put forward by Councillor Mawle said: “The state of our district highways is now at breaking point. Road users risk damage to their vehicles and injury to themselves travelling on our roads and this is unacceptable.

“It is now time for all of us to hold the county council and their contractors to account and demand that our roads need to take a higher priority and the work done to them must be of a higher quality. By declaring a roads emergency, we need to place pressure on the county council and Government to act on our residents’ concerns.”