LABOUR
Chris Williamson (Group Leader)

Since Labour's Lisa Higginbottom won the Mackworth by-election on July 29, the city has been in a state of limbo. Labour now has 25 councillors, the Lib Dems 14, Tories 11 and the United Kingdom Independence Party one. UKIP's councillor, Frank Leeming, has proposed a novel power-sharing idea to break the deadlock. His plans for a nine-member cabinet would give Labour four seats, the Lib Dems two, Tories two with Councillor Leeming taking the ninth seat and with it the balance of power. Some commentators have suggested this would be an example of "real democracy", but the truth is it would actually undermine democracy in Derby.

For "real democracy" to flourish, it is essential that those with executive power are held to account and have their decisions scrutinised by a strong opposition. Accountability and probing scrutiny would be the first casualties of such a coalition. With every councillor having a vested interest in the cabinet, open criticism of cabinet decisions would inevitably evaporate. The distribution of cabinet portfolios to councillors from all the political parties would also lead to confusion among council staff and muddled decision-making by the cabinet. Inertia would reign supreme, resulting in even more people losing faith in the democratic process.

Councillor Leeming's plan would also give UKIP power entirely out of proportion with its support in the city. After all, UKIP only has one councillor out of 51, so a place in the controlling cabinet seems pretty unreasonable. Moreover, Councillor Leeming has only been a councillor for less than three months, so he's hardly had time to properly familiarise himself with the complexities of local government finance. For him to take on a cabinet portfolio with responsibility for a multi- million pound departmental budget would be a tall order.

Although all the city's politicians have Derby's best interests at heart, our different values and priorities means that there are fundamental policy differences between us. It is for these reasons that Labour cannot support Councillor Leeming's suggestion, even though it would give me the leadership of the council again, which leaves him with just two options. He can either keep the Lib Dem/Tory Alliance in power or give Labour a chance. Whatever he decides, you can rest assured that Labour will continue serving the city; offering firm leadership in the event of us being in control and strong opposition if we're not.

A complaint made against a Derby City councillor will not be investigated by the Standards Board for England. Lib Dem councillor Lucy Care made the complaint against Labour leader Chris Williamson after he wrote to national Lib Dem leader, Sir Menzies Campbell, to protest about Derby Lib Dems' tactics in the May local elections. She claimed the letter was a misuse of resources because he used council-headed notepaper.

A spokeswoman for the standards board said, "The decision was taken not to refer the alleged matter for investigation as it was considered to be insufficiently serious." Following the decision Councillor Care said, "The Standards Board did not completely let Councillor Williamson off the hook; the letter I received says there was a potential breech, but it was not serious enough to investigate." (Source: Derby Evening Telegraph, Jun/06)