Disappointment over Labour and Green action

9.00.00am GMT Mon 4th Feb 2008

Hereward Cooke

There was disappointment at City Hall last week after the Labour and Green groups voted together to derail a Lib Dem motion on increasing political participation.

Both groups voted to send the motion to the over-worked scrutiny committee, thus delaying initiatives such as creating an e-petition section on the council website.

In a letter to the Norwich Evening News Group Leader Hereward Cooke had this to say:

"The Liberal Democrats proposed a motion at the last full Council about the way that communities and individuals in Norwich could be more involved in decisions that affect them. Its purpose was to stimulate a debate about a subject that has been around for a while and to which there are no easy answers.

Imagine our surprise when the leader of the Green Party, Cllr Adrian Ramsay, with the support of the Labour group effectively kicked it into the long grass with a referral to the Scrutiny Committee. That Committee already has enough on its plate as seen by the recent 500 pages worth of papers it had to study.

It was all the more surprising when the subject under discussion had inclusiveness and cooperation written all over it. We were seeking to attract ideas and views from a wide range of residents rather than have it side-lined into a Council Committee.

But one of the results of that procedural move was to lose sight of our suggestion that the City Council adapt its own web-site to allow e-petitions from residents. The idea, as indeed followed by other Councils and 10 Downing St itself, is to attract a city-wide response to new ideas and gain an instant view as to how the people of Norwich react to decisions that will affect them.

I hope that in spite of the summary dispatch of the motion, the idea of a Council e-petition site will still see the light of democratic day."