"Reform always talk about free speech but clearly at Lancashire County Council there is no free speech."
Reform-run Lancashire County Council has been accused of ‘stifling free speech’ after it blocked the opposition leader from asking questions about potential care home and day centre closures.
According to the BBC, the Health and Adult Services Scrutiny Committee voted to stop Independent Opposition Leader Azhar Ali OBE from asking questions on the future of five care homes and five day centres.
The Reform-run council launched an eight-week consultation on its plans to close five council-owned older people’s residential care homes and five day centres in October.
The consultation will close next week. Ali has written to the County Hall chief executive Mark Wynn calling for the consultation to be extended by a further eight weeks.
The authority says it has identified the ten facilities for closure to save £4 million a year.
On the decision to not let him speak at the meeting, Ali said: “Reform always talk about free speech but clearly at Lancashire County Council there is no free speech.”
Lancashire County Council rules state that while “a councillor may attend as an observer at a meeting of any committee of which they are not a member, they may not speak without the consent of the committee, or in any case vote.”
Ali told the BBC that his understanding was that councillors would be allowed to speak if they ask.
He said: I must admit, I was shocked, and I’m really angry that democracy is being suppressed.”
Ali said he had wanted to raise questions about the minutes of the last meeting, which he said were inaccurate. He also said “there’s lots of things that were discussed which haven’t been provided to residents or their families and it’s important that the whole process is transparent.”
Speaking about why he voted against allowing Ali to speak, Reform UK’s Shaun Crimmins said: “The care home issue is very emotive and we just don’t want to make it more emotive, we’re just going over the same old same old, we’ve got to wait to find out what all these reports are going to say before we comment further, surely.”
Questions around a conflict of interest were raised previously, as Reform councillor Graham Dalton, cabinet member for Adult Social Care, owns a private care company with his wife, called 1st for Care.
Olivia Barber is a reporter at Left Foot Forward
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