Incorrect Legal Advice Meant 'Fairer Charging' Wrongly Approved

12.00.00am UTC (GMT +0000) Wed 4th Dec 2002

Councillor Jonathan Brown, (North Ward), Lib Dem Social Care Spokesperson has described the decision of the Social Care Scrutiny Board to block an opposition member of the Board from voting at this Monday's key meeting as a 'miscarriage of justice'. The Councillor concerned arrived 10 minutes late and was given legal advice that she should not vote, because she had not heard the initial introduction on the plans by the Council to increase charges to pensioners for home care by up to 1,000%.

Cllr Brown said "I have been informed by the Council's Chief Legal Officer that the advice given that a Councillor should not be able to vote because they had been delayed getting to the meeting was incorrect. This is not a minor point, because the voting by Labour members to push through the increases in charges was on a knife edge, 5 Labour Councillors voted compared to 4 opposition members. As the Social Care Scrutiny Board is chaired by an opposition member a tied vote might well have led to a different outcome on Monday. All 16 decisions were formally voted on, with 10 Councillors present, but with one prevented from voting."

"The Council needs to address this matter urgently, there are two key questions :-

· should the decisions taken at the Scrutiny Board stand, or should the meeting be annulled and held again?

· how was it possible that legal officers gave incorrect advice on such a crucial issue?

"These questions need answering and need answering fast. The Council must operate within the correct legal framework and if it fails to do so it can leave itself open to all kinds of challenge about the legitimacy of its decisions."