Last nights Full Council meeting at Bury Town Hall was probably the longest meeting for many months, starting at 7pm and finishing about 10.20 – and then with unfinished business.

The highlight was two motions, the first by the Labour group calling for the re-instatement of the recently sacked board of Six Town Housing, Bury’s arms length Housing management organisation.

It has been well publiscised recently that Bury Council Chiefs fired the board of Six Town Housing because of actions of the board and a lack of consultation with the Council, arguing a number of reasons in justification.

Whilst I have sympathy with the motion and the comments made, I felt extremely uncomfortable with the fact that the debate was encroaching on the minutae of the issue – including individuals involved - councillors and staff of both organisations. (I should point out that it is a long held convention that officers are not referred to directly in debate.)

As a Lib Dem group we were unhappy with the tone of the motion and so we moved the following amendment:

AMENDMENT 

This Council is extremely concerned at the events, which have led to the Board of Six Town Housing being dismissed.
We, therefore recommend  that  the appointment of a new Board of Six Town Housing comprising tenants, councillors and independent members be undertaken as soon as practicable, at least by the AGM of Six Town Housing in November 2010.

We further recommend that an All-Party Group be established to review the events that led up to the dismissal of the Board, and to consider any changes that need to be made to ensure strong governance for Six Town Housing.

Proposer: Cllr Ann Garner            Seconder: Cllr Richard Baum 

This amendment received the support of the Conservative Group and so was passed by Council, Labour abstained on the amended motion which was supported by Lib Dems and the Conservative Group.