The Conservatives at Essex County Council today rejected a proposal by the Lib Dems to open up the County Council and let the public speak directly to County Councillors at Council meetings, and to ask questions about the work of the ECC.
This decision was made during a debate on public participation. Responding to the Conservative comments, Councillor Tom Smith-Hughes, Leader of the Liberal Democrat Group and Leader of the Opposition, said:
?The comments made today by nearly all of the many Conservatives who spoke in the debate demonstrate a level of arrogance and complacency that is almost impossible to comprehend. There are many District and Borough Councils across Essex and all the other County Councils in the East of England that have had such a permanent and designated spot for members of the public for several years. We are only asking for something that the public is getting already from most other councils anyway, yet the Conservatives at County Hall chose instead to continue to gag the public of Essex.
This was the acid test for the Conservatives to show, in practical terms, that they are interested in hearing and responding to what the public has to say; sadly they failed.?