We’re not going to lie. It’s a fairly short iFAQ this week. We sent the below question to the leaders of both the Conservative and Labour council groups, being the most likely to hold power in Medway following the upcoming elections.
For many of us engaged in local politics who also have full time jobs, attending Medway Council Cabinet meetings is impossible much of the time. Would you consider moving Cabinet to a more accessible time for the public to attend, in line with other local authorities?
As usual, we gave them both a week to respond, and told them we’d publish their responses entirely unedited. Every response we received is below:
Yes – and more than that we would open up the cabinet to allow both the public and other councillors to speak at cabinet (which most other authorities allow).
Cabinet under a Labour administration would be webcast too.
The days of a “democracy dodging” Tory cabinet would be well and truly over.
Cllr Vince Maple, Labour Leader of the Opposition
We received no response to this question from Cllr Alan Jarrett, Conservative Leader of Medway Council.