Did systems glitch prevent Council Leader from casting vote?

More chaos surrounding last week’s budget vote has come to light with a revelation that Council Leader, Rosemarie Harris, may have inadvertently failed to vote.

It is claimed that The Leader (pictured) failed to vote for the Medium Term Financial Plan which was the first of seven recommendations on the budget.

Councillors have told the Local Democracy Service that if this vote had passed – “the whole budget crisis could have been avoided”.

This specific vote ended tied at 31-31 votes each with two abstentions so was decided by the Chairman, Cllr David Meredith’s casting vote.

Cllr Harris said: “I was shocked to see that as I had thought that I voted quite early. I would not have chosen not to vote on the budget.”

On the day there were glitches with the voting system which saw Cllr Dai Davies shout out the way he voted after the computerised vote had been completed.

Cllr Harris added: “There were a number of glitches on the day that do make you wonder, and Cllr Tim Van-Rees and others were complaining about it. It’s a pity that it had to be me!”

After three defeats on the Medium Term Financial Strategy, Revenue Budget and a rise to Fees and Charges, voting for the remaining four parts was stopped.

The voting papers show that eight Conservative Councillors did not support their own budgets.

Four, Cllrs Mark Barnes, Iain McIntosh, Claire Mills and Jonathan Wilkinson, had stated publicly before the vote that they were against the budget.

They were joined by Cllrs Amanda Jenner and Gareth Pugh who voted against all three recommendations. While Cllrs Diane Jones-Poston and Sarah Lewis abstained on all three.

Four Independent Group councillors Cllrs Liam Fitzpatrick (now left the group) Karen Laurie-Parry Jeremy Pugh and Ange Williams voted against all three proposals.

Cllr Dai Davies voted against two proposals while Cllr Phil Pritchard did not vote on one after being in favour on other recommendations.

Another cabinet member – Cllr Martin Weale – did not vote on any of the recommendations, although he was noted as present at the meeting.

Cllr Weale had been there for part of the meeting, but had been called out of the chamber to deal with a family emergency when the votes were taking place.