News / Politics
Parties clash over seat proportionalities across council committees
The leading party at Bristol City Council has been accused of attempting to sway decision making in its favour.
Labour, Lib Dems and Greens broke into a squabble over seat proportions across committees at an extraordinary full council meeting on Thursday evening.
After the defection of Frome councillor Alsayed Al-Maghrabi from Labour to Green in October, the Greens now hold 35 seats at City Hall, half of the total of 70 seats.
At the meeting, the monitoring officer brought a ‘change in proportionality’ proposing to add an extra Green councillor on committees to better match the new party split of the council. This document was in consultation and agreed upon by all parties before the meeting.
But without an outright majority, other parties argued the result is unfair as it gives the Greens the casting vote on nearly all committees.
A committee system was enacted in Bristol in May 2024 after the mayoral system was thrown out in a referendum in 2022.
Alsayed Al Maghrabi’s (right) defection from Labour to Green has sparked drama at City Hall – photo: Rob Browne
The Lib Dems disapproved of the proposed amendments and tried to submit an amended version of the change in proportionality document before the meeting, but were refused on legal grounds by senior council officials.
But the Lib Dems went ahead anyway and presented this document as a point of order, which elicited upset and caused the meeting to be adjourned for an unprecedented 45 minutes.
Following the adjournment, the monitoring officer declared that the Lib Dems’ proposal would not be accepted.
The Greens’ proposed restructuring would mean that they hold the most seats (50 per cent) across all 16 committees, followed by Labour, Lib Dems and Conservatives.
In the alternate proportions suggested by the Lib Dems, the Greens would still have majority members across the 16 committees, giving the Greens outright majorities on some committees and not the others.
Nicholas Coombes is a Liberal Democrat Councillor for the Westbury-on-Trym and Henleaze ward on Bristol City Council – photo: Nicholas Coombes
Lib Dem councillor for Westbury-on-Trym, Nicholas Coombes, said his party did not think it was fair for one party to have “almost complete control” of policy and finances by “having the casting vote” on nearly all committees, when they did not have an outright majority.
Coombes added: “We submitted an alternative way to achieve overall proportionality among committee places that is more practical and fairer.
“The proposals of even-numbered committees will create a situation where, in the event of a 50:50 split, the chair of the committee will have a casting vote. Instead of this grey area, our amendment clearly laid out which committees would have a majority of one party on, and which they do not.
“This would avoid the disproportionate effect of giving the chair of the committee the casting vote. We are outraged that the council’s legal advice did not allow us to discuss our proposal for a fairer Council.”
He insisted that decisions like these are “political and not legal”, which warrants them being given a chance to make their case.
The Labour leader in Bristol City Council is Tom Renhard – photo: Ellie Pipe
Calling the meeting “chaos”, Tom Renhard, councillor for Horfield, has clarified that they weren’t aware of the alternative amendment proposals beforehand, but “respect” the Lib Dems for “standing up to their coalition partners”.
Renhard added: “The Lib Dems have clearly woken and smelled the coffee.
“It’s clearer than ever before: any council with the Green Party at the helm is doomed to be a hopeless mess. They don’t want to go down with the sinking ship and that’s fair enough.”
Renhard said that the Green Party having a casting vote on each committee would mean they could “force through” decisions on their proposed policies, like frequency of bin collections, Clean Air Zone charges, public asset sales and cuts to Bristol’s Cultural Investment Programme.
“Clearly, this is not in Bristol’s best interest – but neither is a circus like Thursday’s full council”, added Renhard.
A Green Party spokesperson said the Lib Dems’ “wrecked” amendment was either the result of a last-minute change in their position or an inability to reach a consensus among themselves.
“You’d think with only seven councillors they would be able to manage this,” said the spokesperson.
The Greens claimed that their proposed change in the proportionality document had been “negotiated and agreed on” by all parties before the full council, with the meeting also being “pushed back for a week to allow for more deliberation from Labour”.
“The paper proposed to have a split–policy committees up to ten, regulatory committees down to eight.
“This divide, as you’ll see in the papers, gets the closest as possible to political proportionality across the entire council and gives Greens the 50 per cent on committees they are entitled to, and the same for the other parties.”
“It also means that deciding votes would be with the chair, as is written in the law.
“Chairs are not proportional, as Labour declined to take the two policy chairs they are entitled to, but Greens entered the committee system committed to proportionality.
“The Lib Dems agreed with this before the meeting; however, they submitted an amendment to change this at the last minute, before and during the meeting, which was refused on legal grounds.”
Main photo: Betty Woolerton
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