WEST Somerset District Council faces being reported to the Standards Board of England for apparently riding roughshod over its own legally binding rules and regulations. Opposition councillors also claim Vulcan Road car park could now be developed for workspace units as well as a supermarket after councillors apparently forgot to correct what was described as a typing error in a new version of the council's three-year plan. But in a heated meeting of the full council on Wednesday night, members of the ruling Tory majority ignored opposition councillors' claims and forced through an edited version of the plan. A reference to workspace units was deleted even though no formal amendments to the document were put forward or voted on. And although the authority's expert on procedural matters, monitoring officer Bruce Lang, said that no changes had formally been proposed, chief executive Tim Howes, amid protests from opposition councillors and members of the public, told the meeting that a new recommendation deleting the workspace reference had been put before the council by leader Cllr Steven Pugsley, seconded and voted on and passed. But councillors had voted on a recommendation put forward by Cllr Ann Foxhuntley and seconded by Cllr Roger Webber at the very start of the debate. It called for the council to adopt an unchanged plan, which set out the authority's aims and aspirations for the next three years. Before the controversial vote was taken, opposition councillors pointed out - and welcomed - an apparent mistake in the plan which stated that in 2008-09 the authority would develop "45,000 square feet of retail and workspace on Vulcan Road". Cllr Jess Griffith said she was "astonished" to see the inclusion of workspace on the car park site, having been outvoted by the ruling Tory majority when she proposed work units were included in the development of Vulcan Road back in August. Instead, the authority decided Vulcan Road should be used solely for retail purposes and on Wednesday, Mr Howes dismissed the inclusion of "workspace on Vulcan Road" as a "typographical error". But while Cllr Pugsley suggested the reference to workspace should be deleted from the document, no formal amendment was made to Cllr Foxhuntley's recommendation. And neither did Cllr Foxhuntley withdraw her proposal to pave the way for a new motion from Cllr Pugsley to allow the "typing error" to be deleted. According to the council's own Standing Orders, which define how the authority must operate legally, Cllr Foxhuntley's original proposal, which was voted on and approved, should now stand for at least six months - with the inclusion of workspace on Vulcan Road. But on the advice of Mr Howes, council chairman Cllr Barbara Child declared she had the final say on what would and would not be allowed. She said she understood references to workspace on Vulcan Road had been deleted and that was the decision which would stand. She then added: "Although there was no seconder to the amendment [which was not made] it stands as it is. It [workspace] should not have been there in the first place." As opposition councillors and members of the public got to their feet and left the meeting in protest, Cllr Simon Stokes said he would report both the council and Cllr Child to the Standards Board of England. He said: "This is against our own Standing Orders. We are not allowed to do this. I will be reporting you to the Standards Board. "If we have rules we have to stick to them but it seems to be one rule for one and another for everybody else." Among those to leave the meeting were Cllr Griffith and Cllr Mike Gammon, who branded the decision "an absolute farce". He said the authority, which was currently undergoing a re-branding process - discussed in secret before the meeting - should describe itself as "Clowns" on its new logo. But Tory councillors and senior officers remained adamant the workspace reference would be removed from the three-year plan despite the fact Standing Orders did not appear to have been followed. Cllr Foxhuntley told the meeting it was the "consensus of the meeting" to withdraw the workspace reference and she believed that was what the authority was voting on. Mr Howes urged councillors to take a "pragmatic view" and said: "The leader put forward a recommendation and it was seconded before the vote was taken. The chairman's decision rests." Cllr Pugsley, meanwhile, called for councillors to "behave like responsible adults" and said the three- year plan was meant to be a flexible, evolving document and there was an "understanding" that he was suggesting workspace at Vulcan Road should be removed. He apologised for not being "sufficiently explicit" and suggested councillors who voted in favour of "it" should stand up and state "their understanding" of what they had just voted for. Cllr Pugsley was backed by Cllr Colin Hill who claimed it was all just a matter of "clarification" and the reference to workspace related to Somerset County Council's highways depot alongside the car park and was therefore "irrelevant" to the discussion. But Mr Lang told the meeting: "I know what the intention was but there was no amendment moved or seconded." Clearly furious, Cllr Stokes told the meeting: "No formal amendment was made and we voted to adopt this document. "That means it will be for workspace as well. The vote has been taken." Cllr Child tried to clarify the situation by saying councillors had only voted for a draft version of the three-year plan, only to be told the document was in fact the final version and would not now be discussed again. Joining the mass protest exodus, unofficial council watchdog and Williton villager Patricia Holden stormed: "This is not democracy, this is a whitewash!" l In a statement issued yesterday (Thursday) Mr Howes insisted that the procedure followed was correct, as was the ruling made by Cllr Child. "Had there been any misunderstanding about what was being voted on, this should have been raised by councillors before the vote, not after it," he said. "The reference to the workspace was an error, which I corrected verbally." Mr Howes said that, because the council had never previously agreed to have workspace units at Vulcan Road and the provision of them on that site had never been a part of the three-year plan, there was no need for an amendment to the proposal made by Cllr Foxhuntley. Mr Howes said that when Mr Lang informed councillors that no amendment deleting the reference to workspace units had been put forward, the intended meaning of his comment was that no amendment was needed.
