Bristol City Council’s first meeting in the new era of the committee system gets off to a rocky start

For 79 glorious seconds of the first major meeting of Bristol City Council’s brave new post-Mayor era, peace and harmony reigned. The birds chirped outside the Town Hall, the dappled sun broke through the windows and – you won’t believe this – some of the buses even made it to College Green on time.

Then all hell broke loose and we got a taste of what might be coming in the new committee system. Seventy-nine seconds was all it took between sitting Lord Mayor Cllr Paul Goggin (Labour, Hartcliffe & Withywood) to close his dais presentations with a plea to councilors to “please treat each other others with kindness, tolerance and respect” and to go completely out the window, taking the sun with it.

The inauguration of the historic role of Bristol’s Lord Mayor, the city’s ceremonial ‘First Citizen’, is – or should be – a celebration, with friends and family of the future holder proudly watching in their best clothes from the public gallery . of the boardroom. It is unusual for politics to get in the way of the occasion at the annual full council meeting.

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This year, a barbed comment from Lib Dem group leader Cllr Jos Clark popped that bubble. She took a thin dig at Labor for wrongly allowing Deborah Vittori, one of its successful local election candidates, to go to the polls in the Horfield ward on May 2.

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Ms Vittori was disqualified from her post before her first meeting because she is a teacher working at a council-run primary school, a devastating blow that left her “shocked and absolutely gutted” and opened up the almost certain prospect of an election partial. already. Her job breaks electoral rules which say no city council employee can also be a councillor, something which the Labor Party incredibly overlooked last October when it named her as its nominee for one of the two councilor seats. ward, alongside group leader Cllr Tom Renhard.

So his members took no kindly to it when Cllr Clark opened his speech to formally nominate fellow Brislington West Lib Dem Cllr Andrew Varney as Lord Mayor for the next 12 months, asking if he was sure he had not been disqualified from this role. Cllr Goggin, who chaired the meeting before handing over the chains to his successor, pleaded: “Down can we leave the politics out mate?”

An unrepentant Cllr Clark replied: “Not today I’m afraid. And let’s be honest, Liz Truss’s salad took longer…” And with that, the gloves were off and you felt like nothing had really changed.

Labor Cllr Fabian Breckels tried to point out that the comments would hurt Ms Vittori, but Cllr Clark, herself a former Lord Mayor, didn’t let go of the bone and simply countered that Labour’s mistake would waste tens of thousands of pounds sterling for a by-election and that in any case she was not appointing anyone. Cllr Goggin’s patience, already thin by now, snapped and he lost his cloth, shouting at her: “Cllr Clark shut up! Cllr Clark shut up!” adding that this was “Andrew’s day, not yours, and you should be talking about him,” a sentiment that received a round of applause.

Decor was restored and the mood jovial again, with warm words from all parts of the House to the incoming and outgoing Lord Mayor and Deputy Lord Mayor, some encouragingly delivered inaugural speeches by new members and heartfelt tributes to two former long-serving councilors , who recently died, Peter Abraham and Brian Richards. The lifting of the mood even withstood what were supposed to be the only real political moments, though all agreed in advance – the establishment of committees to replace the mayoral model, which residents voted to scrap in a referendum in 2022, and the appointment of the First Leader council Green Cllr Tony Dyer and deputy Cllr Heather Mack after the party’s historic local election win.

In his acceptance speech as leader, Cllr Dyer even managed to quote Spider-Man to share some wisdom with the 70 councilors who, together, now have more decision-making authority than before 2012: “With great with power comes great responsibility”. But the damage was done 75 minutes earlier and if anyone really believed that a change to a committee system, where groups of councilors from different parties make most of the decisions, would see the dawn of real collaboration and the end of the political game and of quarrels. , would have had a rude awakening at the council plenary on Tuesday, May 21.

The restructure had been introduced with grand proclamations and small promises that everyone would work together, but the post-election fallout in recent weeks has seen Labor fire the first shots of the new era, accusing the Greens and Lib Dems of forming a “coalition” in -a “back deal”. The Greens hit back, insisting there was no coalition and claiming Labor had not turned up for meetings to agree power-sharing.

Labour, now the second largest party, was entitled to take two of the roles of chairing the eight new policy committees – a position roughly equivalent to previous cabinet members, with the authority to set the agenda and sign off on spending decisions. up to £500,000. . It declined, instead essentially positioning itself as the opposition and controllers rather than an integral part of a pan-council administration.

And then Cllr Clark, the first speaker at the first council meeting, threw a grenade at what was left of the beauty. Afterwards, several councilors from different parties independently expressed their dismay at Cllr Clark’s comments, all asking why he didn’t “read the room”.

Well, because, in the words of Cllr Dyer in his speech: “Despite being seen by many as a successful city, Bristol remains a deeply divided city.” Starting with the City Hall.

Politicians will rarely agree and it is healthy to disagree. A functioning opposition is essential to any regime or administration, and there is nothing wrong with a tension that pits the idealism of consensus against a realism of disagreement and debate. This is democracy. In essence, this seems to be what the commission system will have to face and try to balance.

But at the end of the mayoral ceremony, as councilors trudged through the doors at the back of the chamber to enjoy coffee and cake in the adjacent Queen Elizabeth II conference room, no one was under any illusions about the size the room. task. So, based on early evidence, perhaps there’s a more appropriate — and pessimistic — Spider-Man quote: “If you expect disappointment, then you’ll never be disappointed.”