Dear Sir,
Cllr Tony Armstrong is a very complex man. His mental acuity never ceases to amaze me. He stood and got elected as a Liberal Democrat in May 2021, he then resigned from the Lib Dems and went Independent, we gave him support when he needed it, and a home amongst us, then he left us to sit by himself as an Independent, which was entirely his choice. The Independents Group, which I am a member of, has meetings, we are a co-operative group, we discuss amongst ourselves but, at every one of our meetings, it is made clear, “No minutes or attendances will be recorded. No decisions are binding, we simply seek consensus, all are free to attend or not and to speak or vote freely in Group and Council. Common sense and common purpose.”
In our meetings we listen to each other and respect each other and have an open mind. No one is told what to say, what to do, or how to vote – infinite diversity in infinite combination.
Tony, alone, seems not to be able to understand the mechanics of the Annual General Meeting of the Council. The Council elects the membership of Committees and Sub Committees for the year ahead at the AGM, committees, by law, must be one less than the Full Council, and to be on Sub Committees you need to be on the parent Committee. Every AGM we try our utmost to ensure that any Councillor who wants to, irrespective of Group or Party, can have the places they want on Committees etc., but, as I say, the law demands at least one Councillor will miss out on being on a Committee so we try to seek consensus and agreement to accommodate every member where humanly possible. Tony seems to think that we have a duty to put him on everything he wants, but that he does not need to vote for any of us, why? I have had discussions with other Groups and individuals, to the extent that we as a Group will agree to put all members including Cllr Jed Hillary, Cllr Wendy Hillary and Cllr Bob Fleming, and all Liberal Democrats and all Labour who want to, on to the same Committees, Sub Committees they are already on by consensus.
Unless anyone wants to change. It goes without saying, or at least so I thought, that this requires others agreeing this too, rather than the Council AGM going on ‘til well past midnight with a single vote on every member for every Committee, Sub Committee, etc. We seek consensus, discussion and agreement among all groups on the Council, where possible, to accommodate all. With two by-elections we have two new members that will need places.
I know that this is a hard concept to get across, but, putting it very very politely, Cllr Armstrong is the only one, out of 30 Councillors, who insists he should get every place and all positions he wants, but that he does not need to vote for anyone else wanting the same.
Putting it bluntly, if Tony won’t vote for others to go on a Committee etc, why on earth would they vote to put him on.
Tony can vote for whoever he would like at the AGM, that is no problem whatsoever, but so can every other councillor.
Cllr Arun M Chandran
Independent