Tory hits out at Rotherham Council secrecy

August's Cabinet meeting was held entirely in private with every single item discussed after the Press and public were excluded.

At the corresponding meeting last year more than half of the agenda items were open to the public.

Conservative councillor Tony Mannion used Wednesday’s first full council meeting at the renovated Town Hall to attack a “total closedown” of information.

He said: “Why did an entire Cabinet meeting have to be done behind closed doors? Anything with any contention at all now is just excluded.

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“Because it’s excluded, I can’t access the reports and look into the background of it.

“We are supposed to be here to make a decision, but have to vote without knowing what it’s about.

“The exclusion of public, Press and other councillors is preventing us from doing our job.

“I know we’ve got the ‘strong leader’ model now, but didn’t realise we had elected a dictator.

“This is the first council meeting in the new council chamber and to be quite honest it’s an absolute farce. There’s a total closedown of information.”

Debates kept to the private yellow pages in the last month have included the proposed Rawmarsh joint service centre, scaling down the Boston Castle revamp and a complaint about a skate park.

Deputy leader Terry Sharman explained that the minutes quoted by the Tories were resolutions, not recommendations, and so did not require a full council vote. Tim Mumford, head of legal and democratic services, said: “Officers recommend what they believe should be held in private session. It is up to the Cabinet member to decide.

“It’s always open for them to move something recommended to be exempt from the Press and public into the public session and, indeed, the other way around.”

Cllr Mannion was told that he would receive written answers explaining why the questioned items were held in private.

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