Dear Lib Dem councillor colleagues,
Following the 4 May election, our two groups, the Green Party and the Independents for Herefordshire, have repeatedly expressed our commitment to working cooperatively across party lines wherever there is common ground.
We have repeatedly reached out to you with the aim of finding a way forward for Herefordshire Council that reflects the proportion of the vote received by each political group. A model which your party both adopts and benefits from elsewhere in the country, and that would provide this county with the stability and representation that our residents deserve. We have been surprised and saddened by your reluctance to consider such a balanced and fair arrangement.
Separately, we have responded positively to your suggestion that the council move to a committee system, in which power would then be shared in proportion to the size of political groups. However, such a shift in governance model would require a full council instruction to officers, and leadership arrangements need to be put in place now, even if they later prove transitional.
Assuming that an early instruction to commence movement to a committee based governance system can be secured, any transitional administration is likely to be in power for at least a year. It would clearly be completely undemocratic for the county to be run by your group alone, since you were supported by just 24% of the popular vote, and have just 23% (12 out of 53) of the councillors.
Indeed, more people voted for Green and Independents for Herefordshire candidates than for Lib Dems.
We therefore find it extraordinary that your leaders have proposed that the Lib Dems should take all the power for yourselves, even on a temporary basis, and even with your vague suggestion of ‘advisory groups’ supporting the Lib-Dem-only cabinet. The fact that you have made such an unacceptably undemocratic proposal on a ‘take it or leave it’ basis suggests that you do not seriously wish to cooperate with other groups, and that you do not seriously wish to take on the responsibility of administration.
We find this remarkable, and expect this stance will be surprising and disappointing to the 13,000 residents who voted for you less than a fortnight ago.
Since your leaders have demonstrated their refusal to work cooperatively with us, we now propose instead a fair alternative:
- A joint motion to the next Full Council on transitioning to the Committee system as soon as possible.
- A transitional administration made up of all political groups, in proportion to their size.
- That the role of Leader should rotate amongst the participating groups.
We urge you to respond positively while there is still time before this Friday’s council meeting, either to support this broader proposal or to instruct your leaders to move significantly on their currently entrenched position.
Working together, our three groups have a majority of councillors. The Greens and I4H are committed to cooperation; are you? Refusing to alter your own position and rejecting our counter proposal would demonstrate very publicly on Friday that Lib Dems would prefer to enable a minority Conservative administration than share power and cooperate constructively with other political groups.
We reiterate that we believe there is considerable common ground between our groups, and few areas of difference. There is no reason why such a cross-party coalition could not happen in Herefordshire, since our only major substantive policy difference (on the bypass) would need to be decided by a Full Council vote anyway.
We can work together on the many issues where we have common ground, and agree to disagree amicably where we have differences.
The residents of Herefordshire have indicated, through their votes, that no single group has sufficient support to run the council alone. The logical solution is for a coalition to run the council jointly in the best interests of the county. We urge you to respect the confidence placed in you by your voters and to cooperate constructively with us for the benefit of all Herefordshire’s residents.
Yours sincerely,
Ellie Chowns, Leader of the Green group
Liz Harvey, Leader of the Independents for Herefordshire group
