The beginning of the end of the City’s discredited “standards” regime?

[Sue Pearson]

Last year, more than 1,100 City residents - many of them in our ward of Cripplegate - signed a petition declaring 'no confidence' in the City's standards regime. 

That petition called for two specific reforms.

The first was to let your elected representatives speak and vote on matters which affected both you and them as residents. After nine months of intense campaigning, including residents attending and filming meetings of the Standards Committee, that reform has now largely been achieved.

The second reform concerned the complaints process, which has proved to be not fit for purpose and has been used against councillors who have spoken out against the Corporation. This reform might now be commenced with a motion that will be put at the next meeting of the Court of Common Council on Thursday 18 June: Standards Motion.

As you can see, all eight councillors in Cripplegate have signed this motion. Mark Bostock and William Pimlott have unequivocally supported standards reform from the outset. One member, though, signed the motion only minutes before the deadline, after being approached several times during the previous three weeks by the proposer, seconder and myself.

The one elected representative in Cripplegate who hasn’t signed is our alderman, David Graves. That is disappointing, especially as several aldermen are among the signatories. He has, though, remained one of the staunchest defenders of the Corporation’s standards regime, even though that it has for well over a year been discredited in the eyes of constituents, and more recently in the eyes of most members of the Court. 

As all Corporation meetings are now held virtually, you can watch the Court meeting on YouTube https://youtu.be/UQkeA7qgmWQ. The meeting begins at 1 pm. The standards motion is item 11 on the agenda. Members of the Court can see how many members of the public are watching, so a strong turnout of resident viewers will itself send a message. Do tune in to see what happens.