Long serving councillor fails to back budget
A LONG-SERVING Labour cabinet member faces an internal investigation after failing to vote in favour of her party's £24 million budget cuts.
Stoke-on-Trent city councillor Debra Gratton, who is responsible for children and young people's services, could face disciplinary action, or lose her role on the cabinet if she is found to have broken party rules.
The controversial budget and 3.49 per cent tax rise was backed by 31 of 32 Labour councillors present at Thursday's meeting. Two Labour members and an Independent councillor were absent due to ill health.
Lord Mayor Terry Follows did not cast a vote, while the six City Independents and two Conservatives voted against the budget.
Mrs Gratton, who represents Sneyd Green, told The Sentinel after Thursday night's meeting that she did vote and was unsure which of her colleagues had not backed the budget.
But copies of the voting record released yesterday confirm she was the missing member.
The city's Labour group has confirmed it will now be talking to Mrs Gratton.
Mrs Gratton, pictured below, did vote with Labour members to reject a motion tabled by opposition leader Dave Conway which called on council officers earning more than £50,000 to take a voluntary five per cent pay cut.
She also voted in favour of the budget recommendations alongside her nine cabinet colleagues at a meeting on February 9.
Labour whip Kath Banks, member for Hollybush and Longton West, said: "She didn't vote.
"The Labour group met before yesterday's meeting and it was decided we were supporting the budget; all the councillors are tied to that.
"Everyone supported the budget unanimously in the group beforehand and I don't know why Debra didn't vote."
Mr Conway, who is also chairman of the children's services scrutiny committee, took the unusual step of praising Mrs Gratton and children's services director Sharon Menghini in the meeting.
He told the chamber: "This is unprecedented for me, but can I say the cabinet member for children's services has worked damn hard.
"She is dedicated to what she does, and so is the director, who I haven't always seen eye to eye with, but even they can't cope with this sort of thing (budget cuts)."
Mrs Gratton's failure to support the budget follows stinging budget reductions to her portfolio which has seen 114 separate cuts over the last two years.
In December, more than 50 headteachers signed a letter branding the authority's latest cuts to children's services as "disproportionate" and urging a rethink.
Mrs Gratton, who has been a cabinet member for four years and a Labour councillor since 2007, was also undercut by fellow cabinet members at a meeting in September when colleagues refused to support a 20 per cent cap on future cuts to the children's centre budget.
She was unavailable for comment yesterday.
10 Comments
by stratultra
Monday, February 27 2012, 9:16AM
“By F.L.Hunt.
At last, a councillor with round things!!!. Well done Debra, all we need now is for the rest of the councillors to follow your lead, and do what the electors want, and not as ordered by Pefvez.”
by Nicky_Davis_
Sunday, February 26 2012, 4:46PM
“Correction, there were 6 councillors independent of political parties who voted against the budget, but only 5 of them are 'city independents', the other is 'unaffiliated':
http://tinyurl.com/7cbzopy
http://tinyurl.com/74vhzvm
On Debra Gratton, I cced her in an email request to council for information on 27th January. Having had no reply I emailed her directly on 21st February. I've also tried tweeting her. I am hoping to get a reply without resorting to FOI. The information I want, Pupil place projections August 2011, exists because it is referred to in section 1.2 of
http://tinyurl.com/87ho66u
I am concerned that not enough pupil places are being provided for the future in the city:
http://tinyurl.com/6t59elo”
by MarkEBrayford
Sunday, February 26 2012, 2:08PM
“Good heavens and after the Sentinel ran a feature on her health and beauty routine too!”
by E_D_Wivens
Saturday, February 25 2012, 9:48PM
“SOcial DEMoCRatic cAPITAList poLitical”
by stokiemart
Saturday, February 25 2012, 8:07PM
“mmm, maybe you are a little confused soccerfoot. The Labour Party is not a communist party. The Communist Party of great Britain is a communist party. The clues in the name I believe. The Labour party is actually a social democratic capitalist political party. Just so you know :-)”
by yesamwargames
Saturday, February 25 2012, 2:29PM
“Debra Gratton well done, it sounds like a newspaper article from the 1950's reporting a party member in Russia will be jailed for 150 years for disobeying orders from the Kremlin for smiling on a photograph.”
by soccerfoot11
Saturday, February 25 2012, 1:59PM
“knowing the socialist/commy/labour party she will either be shot or sent to some gulag for the rest of her life for not voting !”
by dead1mon
Saturday, February 25 2012, 1:51PM
“What does this woman do , she seems too concerned about how she looks for the media , We vote these people in and just leave them alone , Its only times like this we find out how absolutely useless people like her are and they are only intrested in making gains forthemselves and not the electorate , Ive only seen her in the Sentinelle lokking Prissiy and photos everywhere , I hope she can justify what shes doing or kick her out !!!”
by E_D_Wivens
Saturday, February 25 2012, 11:42AM
“You can't go against the will of the Party, because the Party is the will of the people. So much for internal democracy in the Liebore party. Typical bl**dy socialists.”
by strandedhere
Saturday, February 25 2012, 10:24AM
“Though I know a lot of people dislike the idea,councillors are elected to represent the electors,to ask themselves "if a member of the public was sat here,what would he or she want?".
The alternative mode-very much favoured by Labour-is that a central committee in London instructs localParty members,a.k.a. councillors,how they will vote.
It's not unprecedented for decent people to finally refuse to take the Whip.
I understand that for months one member of the Labour bloc has been easing his or her conscience by going against the Whip in secret votes at council meetings.”