Southend Council has been slammed by the Tory party leader for the “disgusting” decision to hold meetings to debate financial dealings behind closed doors.
Without notice to the public or to councillors, the Labour-led joint administration has moved to hold shareholder board meetings in private.
Councillors on the shareholder board scrutinise the financial dealings of the council’s own companies such as Southend Care as well as contractors like South Essex Homes.
The statement of accounts for both were due to be discussed in this month’s board meeting on July 10. Major projects such as Better Queensway are also discussed.
The last board meeting had no notice of exclusion and the agenda has since been removed from the meetings calendar on the council website.
The fact the meeting wasn’t broadcast to the public came as a surprise to one of the board’s own members.
Tony Cox, leader of the Conservative Group, said: “I attended the meeting. No one has told me it was in private. They can’t hold meetings in private. It has to be agreed by members if it’s held in private. Some of this is actually quite important. Some are our own companies. That’s where they are going to start putting all the Better Queensway stuff through.
“The minutes of the meeting have to go through cabinet anyway. It’s disgusting. There is supposed to be transparency in local government. What is it they are trying to hide?”
In the past, the meetings have been held in public, with any sensitive information discussed in part two sessions where the press and the public are excluded.
Reasons for the exclusions are generally given ahead of the meetings and published in the meeting’s agenda.
A council spokesperson said: “The shareholder board meetings are not required to be held in public. After consultation with the leader of the council, it was decided that due to commercial sensitivity, it is in the best interest of the council, its partners and ultimately local residents to hold these meetings internally with the appropriate outcomes reported through the democratic process.”
Labour council leader Daniel Cowan was asked to comment.