Questions, elections and booze - the debate on how Hartlepool's council is run

Hartlepool Borough Council Constitution Committee has been meeting across the last municipal year to look at changes to its constitution.

Recommendations made by the committee for changes included the introduction of a supplementary question, for clarification purposes only, for public questions submitted at full council.

They also recommended the removal of debate for public questions, and the option to refer questions to a dedicated policy committee for answering.

A report on the work to date went before a Full Council meeting of councillors, noting the recommendations the committee made.

Cllr Shane Moore, council leader who chairs the committee, praised the work of the group over the past year by councillors across all political parties.

He said: “Chairing that committee last year was refreshing to be honest, the members were cross party and I think everybody had more than enough opportunity to share their views, concerns and participate fully.

“We debated many of the subjects at length, all people who had put suggested changes to the constitution were invited to take part within those meetings and I’m pleased to see the reports in front of us were unanimously agreed by the cross party committee.”

Other work by the committee included combining community forums, for all areas of the town, to tie in with the council’s wider ‘Your Say, Our Future’ approach, and choosing to keep the existing election cycle.

However Cllr James Black, who is standing down as a councillor on Sunday August 2, expressed his disappointment the committee had not moved to ban alcohol after holding discussions on the topic, as he had previously called for.

He said: “I’ve said it for long enough, I’m just disappointed that in our constitution we still have not made the effort to rule out alcoholic beverages in the use of council money.

“Why not prove to the public we can improve things and improve the relations we’ve got by having it in the constitution.”

Previously councillors on the constitution committee, from a range of political parties, had discussed the issue and stated alcohol is not freely available and is only available at specific events, and even then it is limited.

Council bosses previously revealed in 2017/18 £526.60 was spent on alcohol for civic events, which dropped to £481.79 for 2018/19.

Civic events include armed forces day, the annual remembrance day service and associated events, workers’ memorial day, annual civic services and similar events.

Council chief solicitor Hayley Martin said: “All I’d say is this has been debated and debated at the constitution committee and the recommendation of the committee is there should be no change.”

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