Councillors warned off signing regeneration commitment over predetermination fear

A council’s head of legal services has come under fire from campaigners for asking East Riding of Yorkshire councillors to ignore an email that urges them to sign up to a series of commitments in its handling of regeneration plans for Bridlington.

Replying could cause difficulties over predetermination, councillors have been warned.

The Justice for Bridlington group wanted all 67 councillors to agree to five pledges, the Yorkshire Post reports, together with a declaration to “actively use every democratic option open to me as a councillor to scrutinise and to publicly hold to account all those responsible for the current situation in Bridlington”.

Head of legal and democratic services Mathew Buckley advised them not to respond until the matter had been considered further. He said: “We have asked members not to reply to the email from ‘Justice 4 Bridlington’ at this moment, either positively or negatively, as it deals with a matter that may still require decisions from councillors in the future.

“The statement commits those signing it to a course of action and councillors signing up to such a statement may run the risk that they are unable to take part in discussions on these matters in the future as by signing the declaration they have predetermined their position.

“Whilst it is considered whether members would run such a risk, they have been asked not to respond to the email at this time.”

Campaigners claim this is contrary to the aims of the Localism Act, which was intended to allow councillors more freedom to engage with local issues.
Campaign member Geoff Pickering said: “If this is Mr Buckley’s advice he has some explaining to do if he thinks asking councillors to investigate and scrutinise the actions of the council stops them making decisions in the future.”

A council spokesman said: “The council is still looking into the matter of the email sent from Justice 4 Bridlington to members.”

The campaign was launched following an announcement in April by Tesco that it had abandoned plans to open a new store in the town, a key part of the Bridlington Area Action Plan.