Councillor: constitution changes mean “fewer questions, fewer debates” at Flintshire
A Flintshire councillor has accused the ruling Labour-Independent coalition of using constitution changes going before Full Council on Tuesday to make it harder for backbench councillors to hold Cabinet to account.
Cllr Sam Swash, who represents Hawarden & Mancot for Flintshire People’s Voice, said in a public Facebook post that proposals to cap the length of Full Council meetings, limit the number of questions councillors can ask Cabinet members, and restrict the number of motions that can be debated would result in “fewer questions, fewer debates, fewer opportunities to improve Council policy.”
The recommendations follow an 18-month review by the Constitution and Democratic Services Committee.
The committee report confirms the substance of the changes. Under one recommendation, Member Questions would for the first time be subject to restrictions mirroring those already in place for Public Questions, barring questions that relate to individual planning, licence or grant applications, name a council officer or member, are party political, or repeat a question asked in the last six months.
Currently there is no such criteria for councillors’ questions to Cabinet at all.
A separate recommendation would cap Full Council to five debated motions per meeting, with 10 minutes allowed for each and a maximum of 50 minutes total debate time.
Where more than five motions are submitted, the five to be heard would be chosen by a draw of lots, with the rest carried to the next meeting.
A third recommendation would limit County Council meetings to five hours, excluding breaks, a change the report says is needed after meetings began regularly running beyond seven hours since the council moved its start time earlier in 2025.
Cllr Swash said questioning of Cabinet members had previously forced the council to abandon what he described as an unlawful policy restricting some disabled residents’ access to household recycling centres, and that motions he had brought had changed council policy on park home licensing, above-ground burial options, and planning enforcement against what he called rogue developers.
He said the restrictions came as residents faced Council Tax increases and service cuts, and criticised the coalition for spending months on the review in private working groups that residents could not attend.
Cllr Swash also said both coalition groups had tabled last-minute amendments to the proposals, one of which he described as unfinished and containing spelling errors, and said it would restrict scrutiny further. These amendments do not appear in the published committee report and their content has not been independently confirmed.
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