[gynn]

Councillor Moss says he has received an assurance from officers that due process was followed to the letter, in that the Mayor, Leader of the Council and Leader of the Opposition were consulted about the cancellation of the meeting, and that with no agreement reached on rescheduling the meeting for next week, senior officers took the decision to defer everything until the December meeting.

Councillor Moss doesn't indicate whether officers could explain why an alternative date two or three weeks hence could not be arranged, nor does he say whether the Labour Group have accepted the response.

In many ways it raises more questions than it answers. It is certainly a decision that favours one party more than the other, in that it gets the ruling group out of a difficult political situation regarding the Market Leases. The loss of one of their members, on paper, makes it unlikely that they would carry a vote in Council. If a by election is due to be held before the December meeting, it might also be viewed as an opportunity to rectify this shortfall prior to the next meeting.

It would still be interesting to hear the views of the Council's monitoring officer and external auditors, who act independently of the day to day Council business. If they are satisfied that due process has been followed, then so can the Labour group.