Merger plan legal row

7:10am Wednesday 21st May 2008

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By Jack Blanchard »

WORCESTER City Council's top officers have been accused of breaking local government law by refusing to release a secret report on the proposed merger with Malvern Hills.

Labour city councillor Marc Bayliss says that following advice from his party's legal experts, he will refer council officials to the Standards Committee - the body in charge of regulating local government - if they continue to refuse him access to a confidential document outlining details of the proposed merger.

The internal council document was the basis for a merger meeting' between the ruling groups of Worcester City and Malvern Hills District councils on Wednesday, May 7 - five days before your Worcester News revealed the secret plan to bring the two councils' services and workforces together into a single body.

Your Worcester News has also since been refused access to the full report, which officers insist is only a draft copy and so not yet ready for public scrutiny.

Coun Bayliss believes that as the document has already been seen and debated by the ruling groups of two different councils, both he and the general public have the right to see it straight away.

"I know it's an over-used expression, but I am dumb-founded by the apparent ability of the council to conceal information from both members of the public and other councillors," said Coun Bayliss. "This just cannot be right.

"Having heard what our lawyers have to say, I am reluctantly prepared to refer this matter to the Standards Committee."

Council officers insist the document was only a work in progress, and that backbench councillors must wait for a special briefing on June 9 for the final proposal to be presented and discussed.

The city's top lawyer John Scarborough told Coun Bayliss by e-mail he is "not entitled" to see the document as it is still only a draft version, and that he has failed to demonstrate the required "need to know".

Mr Scarborough wrote: "It is, in my opinion, reasonable to set out a timetable and process for consultation... The working papers, documents and drafts are legitimate preparatory work which should not be disclosed."

But the Labour party's local government lawyers have taken a different view.

"Government legislation gives councillors additional access to information," Coun Bayliss said. "Our lawyers say that anything in a fit state for discussion at a meeting is a document we should be entitled to see - even if it's only background information.

"It doesn't matter if it's got draft' written at the top, in the middle or on the bottom of it - that doesn't mean you can just keep it to yourself."