THE FIRST meeting of the Thames Valley Police and Crime Panel had to be adjourned – after councillors failed to agree who should chair the meeting.
The group, which included councillors from Oxfordshire, spent more than 20 minutes in a brightly-lit meeting room at Buckinghamshire County Council’s Aylesbury headquarters before the committee’s clerk Khalid Ahmed concluded: “Well, it appears we’re at an impasse.”
Cllr Claire Rowles (Con, West Berkshire) proposed ending the meeting and making another attempt at electing a chairman at a future date.
But the councillors were almost unable to agree even to that, only narrowly deciding by eight votes to seven in favour of calling time on the fruitless attempt to elect a chairman.
The group is made up of representatives from across the Thames Valley and is responsible for holding to account the three-counties police force and the police and crime commissioner.
It was the first meeting of the Police and Crime Panel since the local elections in May.
Panel members had been due to discuss the police commissioner’s annual report and its own review of last year. Also up for discussion were news reports of Chief Constable John Campbell’s comments to MPs last week about the impact legalising cannabis could have on his officers’ workload.
The meeting began with the election of independent member Phillip Morrice as temporary chairman.
But it became unstuck when the panel went on to try and elect someone to chair meetings for the 2022/23 municipal year – Mr Morrice having ‘vacated’ the temporary chairmanship.
Robin Bradburn and Keith McLean, respectively Lib Dem and Conservative councillors from Milton Keynes, each scored eight votes.
There was back-and-forth between the councillors about what to do next, including whether the party with the most council seats across the region should take the top job on the panel.
Abingdon councillor Neil Fawcett (Lib Dem) said: “If we are not in a position to elect a chair for the year my view is we still have a responsibility to hold the police and crime commissioner to account collectively and if the only way we can do that today is by electing a temporary chair for today’s meetings then that is what I would suggest we should seek to do.” He said the panel would be ‘failing’ in its duty to the public if the meeting could not go ahead.
No agreement could be reached about electing a temporary chairman and, eventually, a motion was passed to 'abandon' the meeting.
The panel's next advertised meeting is in September.
The Police and Crime Commissioner Matthew Barber, who was present at the meeting, was approached for comment by the Oxford Mail.
Following the meeting, Cllr Fawcett told the Mail it was 'disgraceful' the meeting could not go ahead over a disagreement over who could be chairman.
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This story was written by Tom Seaward. He joined the team in 2021 as Oxfordshire's court and crime reporter.
To get in touch with him email: Tom.Seaward@newsquest.co.uk
Follow him on Twitter: @t_seaward
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