A COUNCIL meeting descended into farcical scenes as Tory councillors walked out following a heated debate.
A motion calling for free parking at park and ride sites was submitted by Oxfordshire county councillor Liam Walker prior to the meeting.
However, it was amended by the local authority’s cabinet member for travel and development strategy, Duncan Enright.
Following a debate on the amended motion, 36 councillors voted in favour while 21 voted against.
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The council’s chair Susanna Pressel then asked Conservative councillor David Bartholomew to speak, and chaos ensued.
He said: “This administration claims to champion democracy in all its forms.
“We know in opposition here that anything we put forward will probably get voted down two to one, and that’s democracy and we accept that.
“What is wrong is that our motions are being hijacked.
“We’ve had various examples where we’ve tried to withdraw motions where they’ve been amended.
“We wanted to get that changed in the constitution review but so far have been unsuccessful.”
Liberal Democrat councillor Roz Smith then raised whether it was necessary to take another vote on the amended motion, and queried why Mr Bartholomew was allowed to speak after the vote.
Confusion ensued before a vote on the amended motion.
Ms Pressel said: “I feel we’ve had good debate on this, the pros and cons of the amendment were quite well debated, and we also heard from the proposer of the main motion.”
A second vote on the amended motion saw 34 in favour, one abstention and seven vote against – at which point Tory councillors walked out of the meeting.
READ AGAIN: Councillors set to discuss free park and ride motion
Opening the debate on his motion, Mr Walker earlier said: “I thought it was quite a simple motion until councillor Enright took a highlighter to it and completely changed the original motion.
“I’ve long advocated for reducing congestion in Oxford city.
“Before councillor Enright completely reworded it, the idea behind this was to have a cross-party group to look at improving the park and ride.
“In a few months, ground is going to be broken at the Eynsham park and ride site, which would fall under the county council’s responsibility.
“I hoped this could be one that the council could get behind.”
The amendment was not accepted by Mr Walker, before Mr Enright responded: “I welcome the sentiments behind this motion – what I’m doing is bringing the motion into line with the actual reality of the situation we’re in at the moment.”
Liberal Democrat councillor Neil Fawcett supported the amendment, saying: “The motion unamended treats park and rides as if they are only to do with Oxford city.
“The vast majority of the people who use the park and rides actually live in the districts.”
Read more from this author
This story was written by Liam Rice, he joined the team in 2019 as a multimedia reporter.
Liam covers politics, travel and transport. He occasionally covers Oxford United.
Get in touch with him by emailing: Liam.rice@newsquest.co.uk
Follow him on Twitter @OxMailLiamRice
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