Confused? Let's take a vote on it

Oxford city councillors proved that when it comes to understanding council procedure, they can be as baffled as the rest of us.

Confusion reigned as they voted to abolish cheap Sunday morning parking and increase charges generally by more than five per cent. But the debate put some councillors in turmoil - and the city solicitor has been called in to sort out the mess.

Liberal Democrat Jean Fooks claimed that a vote to increase Sunday parking charges on Sundays had been taken illegally. Three Labour councillors voted WITH her when she opposed the new charges - but after a short break, the vote was taken again and they voted AGAINST her, claiming they had been confused first time.

That was too much for Ms Fooks. She wrote letters of protest to council officials and to the Oxford Mail. But ioops! It was Ms Fooks who was wrong. It wasn't that vote on which the Labour councillors had changed their minds. It was another one about the general level of increased charges. Ms Fooks had wanted to abolish the charge of one hour's parking and make motorists pay for a minimum two hours to raise extra cash.

Ms Fooks said: "During the break there was much discussion between Labour members. Afterwards, the chairman said he would like the vote to be taken again. This time the Labour members all voted to support the chairman's option. It was not democratic."

City solicitor David Taylor will now investigate the affair to see if there was any wrongdoing.

But highways committee chairman Cllr Alex Hollingsworth insisted everything was above board. He said three Labour councillors - Dr Patricia Pike, Mrs Mary Clarkson and Mr Bryan Keen - accidentally voted for the Lib Dem proposals because they did not realise what they were voting for. Cllr Hollingsworth put the whole episode down to confusion.

Story date: Wednesday 10 February

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.