Police called to Redditch council meeting over postponing election

Redditch Borough Council has voted in favour of postponing local elections in May, after a heated meeting in which police were called.

The Labour leadership has said the move will save taxpayers £192,000, and will now formally write to central government to make the request.

It comes after ministers offered local authorities the opportunity to delay elections in order to support the timetable for local government reorganisation.

About 50 protesters turned up at an extraordinary meeting, with one member of the public being ejected after an angry row with a councillor.

From 2028, every district council in Worcestershire will be dissolved, and replaced by either one unitary authority for the county, or two, covering the north and south.

Redditch was the only council in Worcestershire due to hold elections in May, with nine of the authority’s 27 seats up for grabs.

During the meeting councillors were repeatedly heckled, with cries of “shame on you” and “this is no democracy” as the vote went through.

Labour councillor Ian Woodhall got into a row with one member of the public earlier in the meeting, and ended up calling him a “Nazi”, resulting in the meeting being held up for almost 30 minutes to restore calm.

In the end both Woodhall and the protester left the meeting early after police were called on safety grounds.

The vote was passed, despite opposition from the Conservatives, with Tory group leader Councillor Matt Dormer saying: “We should not be the council who paused democracy.”

Dormer added: “This raises serious questions around public confidence and transparency – democracy should always take place.”

Some Labour politicians said that given the scale of local government reorganisation, they would be better off keeping the existing councillors in place without the “distraction” of elections.

Harvey said: “I cannot support a position where Redditch Borough Council is compromised on its journey towards a unitary council.

“We completely recognise the depth of feeling, this has not been easy – there’ll be a massive display of democracy when we move to a unitary authority.”

The government said in December that any councils looking to delay elections, must request to do so by 15 January.

The One Worcestershire model of local government reorganisation is backed by Worcestershire County Council and Wyre Forest District Council, while district authorities in Redditch, Bromsgrove, Worcester, Malvern and Wychavon favour splitting the county in two.