8th April 2019

Labour Members Choose to ‘Help Mend Our Broken Democracy’

“Help Mend Our Broken Democracy” was the slogan coined by the “It’s Our City!” Community Network when it formed last summer.  The objective of the campaign is for Sheffield City Council to reform its decision-making process to make it more  accountable.

We are pleased to confirm that we are being joined in that appeal, not only by many individual members of the ruling Labour Party, but also by Constituency Labour Parties (CLP) as a whole. In February the Central CLP passed a resolution in their meeting to the following effect;

“This CLP calls on the Labour Group on Sheffield City Council to move towards a committee structure, rather than the strong-leader model for running the Council.”

This call was made by the Broomhill & Sharrow Vale Branch  but was supported by “Most speakers from the floor…” according to the minutes.

It is also pleasing to note the role of the It’s Our City! Campaign in making this change a priority for this CLP. It’s Our City! are already in conversation with the Council leadership over the potential for change and will continue to make positive arguments for this to happen sooner rather than later.

We are also able to confirm that we have reached the halfway point of the petition with some 10,000 signatures between both electronic and paper petitions. That’s 10,000 Sheffielders already who believe that things could be better. The coming summer months will surely see the campaign achieve further traction as more and more people understand the need for better and more accountable decision making with the continuing austerity under which our city is suffering.

We look forward to more Constituency Groups from all parties committing to this change in their own resolutions.

Nigel Slack
Co-Chair : It’s Our City!

Full Wording of the Minutes of Sheffield Central Constituency Labour Party Meeting on 28 February 2019

“4.  Resolutions from Branches

Submitted by Broomhill and Sharrow Vale.  “This CLP calls on the Labour Group on Sheffield City Council to move towards a committee structure, rather than the strong leader model, for running the Council.”

The resolution proposed by Jon Cowley was carried.  Most speakers from the floor agreed that the committee system is more accountable and should be adopted by the council before the ‘It’s our city’ campaign gains further traction.  A minority argued that it is not necessarily more democratic and risks giving more power to other parties.”

The minutes also reported that of the membership – 76 signed in; 14 gave apologies