Bolton Council: 'Closed door' meetings to be opened up

Since the Labour group came to power at Bolton Town Hall after the local elections earlier this month with the support of One Kearsley, the leaders of both parties say they intend to open up meetings previously held behind closed doors.

This will mean that media outlets including The Bolton News will now be able to attend and cover executive cabinet member meetings, where some of the most critical decisions are made about the borough’s services.

Leader of the council Cllr Nick Peel said: “This was part of our manifesto commitment, we want to have increased transparency for council meetings.

Labour leader Cllr Nick Peel (Image: Henry Lisowski)

“This means that when we have executive cabinet member meetings, which are held on teams, the local government correspondent or whoever it may be from the local press will be able to attend.”

He added: “Obviously when confidential items are being discussed they will need to leave but that was already the case with cabinet meetings.”

Opening up the meetings had been a key demand made by One Kearsley in return for their three councillors giving their support to Labour to form an administration at a meeting on May 16.

Bolton town hall (Image: Newsquest)

Labour had finished with 26 councillors, ahead of the outgoing Conservatives with 16, after the local elections the previous week.

This meant that the new leadership needed the support of smaller parties like One Kearsley to come closer to the 30 seats needed for an overall majority.

One Kearsley leader Cllr Paul Heslop (Image: Bolton Council)

One Kearsley leader Cllr Paul Heslop says he was able to secure support for key projects in return including reviving a community centre in Prestolee and bowling club in Kearsley.

He said: “The third point of agreement with the Labour Group was to extend openness and transparency at the council that will now include approximately 100 meetings per year being open to the press, these were previously held behind closed doors.”

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He added: “One Kearsley’s councillors have been challenged, particularly on social media, about lending our support to Labour.

“We have also had many people who have come forward and said that they normally vote for Labour but felt confident in trusting their vote in One Kearsley to get the very best for our town and villages.”

He added: "Despite hearing rumours that the Conservatives were trying to cobble together a coalition of four political parties, it was clear to us that such an arrangement would be fragile and short-lived.

"We were not approached by the Conservatives, but it must said that the bar would have been high for us to agree to prop up the Tories, especially given the abysmal efforts that they had made in undoing the damage done by the council to Kearsley over the years."