Democracy Rutland was formed in March 2018 with the explicit purpose of changing the make-up of Rutland County Council. The last time that Rutland County Council had a truly balanced Council was in 1999, when it had twenty Councillors; eight Independent, four Lib-Dem, three Rutland Choice, two Labour, two Conservative and one Green. At the time of writing, with one Ward, Oakham South-East recently filled, Rutland County Council has twenty-six Councillors of whom seventeen are Conservatives, eight are Independents and one Lib-Dem. Not only does this overwhelming majority give the controlling party the ability to push through their projects at full Council Meetings, it also enables them to form the Cabinet. The dangers of this situation were highlighted in 2017 when it seemed likely that just five Cabinet Members would be able to push through largely unwanted plans to make Oakham High Street One-Way despite widespread opposition including a 90% vote ‘Against’ in an independent poll taken of Oakham Traders. Despite a recent change in Council Leadership, with the previous Leader resigning over the One-Way Protest, accompanied by promises of ‘Openness, Transparency and Listening To The Community’, Democracy Rutland believes that the Council remains fundamentally unchanged as demonstrated by events at the 15th February Scrutiny Panel Meeting (see 23rd Feb note) and that the only way to make Rutland Council truly ‘Open, Transparent and Listening’ is to change the balance of Councillors. Democracy Rutland will be working with like-minded groups and campaigning to elect at least fourteen non-party-political truly Independent Councillors whose interests are first and foremost Rutland focused on 2nd May 2019.
Democracy Rutland 