Lib Dems to carry on speaking out after standards watchdog rap for Labour

12.00.00am BST (GMT +0100) Tue 1st Apr 2008

Lib Dems on Sheffield City Council have vowed to carry on speaking up for local people after an attempt by the controlling Labour Group to gag them failed. The watchdog charged with maintaining standards for local councillors rejected a complaint made by Labour. A letter from the Standards Board for England outlined the rejection and stated 'Elected members should be free in a democratic system to express their views on council policy'.

Cllr Brian Lodge, Labour Cabinet member for Transport, submitted the complaint after comments made by the Leader of the Liberal Democrat Group, Cllr Paul Scriven, in the local media. The article concerned a new Bus Gate on the Wicker which had made over £100,000 in it's first few weeks of operation.

Cllr Scriven said that he believed the Council were designing road schemes in order to gain as much income as possible from unsuspecting drivers who have made an innocent mistake. Just two days after the comments the Council agreed to placing more signs to make the Bus Gate clearer.

Cllr Paul Scriven, Leader of the Liberal Democrat Group on Sheffield City Council, said: -

"I'm pleased, but not surprised, that the standards board outlined that in a democracy people are entitled to speak out and express their views, however robust they might be."

"Instead of trying to gag anyone who speaks out to highlight the shortcomings of his policies, Cllr Lodge should be concentrating on sorting out the transport problems in our city."

"This latest attempt to gag anyone who speaks out against Labour has been rejected, but I'm sure there will be more in the future the closer we get to the election. But whatever they do they won't stop us from speaking up on the issues that matter to local people during this election campaign and beyond."