When Reform took control of Suffolk County Council, they promised residents three things above all: honesty, accountability and openness. On the biggest decision the new administration has taken — to pursue a judicial review against the Government over the future of local government in our county — they have delivered the opposite of all three.
Here is where we are. The Reform administration at Suffolk County Council is pursuing a judicial review of the Government’s decision to reorganise local government in Suffolk. On Monday 29 June, the Cabinet meets to decide whether to press on. Ahead of that meeting, the Leader of the Council, Cllr Michael Hadwen, promised that the papers behind the challenge — the report and the correspondence — would be published on 24 June, “so that councillors and residents can review the material.”
That day has been and gone. Nothing has been published.
Three promises, and the reality
This is an administration that arrived promising a new era of openness. In his first speech as Leader, Cllr Hadwen pledged to be “transparent with residents” and to deliver “more accountability.” On the morning of his first Cabinet meeting, he promised “honesty, accountability and openness.” That very afternoon, opposition and backbench councillors were cut from three questions each to one.
Set those promises against what has actually happened:
- The legal grounds for the challenge are secret.
- Every resident who applied to ask a question at Monday’s meeting has been refused.
- And Reform won’t even tell us what this is costing — no figure, no budget, no ceiling.
We know a comparable challenge in Hampshire was priced at up to half a million pounds. What Reform are prepared to spend here in Suffolk, they simply won’t say.
Openness is possible — Essex showed it
None of this was unavoidable. In Essex, the Reform-led county council published its case in full back in May. Residents there can read the argument being made in their name. In Suffolk, we are kept in the dark — on a decision about the whole future of how our county is run for a generation.
The more I look at it, the less this resembles a council acting in the best interests of the people of Ipswich and Suffolk — and the more it looks like Reform fighting Nigel Farage’s battles with Suffolk taxpayers’ money, rather than the millions they receive from crypto billionaires.
What I’m calling for
I am asking Reform to do three simple things, today:
- Publish the report and the correspondence behind the challenge.
- Publish the full costs — what it could cost Suffolk taxpayers, win or lose.
- Stop shutting residents out — let the people paying for this challenge see the case and put their questions, instead of turning them away.
If Reform cannot keep their word on something as simple as when to publish a document, residents are entitled to ask what else is being kept from them — and why a decision about the future of Suffolk is being driven through in the dark.
Labour will keep pressing for the openness we were promised.
Cllr Martin Cook Leader of the Labour Group, Suffolk County Council