Senior councillors in Swindon say that the Labour administration is breaking its own rules.

Councillors Gary Sumner and Dale Heenan - the leader and deputy leader of the Conservative group - say the ruling cabinet did not take any time to reconsider decisions it made on not settling farmland  around Wroughton to protect the countryside from development and to not lease Highworth’s Old Golf Course to the local town council for a nominal sum so it could be run as a country park.

They say eight Conservative councillors made valid ‘call in’ requests which would have seen the decisions made at the July 17 cabinet meeting brought back for reconsideration.

But the Labour administration says the requests were not valid and thus did not mean the decisions needed a rethink.

Cllr Sumner said: "We all have our differences of opinion, and the council constitution helps to guide how political debates are conducted, and decisions are made in a democratic way.

 “Since Labour took control May 2023, we have seen repeated examples of where the rule book is ignored.

“Swindon is a pro-growth town, but just building more houses results in the loss of both valuable farmland and wildlife-rich open space that is contrary to the council’s mission to ‘Build a Greener Swindon’ and ‘Leading the way towards a net zero borough by 2050’.

“The Conservatives submitted two motions for Highworth and Wroughton, there has been no debate, they were rejected out of hand.

“The Conservatives have tried to form a constructive opposition to the Labour run Council, but it now seems that decisions cannot even be scrutinized.

Cllr Heenan added: “It took the Cabinet 264 days to reject the Conservative to turn the former golf course into a country park, and lease it to Highworth Town Council, and it took nearly as long to refuse to protect land around Wroughton from housing development.

“The kicker is that we believe these are the latest examples of clear, and repeated, breaches of governance. The Council rule book is very clear. Cabinet should never have made these decisions to start with. Cabinet should have reviewed a report on the financial implications of the two proposals we submitted, comment if it wished to, and presented that report to the main meeting of all 57 councillors to allow an informed debate.

“Instead, the Labour cabinet rejected the two motions, made its decisions and has refused to accept any challenge or additional scrutiny of those decisions. It is undemocratic. There was also no discussion with local councillors, no consultation with residents, and there has been no ability for viable alternatives to be considered.

But the administration says the Tory councillors have got it wrong: “The call-in requests were considered by the council's Statutory Scrutiny Officer after consultation with legal services and found not to be valid requests which fulfilled the criteria and were therefore rejected as per the constitution.

“This was a decision made by council officers, not by politicians, as is appropriate.  They really should be directing their comments to Council officers, rather than the press.

"It is also worth noting that the Conservative motion regarding Highworth Golf Course was calling on the council to do something that would have broken the law.

“The council has recently made changes to the way it conducts its scrutiny process in response to recommendations from the Local Government Association and the Centre for Governance and Scrutiny who advised that the previous process in place under the previous administration was not delivering effective scrutiny. The Labour administration is committed to improving its scrutiny procedures to improve transparently and accountability.

“ There are training sessions planned in the next few weeks which may aid councillors to better understand the call-in process."