'Please be quiet!' Conservative leader kicked out of explosive cabinet meeting
An explosive meeting resulted in a councillor being kicked out of the room after refusing to stop giving his thoughts on increased charges for adult social care.
Telford & Wrekin’s cabinet meeting was briefly suspended on Thursday morning by the council’s leader Shaun Davies after he asked Conservative leader Andrew Eade to leave the meeting.
Councillor Eade, ward member for Church Aston and Lilleshall, was asked for his opinions after a report was put before Cabinet proposing the increase of charges to some adult social care users.
The council is proposing to increase charges for people who receive care at home, daycare and transport and pay the council for those services.
Of the 1,882 people who receive chargeable care in the borough, 943 (50.1 per cent) could be affected by one or more of the above-proposed changes – depending on their individual financial circumstances.
Councillor Eade was asked to give his thoughts to the council’s cabinet and took issue with the proposed consultation process and accused the council of ‘pre-determining’ the decision by suggesting the changes would come into effect in January 2024.
While Councillor Eade said he did support the savings of £7 million in adult social care he raised his own fears.
“To say that it’s not possible to continue to provide the same service is incorrect,” Councillor Eade added.
“The result of this policy will be simply that fewer residents for whom services are commissioned and I wonder if that at the end of the day is your real aim.”
After giving his thoughts for two minutes and 43 seconds Councillor Eade was asked to ‘reach his conclusion’ by council leader Shaun Davies.
“I’ve got quite a bit to go through, it’s an important report,” replied Councillor Eade. “You are stopping me.”
