The Conservative Group on Monmouthshire County Council has hit out at Labour and Green councillors for cancelling scheduled meetings during the Senedd election campaign supposedly due to a lack of business.

At the last full council meeting, Labour and Green councillors pushed through a council tax increase of double the rate of inflation, which was opposed by the Conservatives and was passed on the Labour Chair’s casting vote.

The April full council meeting, scheduled for Thursday 23rd April, was cancelled because the Labour/Green cabinet had no business to bring forward, so the agenda would have consisted of only motions and questions to cabinet members from individual councillors.

Figures for the first four years of this council term show that the Conservative group, despite having 19 of the 46 seats, has brought forward over 80 per cent of all questions to council meetings and two thirds of all motions.

Conservative Leader Cllr Richard John said, “Just weeks after hiking up residents’ council tax by double the rate inflation, the public rightly expect councillors to turn up to work.

“We were advised that the full council meeting was cancelled not because of any pre-election rules but because there was no business brought forward by the cabinet.

“Figures show the Conservative team, which is just two seats behind the ruling Labour group, is consistently the group bringing forward new proposals and ideas.

“Motions we’ve brought forward recently include a new way of fixing potholes, a council tax exemption for terminally-ill people and more resilient flood defences.

“Having brought forward over 80 per cent of all questions to the cabinet and two thirds of all motions over the last four years, it is clear that it’s the local Conservatives who are the only opposition to Labour and a council administration-in-waiting.”