Conservative Councillor Ewan Mackey, Shadow Cabinet Member for Inclusion and Community Safety, and prospective Council candidate, Rob Coleman, have spoken of their concerns after it emerged that the City Council’s governing Labour members have not held a counter terrorism strategy meeting since May.
Speaking at a full Council meeting on Tuesday 1st December Cllr Mackey questioned the outgoing Council leader, Sir Albert Bore, to establish whether he felt that sufficient action was being taken to protect local people.
Replying to Cllr Mackey, Sir Albert said that the Council has “a good relationship with the police… [but]… it is about all the public services working together to ensure that all appropriate action has been taken. As far as I am aware that is the case”.
To the surprise of the chamber, and the former Council Leader, Cllr Mackey then informed members that there has not been a single counter terrorism meeting held in Birmingham in 8 months, and that two scheduled meetings had in fact been being cancelled; one in October and one in December.
Speaking after the debate Cllr Mackey (Sutton Trinity) commented: “The simple fact is that at least one of the Counter Terrorism Strategy Boards was cancelled due to the Labour leadership contest - and I think that is scandalous. The police weren’t happy the meetings were cancelled and, since they have complained, a meeting has now been scheduled for January. However if one had to be cancelled why couldn’t it be moved to the following day, or the day after that? In short they should never have been cancelled in the first place. This is really important. If something were to happen it could be disastrous. The council is struggling to get recycling collected on the right day - let alone deal with an issue like this. The Labour party had a leadership election and took their eye off the ball. It would have been a good opportunity for someone who wanted to be a leader to lead the CONTEST board.
There are two elements to community safety; one is to stop people in the city and those coming into it from causing trouble and the other is to keep everything harmonious. Sir Bob Kerslake’s review heavily criticised how the Council worked with outside agencies and this is a prime example of his concerns.
Reflecting upon the news, local Conservative campaigner and prospective Ladywood ward council candidate, Rob Coleman added: “Following the tragedy of recent events, I am deeply shocked that Birmingham’s council leaders have failed to hold any counter-terrorism meetings since May”.
“I have since submitted a question regarding this issue to the Council’s public improvement panel in order to hold them to account. It is my understanding that following the attacks in Paris and the recent state of emergency in Brussels, the local authorities and the police in London and Greater Manchester have reviewed their response and we must do the same. Whilst I have faith in the ability of our excellent West Midlands Police men and women, the UK terror threat remains at severe and I believe since the last meeting of CONTEST, the Council needs to look again at the the effectiveness of the current disaster recovery plan, and re-evaluate its priorities”.
“In particular, I urge the Council to evaluate whether it would currently be capable of meeting the challenge of running the largest authority in Europe, whilst simultaneously addressing a terrorist incident, if a state of emergency was declared and the city centre was effectively closed.
“I would also like to congratulate Cllr Mackey for bringing this issue to light. He has demonstrated his commitment to keeping Birmingham safe in the face of any potential threat”.
