Berman: Judge me come election time

Oct 2 2007 by Phillip Nifield, South Wales Echo

CARDIFF council leader Rodney Berman insisted today that he would not quit in the wake of a double defeat over controversial parking and traffic schemes.

Councillor Berman, who last autumn survived a motion of no confidence by just one vote, defended his minority administration’s record and said he was happy to be judged by the electorate at May’s council elections.

It follows defeats over controversial parking charge increases and changes to city centre traffic, including the closure of St Mary Street.

He said: “We need to remember that these two issues are only a small part of what the council is doing and that the Liberal Democrat administration has overseen a turnaround from a situation under Labour when we had the worst social services in England and Wales.

“Under Labour we also had the dirtiest streets of any city authority in England and Wales, one of the lowest levels of funding per pupil in Wales handed over to local schools, a very poor record on recycling, high annual increases in council tax, and a threatened High Court battle over the unlawful payment of £2.5m worth of councillors’ allowances.”

Coun Berman went on: “We are on track to finally replace the Empire Pool which Labour knocked down in 1998, have taken forward many other major projects – such as St Davids 2, the new stadium for Cardiff City and the redevelopments of Cardiff Castle and Sophia Gardens – and we have eliminated the need to house homeless people in bed and breakfast accommodation.

“I see no reason to resign now because the opposition parties are attempting to derail us on these two specific issues, and I think we should leave it for the electorate to make a judgement next May on our record as a whole.”

He said that the administration was pressing officers to provide reports on the issue of the parking charges hike and on reopening the lower end of St Mary Street to cars as quickly as possible.

Coun Berman said: “What we are seeing here is the reality of running a minority administration, something we have always accepted because we know that we were not given a mandate to take all the decisions on behalf of the people of Cardiff.

“We have lost votes before and doubtless we will lose votes again. But it has to be remembered that right from the outset we asked the other parties to join us in an all-party administration and they refused.”

He added: “The idea of removing private cars from St Mary Street was discussed on more than one occasion at corporate portfolio meetings. Nobody from any other group then spoke against the idea or suggested it should only apply to just part of the street.

“The increases in on-street city-centre parking charges were studied by the council’s environmental scrutiny committee. The charge was also implicit in the budget proposals agreed in February. While the council as a whole is at liberty to change its mind at a later date, the original decision was taken quite properly and democratically.

“There is no dishonour in having a difference of view with other party groups. Rhodri Morgan’s minority Labour administration frequently lost votes prior to May’s Assembly elections. No doubt as we get nearer to next year’s local elections, the temptation among the opposition groups will be to defeat us more and more as they put party political considerations increasingly to the fore.”

phillip.nifield@mediawales.co.uk