Lib Dems take over Bristol City Council

The Liberal Democrats have taken control of Bristol City Council after Labour sensationally quit at a crucial budget meeting.

The issue that brought the ruling party down on Tuesday night was the possibility of an incinerator being built to burn household waste.

The Post predicted last year that this could destroy the Labour cabinet and – if the Lib Dems did not accept the challenge to take power – lead to meltdown on the council.

But last night Liberal Democrat leader Barbara Janke did accept the reins.

She was voted back into office for a third time following a tense, six-and-a- half-hour meeting.

Former Lord Mayor Peter Abraham said afterwards: "I've been on the council for 40 years and I've never seen anything like it. It's quite dramatic."

The change of leader – Labour's Helen Holland and the rest of her cabinet stood down – means a range of critical issues on which her party was expected to make decisions are now left up in the air.

The city's council tax rate – which was expected to go up by 3.5 per cent in April – is also affected. An amended budget, opposed by Labour, means the rate will now only go up 3.2 per cent, saving a typical family about £4.

The bill for city council services for the average Band D household was set to rise from £1,272 a year to more than £1,316 if plans had been agreed last night. Now the Band D rate is fixed at £1,312.70 for the coming year – or £1,532.59 including precepts to cover the cost of the police and fire services.

The city council will still spend £365 million next year as planned. But relatively small amounts of savings and corresponding spending items put forward in a number of Lib Dem amendments are now included. With 25 councillors – 24 since a byelection last year – Labour had run the city since May 2007.

But the hung council's minority administration had tied its colours to the mast on long-term plans for household waste treatment.

Ms Holland and her finance chief, Councillor John Bees, made it clear during the budget debate that they would not continue if voted down on this issue.

It was the small Tory group, led by Councillor Richard Eddy, that delivered a fatal blow when they sided with the Lib Dems.

Mrs Janke's party's amendment means that Labour's proposal to spend £389,000 next year on furthering waste treatment plans already agreed with neighbouring councils in North Somerset and South Gloucestershire – both Tory-run – have been suspended.

Bristol and two of the other three West of England Partnership councils – not including Bath and North East Somerset – are applying for up to £90m of Government funding in the form of Private Finance Initiative (PFI) credits.

This has been intended to foot about half the bill for long-term waste treatment. No technology for this has been agreed but opponents have always feared an incinerator would eventually be chosen, with Avonmouth the likely location if it went ahead.

Conservative councillor for Avonmouth Spud Murphy said he was voting with the Lib Dems to oppose the plans because local people did not want an incinerator.

Mr Eddy said his whole group would back the Lib Dem amendment because they believed Labour was "wedded" to an incinerator.

But officers warned of swingeing penalties if the city council was obliged to breach its contract with its neighbouring councils. A letter from Amanda Deeks, chief executive of South Gloucestershire Council, was circulated. This said that the cost to the three partner councils if no scheme was agreed would be £357m over 30 years, or £12m a year.

It also said the cost of adopting a non-PFI scheme for financing waste treatment long-term would cost £142m, or £6m a year.

Carew Reynell, the council's chief finance officer, told the meeting there were four risks involved in the Lib Dems' proposal.

These included liabilities to the other councils, the loss of the PFI option for funding any form of waste disposal, the council's reputation as a partner with other authorities and severe penalties for using landfill if no alternative was found.

Mr Bees said: "This is extremely bad for Bristol and will have long-term consequences."

But former Lib Dem leader Councillor Steve Comer accused Labour of "bluff and bluster" and denied that PFI was "the only show in town".

He said there would be "a far greater risk to the environment and the people of Bristol" if the council and its partners pressed ahead with the PFI bid, including an incinerator as its "reference project".

In resigning Ms Holland said: "We believe that more than the waste strategy is at stake here.

"We are proud of the work we have done to transform the city council in the last 20 months, building better relationships with partners and giving confidence in Bristol to Government and other funders."

She said the council was an improving authority.

Mrs Janke said afterwards: "I didn't expect this, but it is an enormous privilege to serve the city as leader." She said she would be forming a new administration "over the next day or so".

The party would be holding a group meeting, she said, adding that there was a large number of issues that needed to be dealt with as a matter of urgency.