The Alliance-led council voted down a divisive political motion by the Conservative group which sought to use the recent changes to Winter Fuel Payments to paint local councillors as something they are not.
Instead, the Portfolio Holder for Wellbeing and Age Friendly Communities, Councillor Sam Coleman, outlined for the Council the steps that had already been taken to identify pensioners eligible for Pension Credit within the District, as well as highlighting the Council’s work on tackling poverty over recent years; including an Anti-Poverty Strategy, the adoption of the Socio-Economic Duty and a full Council Tax Reduction scheme.
Further, Councillor Coleman committed to bringing forward a motion in the new year which would seek to address some of the concerns around pensioner poverty that had been raised in the debate.
Councillor Sue Prochak MBE added that the Conservative motion, likely a template that had been used elsewhere earlier in the year, was asking for a proposal to be changed that was in fact no longer a proposal, but instead had been passed as a law. This meant that, as well as being politically motivated and insincere, the motion was actually out of date and unactionable.
Despite attempts to deny the political nature of the motion by Conservative Councillors, the motion was resoundingly defeated in the meeting.