As the result of a decision by just three Conservative, “Aberdeen Labour” and Independent councillors, the next meeting of the city council will not be held until 14th December.

As the last meeting of the council was on 3rd March, that means there will be a gap of more than nine months between council meetings!

Full council meetings are where many of the major decisions of the council are taken. Aberdeen’s Liberal Democrat councillors believe a council meeting planned for 24th August should have gone ahead with councillors taking part online. Aberdeenshire Council has met throughout the lockdown using Skype and there is absolutely no reason why the city council could not meet using a similar system.

People expect their local councillors to be able to hold those in control of the council to account and to be involved in making the key decisions about the council and council services. The action by the Conservative, “Aberdeen Labour” and Independent councillors in cancelling the August council meeting makes this much more difficult.