Campaigners gathered outside Kingston Council on Tuesday night as part of a last-minute fight to stop changes to the council’s constitution that would see more than a 2,000 per cent increase in the number of signatures required for certain petitions.

Angry residents also devised bingo cards which mocked some of the phrases typically used at council meetings including “this is a meeting in public, not a public meeting.”

Despite the protests the changes passed by 29 votes to six, following party lines.

Now, the threshold for community call-in petitions, which can be used by residents to stop or delay council decisions, will require the signatures of two per cent of the electorate, which is currently 2,310 people. This is an increase of 2,210 per cent from the old threshold of 100 signatures.

Deputations, where residents can speak for up to five minutes before being questioned by councillors, have also been removed with immediate effect.

This has been replaced with a new ‘Question Time’ that allows anybody to ask questions for 30 minutes at Full Council meetings.

Members of the public can also give views and raise issues at the Neighbourhood Committees and individual Strategic Committee meetings.

The council said this would allow residents to influence and shape decisions much earlier in the decision-making process, and only call-in decisions at full council that concern a large number of residents.

Surrey Comet:

However, some residents who attended last night’s meeting claimed this would prevent minority groups from bringing forward issues concerning them as it was “impossible” to get the new number of signatures.

In a last-ditch attempt to persuade councillors to vote against the new proposals, six of last night’s 14 deputations criticised elements of the new constitution, ranging from the “unfettered” power of the mayor’s veto on questions, to the lack of consultation with the public.

Lib Dem councillors, highlighting the long-running time of the meeting, which went well beyond midnight, said changes were needed to ensure the main business of the meeting could be dealt with in a timely manner.

Cllr Foulder-Hughes added that deputations do not work because they do not allow councillors to engage and debate with residents. He also claimed that they give the impression you have to be ‘an expert’ to speak and do not allow ordinary residents to take part.

However, Conservative Cllr Ian George said the changes were too heavy-handed, adding: “We are using a sledgehammer to crack a nut.”

Opposition Leader Cllr Kevin Davis called for amendment to the motion, but this failed.

He concluded: “The biggest sin is that nobody consulted the public.”

In a statement released on the Kingston Conservatives website he said: “Kingston’s Lib Dem Councillors seem to have let the power go to their heads. The Council Leader is acting like Trump, and will not accept any questioning or criticism at all. It’s a frightening attack on local democracy.”

When asked about the lack of public consultation on the changes after the meeting, council leader Liz Green said: “I think if I said to a resident ‘would you like to be involved in the constitutional changes’ most residents don’t read constitutions. They are interested in services like what the parks and roads are like…I can promise you nobody has ever raised on the doorstep with me ‘I have a problem with your constitution’.

“I think there’s something around telling people to come to a neighbourhood committee, and I think there is more we can do about that. But all of the changes we we’re putting through we’re not changing how you interact with that neighbourhood committee.”