Salford council is led by the Labour group who have a large majority at the town hall.
Salford council is led by the Labour group.(Image: Jason Roberts / Manchester Evening News)
Salford council’s ruling Labour group has refused to be drawn on claims that it is ‘out of touch’ with the city’s residents.
Labour have been accused by the Lib Dems of bringing ‘scandal’ to the town hall, including through an ongoing investigation about a missing email complaint relating to deputy mayor Jack Youd, data over attendances at council meetings, and because of an increase to councillor allowances.
Salford Labour group has a large majority in the city, holding 47 seats out of 60 in the council chamber.
Labour councillors are involved in running the city and supporting residents, and Mayor Paul Dennett has led the town hall since 2016, winning re-election to his current role twice.
But when approached for comment, Salford Labour group declined to respond to the Lib Dem criticisms, other than pointing to a previous comment they gave last year about attendances.
The Lib Dems hold two seats at Salford council, both in the Salford Quays ward.
“Labour have been in charge for so long they’ve never been challenged properly, and it’s starting to become clear that they’ve got a bit complacent and incompetent,” said Paul Heilbron, a Lib Dem Councillor.
“They’ve had supermajorities for so long and they’ve always been able to get away with whatever they’re doing, but now the cracks are starting to show.”
Paul Dennett is Salford’s Mayor, leading the council with a large majority.(Image: Anthony Moss / MEN)
An increase to allowances paid to councillors was an issue highlighted by the Lib Dems.
Last year, councillors in Salford voted to approve an increase to their allowances, as recommended by an independent remuneration panel.
It meant Salford Mayor Paul Dennett’s allowance going up to £98,000 a year, up from his previous amount of £75,000.
Salford’s deputy city mayors also saw their allowances jump up from £39,000 to £49,000, and there was a £1,200 increase in basic allowances for councillors, up from £12,790 to £14,000.
The Lib Dems voted against the proposal at the time.
“We voted against the rise, councillors could have voted against it, they did that in Stockport [council],” Coun Heilbron said.
He added there are ‘some really good people in the Labour Party’ in Salford, but claimed a ‘culture of incompetence and complacency’ has taken hold.
Councillors’ attendance at meetings was another concern raised.
Salford council used to share attendance details of councillors on its website, but after criticism about attendance rates last year the council took the data down and said it would overhaul the system.
More than six months later the data has not yet gone back on the website.
Coun Heilbron is part of the Unwhipped group, an alliance of Salford council’s two Lib Dems along with independent Councillor Andrew Walters.
Lib Dem Councillor Paul Heilbron (right) was elected in January 2024.(Image: LDRS)
In a statement, the Unwhipped group said it is ‘extremely concerned’ about councillor attendance at meetings in Salford, and called for attendance data to be returned to Salford council’s website.
The Unwhipped group added: “Attendance is not a minor administrative detail. It goes to the core of representation, accountability, and respect for residents’ time.
“Restoring transparent attendance reporting and taking attendance seriously should be a minimum standard, not an optional extra.”
In response, a Salford council spokesperson said attendance figures at council meetings are available in the published minutes on the council’s committee pages.
They added: “The previous online attendance records were incomplete and did not reflect all formal council committee meetings.
“We have now updated the range of meetings covered and standardised how attendance and apologies are recorded to ensure greater consistency, accuracy and transparency.
“We are now carrying out final validation and data‑quality checks to make sure the public-facing data is complete and accurate before they are reinstated.”
In response to previous concerns about attendances at Salford council meetings last year, Labour pointed that its leaders – including the city mayor and deputy mayors – also hold roles which require external work on behalf of the council, such as at the Greater Manchester Combined Authority and other places.
The group previously explained that it requires councillors to give the highest level of dedication to the role, but said the reality is many have to juggle the responsibilities with families and careers outside of local government.
It previously added: “Whilst these duties are essential to advancing Salford’s interests, strengthening partnerships and securing investment, they can occasionally clash with internal council meetings.”
Salford Lib Dems claimed that concerns over how the council is being run by Labour could become a major part of the local elections in May.
Coun Heilbron said: “It seems to just have been a lot of that recently, pay rises, attendance, it just doesn’t feel right, it feels very out of touch.
“What’s going to happen in May is they’re going to have a massively rude awakening, they’re going to get a serious hammering.”
With the local elections just months away, the Lib Dems were asked if their comments about Labour are simply about political point-scoring?
Coun Heilbron responded: “You could say we’re playing politics if we only brought this stuff up in the January before the local elections, but since being elected two years ago it’s been a constant thing.
“Our mantra has always been to be a constructive opposition, and that goes two ways, when Labour does well we back them, but when they do bad we won’t stand by and let it go.
“We’ve been so highly pushing attendances, in full council questions, in committee questions, we’ve constantly raised these issues in the chamber.
“You can’t say it’s playing politics, we’ve always brought these issues up.”