South Wales Evening Post - 1 August 2008
Councillors staged a mass walkout following a decision to debate Swansea Council's controversial eGovernment scheme in private.
When a motion for the public to be allowed to stay for the debate was defeated, every Labour and Conservative member of the council left the meeting in protest.
Controversy over the issue has raged all week since the Post revealed that a confidential council agenda revealed that IT firm CapGemini had told the council that the work on the failed payroll system could amount to £8 million.
Council leaders have since stressed that the final bill payable will be negotiated down.
However, at last night's full council meeting, the opposition parties asked for the full issue to be debated in public - against the recommendations of the council's legal officer David Daycock - but were blocked by 35 votes to 32.
The leaders of Labour and the Conservatives, David Phillips and Rene Kinzett, then led their groups from the meeting.
Councillor Kinzett said: "These matters have huge public interest."They can't hide behind this. It is about time these matters were disclosed to the Swansea public.
"What is the point of 72 councillors discussing it in private?"
Councillor Phillips added: "This is a matter that should be in the public domain. We are not going to go along with a council that holds these in private."
Council leader Chris Holley said the opposition leaders had behaved "like children".
He said: "We needed to have the discussion. For the opposition, in the shape of David Phillips and Rene Kinzett, to drop and throw their toys out of the pram because they don't get their own way, shows total disregard to the council tax payers and citizens of this city."
See tomorrow's Evening Post for the full story on last night's meeting.
