Democracy was suspended at the recent Southport Area Committee as the discussion of the three local schools threatened with closure was kept off the agenda and not allowed for debate at the meeting.

Indignation at this decision reached breaking point when Conservative leader Les Byrom protested at the gagging of a free and open debate on this subject.

A further deterioration of the situation exists where the instructions for submission of a question to the open forum state “The first 60 minutes of each meeting will be set aside for an Open Forum” , yet this session has been put back to much later on all 3 Area Meetings that have now taken place. By this time some people have already left, including some Councillors who should still be present to answer the questions being asked.