A LEADING Labour member of Thurrock Council has accused the ruling Tory group of imposing a gagging order on a senior council officer preventing him from providing information to a member of the opposition.

Former Education portfolio holder Carl Morris has been angered by a lack of answers to questions he first posed at a recent full council meeting.

He did not attend the meeting, but time ran out on the members' question session before he could have asked them anyway. After the meting Coun Morris asked senior education officer Steve Beynon if he could provide answers to the 11 questions, ten of which were requests for statistical information.

However Labour's Education spokesperson Coun Morrris says a gag has been imposed by portfolio holder for children, education and families, Coun Emma Woods.

He said: "I'm disappointed but not surprised Coun Woods is seeking to manipulate to rules and regulations to prevent officers giving me the information I asked for. What has she got to hide?

"I tabled a series of questions about the Council School transport budget and copied them out of courtesy to Cllr Woods at the same time, so she had plenty of time to prepare.

"Coun Woods told the officer that as I wasn't at the council meeting 'Coun Morris is now not going to get the answers.

"These rules may govern council questions; they do not prevent any member from asking any officer for information.

"It astonishes me the lengths Tories are prepared to go to prevent information getting to the opposition. This Council has been engulfed in secrecy since the Tories took power in June."

Council leader Anne Cheale said: "Once again I find myself despairing at the levels to which Coun Morris and Labour will stoop to in order to make cheap political gain.

"The fact is that Coun Morris placed a number of questions on the agenda for the October full council and, in the meantime, decided it was more important to attend a football match instead.

"As he very well knows, if a councillor does not attend a meeting, then any questions they have forwarded fall and do not get answered. This rule is the same now as it was under Labour. Coun Morris could well have resubmitted the questions to full council on November 24 but political point-scoring is more his style.

"But then again, when the former Deputy Leader of the Council goes to a West Ham football match instead of a meeting he was elected to attend, then this speaks for itself."