All Conservative councillors walked out of tonight’s council meeting (September 21) after labelling Labour’s refusal to debate a petition to save an advice service a “farce”.

In the first full council meeting in 10 weeks, after the summer break, a request for Enfield Council to reconsider its decision not to renew the lease of the Federation for Enfield Community Associations (FECA) in Mottingham Road, Edmonton, was supposed to be heard.

If a petition has more than 3,124 valid signatures it will be debated at Full Council. The FECA petition has over 4,000 signatures.

FECA, which has operated since 1972, is currently in a court battle with the council over its future.

In April 2015 FECA’s previous tenancy agreement was ended, and despite months of negotiations they were told at the start of this year the council wanted to repossess their site.

A court battle began on April 2016 and is ongoing, hence why the matter could not be debated in public.

A motion to bring a behind-closed-doors debate forward from the end of the meeting was voted down by 37 councillors to 19 – all Labour councillors voting against it – so the Conservatives walking out to hearty cheers from the public gallery, packed with FECA supporters holding banners.

Conservative councillor Joanne Laban, leading the opposition in the absence of group leader Cllr Terry Neville, announced in the chamber, shouting over the Mayor, Cllr Bernadette Lappage: “These people are being left behind. This side of the council chamber are leaving this farce of a meeting now.”

Outside the chamber, Cllr Laban spoke exclusively to the Enfield Independent.

She said: “There is significant public support for this service in a ward which is entirely under the Labour group’s control. This community organisation helps people.

“We need to look at the moral argument that this organisation helps people. 4,000 people should be listened to. By shuffling around the agenda, they are not listening to people, and at the end of the day that is why we are here. This proves the council no longer cares.

“Why didn’t we go straight into part two [where matters are debated in private] so people can wait and hear the outcome? They don’t want to come out and debate it. It is unacceptable.

“If they’ve got a problem with FECA, they have got to come out and tell them. It is time for them to come clean.”

FECA’s headquarters is in Jubilee ward – Mayor Cllr Bernadette Lappage is a ward councillor for the area.

Later on the agenda, the Conservative’s listed business involved speaking about FECA, under the subject of accused “democratic deficit” in Enfield Council.

Responding to the walkout, Deputy Leader of the council Achilleas Georgiou said the opposition had shown a lack of respect for democracy by not attending a meeting for which they were elected.

He said: “There is a legal situation, we have got to see it through the courts. We are happy to have that debate, if they want to come back into the chamber and have that part two debate we will have it.

“What they are doing is theatrics, it is showboating. They think the chamber is a stage. It is not.

“They can play politics, think they are at the Globe playing Shakespeare. We are not into that. We want to take real decision on behalf of Enfield’s people”.