Lisburn and Castlereagh City Council: Secret sessions to save blushes or pockets?

However, a Lisburn and Castlereagh City Council member has defended the practice, saying public representatives must adhere to legal advice given by Council officials.

The pair spoke out amid ongoing controversy about the number of confidential hearings which neither the media or public can see or hear.

In an upcoming leisure and community meeting this month there are 12 items, or over 60% of the agenda, due to be held in secret and covering issues including spending on a primary school, traffic management and Lagan Valley Leisureplex.

Downshire East councillor, Alex Swan (UUP) who is serving his first term on the council has called for full transparency.

He said: “They don’t turn off the cameras in Westminster, so why should we? Surely the public and the ratepayers, have a right to know how their money is being spent, but perhaps more importantly, what the councillors’ thinking is behind the decision to spend the money in the first place?

“I feel that all too often council committees go into confidential ‘mode’ when it’s not absolutely necessary for the effective running of the council. I suspect a good number of the newer members of council would agree with me.

“There are times when it’s absolutely necessary to discuss an issue privately, however a cynic could say that all too often it’s done to hide councillors’ blushes.”

However, the use of confidential sessions has been seen by a career councillor as an essential legal protection for his fellow members.

Castlereagh East Alderman David Drysdale (DUP) who has been an elected representative for over 20 years, believes a new legal complexity has been generated for the local authority.

He said: “The public needs to understand that the amount of responsibility councillors now have is far greater than it was when the legacy councils were operating.

“We are now given legal advice to go into confidential session and this is done due to data protection and other legal matters. Many find the new super-councils too austere.

“Though as councillors we are making many decisions now on multi-million pound matters. At times when we are in confidential session you can think, come on here let’s have a bit of common sense and you can roll your eyes to say, is this absolutely necessary?

“However, we are guided by the legal advice to protect anyone from being sued. Northern Ireland for some reason has a very different access to judicial reviews , which can cost a small amount of money for someone to take action compared to the main land, so pre-caution is required.”