Council Criticised for not progressing Freedom of the City for women

12.08.00pm UTC (GMT +0000) Thu 24th Jul 2008

Calls have been renewed for women to be admitted to the Freedom of the City, with campaigners hitting out at the delay and inaction of the City Council administration.

At a Norwich City Council meeting on Tuesday, Liberal Democrat councillors branded the rules 'antiquated' and 'outmoded'. Under the current regulations women are not allowed to be admitted to the freedom of the City and the daughters of freeman are not allowed to inherit the title from their father. The Liberal Democrats believe that the City Council may be in breach on European legislation and has a moral duty to act.

The issue has been discussed many times before but it received fresh impetus when Sue Howes, from North Walsham launched her fight to be allowed to take the title of freeman from her 79-year-old father Ron Morrison in November last year. The issue was taken up by North Norfolk Lib Dem MP Norman Lamb but he was frustrated when the City Council failed to reply to his request for further information.

At the meeting, despite the strength of the argument, the Labour administration failed to offer any guarantees that the matter would be resolved and claimed that costs were too high for the council to take action. It was revealed that the council is still waiting on overdue reports to be completed before it decides its next step.

Liberal Democrat Parliamentary Spokesman for Norwich South, Simon Wright, said: "We need action now on this issue. There has been far too much dragging of feet from the City Council. It is time for the Council to set a timetable to resolve this issue. There have been enough excuses. The current situation is discriminatory and wrong. The politicians seem to recognise this, so they must sort it out urgently."

Notes:

Liberal Democrat Cllr for Thorpe Hamlet, Joyce Divers, asked the following question at the council meeting ;

"As Council is aware the rules of admission of Freemen in the City are antiquated and outmoded with women not being granted the same rights as men. The Council may have obligations to change these rules under ECHR (European Court of Human Rights) legislation and may, through section 239 of the 1972 Local Government Act, have the power to promote a local bill to enact change. Could the Executive Member update council on what progress has been made in investigating this issue?"

The custom of appointing freeman dates back to the 12th and 13th centuries. The freeman is a largely ceremonial honour but can carry with it financial benefits, since Freeman of the City and their dependents are eligible for pensions and grants from the Norwich Town Close Estate Charity. Grants of this type may fall within the ambit ECHR (European Court of Human Rights) legislation, and access to them must therefore be non-discriminatory. As a public authority, Norwich City Council cannot act in a manner which is contrary to the Convention unless required to do so by virtue of primary legislation. The guild of freeman admission are merely customary, the council may be under an obligation to interpret them in a non-discriminatory manner.

The City Council also has powers to promote local legislation under the 1972 Local Government Act (Power to promote local bills) which could be used to address rights of admission. A parliamentary bill can also change the rules, a private members bill was introduced in the House of Lords in 2002 but it failed when parliament was dissolved that autumn.