Two councillors said that they were gagged when they tried to raise alleged breaches of election rules by Brighton and Hove City Council.
The two Conservatives have called for an investigation, saying that the council promised action after the first breach earlier this year before doing the same thing again before another by-election last month.
Councillors Alistair McNair and Anne Meadows cited the statutory code covering council publicity in which it says: “Local authorities should pay particular regard to the legislation governing publicity during the period of heightened sensitivity before elections.”
The pair said that the Labour-run council published a press release about its plans for a new £65 million swimming pool and leisure centre at the King Alfred site in Hove.
They said that the announcement was made just days before the Queen’s Park by-election on Thursday 18 September.
They added that Labour councillors actively promoted the project on social media in the run up to polling day and called it a “deliberate attempt to influence voters on a key city-wide issue”.
The incident last month followed an announcement as voters went to the polls for the Westbourne and Poets Corner by-election on Thursday 1 May.
The two Tories said that leading Labour councillor Tim Rowkins was featured in a story on the council’s website announcing a free one-month extension for garden waste collections.
They said that after the May incident, there was an agreement for remedial action to be undertaken by the council’s monitoring officer and director for governance and law.
Councillors McNair and Meadows wanted to propose a motion asking for a report to a scrutiny committee and an apology from the leader of the council, Labour councillor Bella Sankey, for the breaches.
They submitted a “notice of motion” to be discussed by the full council but their notice was rejected, preventing them from raising the matter at the meeting in the way that they had planned.
When the council refused to include the motion in the agenda, it said: “This issue would be appropriate to raise as a standards complaint against a member and as such needs to be raised and investigated through the standards procedure.
“It is not appropriate to seek to circumnavigate that process and use a (motion) to launch an investigation. That would also be a substantive decision which again is not appropriate for a notice of motion.”
Councillor McNair said that the King Alfred press release could have waited for a few days to miss the pre-election period of heightened sensitivity when councils are expected to take particular care.
The Conservative leader said: “We did mention a request for an apology from Bella Sankey (in the draft motion) and I said we’d get rid of that. We just want an investigation into it. That’s all that matters.
“But we were told allegations need to be investigated through our standards or disciplinary process and not via debate at full council – but without any names. There were councillors who were named in the press and whose call is that?”
Councillor Meadows said: “There was a lot of talk about (how the motion) could identify people and we can’t have that. But we’re not there to identify which officer has done what.
“It’s happened. The first the council acknowledged. The second happened and the council has done nothing in between.
“It feels like the Labour administration tried very hard to sway the election.”
The council said that it did not wish to comment further on the issue.
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