Cllr. Mike Wood: Local Tories Still Twisting the Truth

Letter to the Bishop's Stortford 'Observer' dated December 2nd 2010 from Cllr. Mike Wood LibDem Group Leader, East Herts Council:-

Gareth Giles points out the misleading statement from local Conservatives in one of their leaflets about the allowances paid to East Herts District Councillors (Brilliant or Misleading? Observer letters, November 25th).

What the Liberal Democrat councillors voted against was a Conservative proposal which would have had the effect of overturning the recommendations of the Independent Remuneration Panel on the basic allowances paid to all councillors.

Virtually all Conservative councillors voted in favour of retaining the high allowances paid to the leader of the council, his fellow executive members and some committee chairman. These allowances are among the highest in the East of England region. The panel had recommended that these be substantially reduced but the Conservatives ignored its wishes and retained them.

I wish the Conservatives would stop 'twisting' the truth. When I wrote to the, then, local government minister, Rosie Winterton, asking her to intervene, she declined and said it was for the electorate of East Herts to pass a verdict on the actions of the Conservative administration at the elections nest May.