Main menu:
The Tories try to claim they've changed. Many thanks to the office of John Spellar MP for this information on what the Tories are up to.
Peterborough Conservatives rocked by convictions for vote-rigging
Three Conservative council candidates including two former councillors, one of whom was an ex-mayor of the city have been convicted on counts of forgery after an investigation into postal and proxy votes. They all received custodial sentences. (Source: BBC online, 8th October 2008).
Basildon Tory Leader says We do not need more affordable housing
Basildon Councils Conservative Leader stunned Labour members of the council when he claimed at a cabinet meeting that we do not need more affordable housing, but there is a shortage of aspirational housing especially in the new town. (Source: The Basildon Evening Echo, 18th November 2008). Basildon District Council has 4084 households on its housing waiting list.
Fences Go Up, Public Excluded - Hammersmith & Fulham Tories give local park over to the polo set
Hammersmith & Fulham Council has rented out Hurlingham Park in Fulham to World Polo Ltd who will be organising the traditional sport of the super rich as an exclusive spectator event. Locals believe that grounds that once hosted school sports days, families relaxing and kids
playing will next year be used exclusively by the champagne swilling jet set.
Big Brother is a Tory
The Tories love to gripe on about Labours snooper state, they have even published a policy document which pledges to ban councils using their surveillance powers except in the case of the most serious crimes, with magistrate and councillor approval needed before it can take place. In an article in the Daily Telegraph shadow secretary of state for communities and local government Eric Pickles is quoted as saying -
Peoples privacy and liberty have been undermined by the disproportionate use of surveillance powers by town halls. Taxpayers money is being wasted on bankrolling an army of town hall spies acting out their James Bond fantasies.
The very same Telegraph article then goes on to highlight three cases where the local council has acted in a particularly over zealous manner. Unfortunately for Eric all three examples are from Tory run councils. (Source: The Telegraph, 1st Dec 08)
Guildford Borough Council used covert site observations and a secret test purchaser to see if a nursery was selling pot plants in breach of its planning permission.
Mendip District Council used covert officers to attend a bird market to check that traders were not unlawfully selling to the public, which should only be done by a licensed pet shop.
Hambleton District Council which has William Hague as a local MP routinely uses covert video cameras to spy on potential dog fouling.
In another case Tory run Cambridgeshire County Council have been accused by campaigners of acting like a jumped up version of the A-Team after council officers went undercover to monitor whether eight newspaper delivery boys employed by a local post office had the required paperwork. Local Tory MP Andrew Lansley criticised his Tory colleagues running the council saying These powers should be used only for the scope they were intended, which is to tackle serious crime and terrorism.
(Source: The Telegraph, 6th December 2008).