Labour councillors frustrated at abstentions allowing in Tory chair of North West Leicestershire District Council
North West Leicestershire's Labour group has described an Independent councillor's decision to abstain in Tuesday's vote to elect a new District Council chair as 'disappointing'
Measham North's Conservative councillor, Paul Lees, was selected to replace the outgoing Ashby-based chair, Cllr Kenny Horn.
It means that the council's Conservative/Liberal Democrat alliance will continue to have the casting vote in future council decisions.
Labour had proposed Cllr Terri Eynon as chair for the forthcoming 12 months.
But a vote of 19-17 went in Cllr Lees' favour.
Local Labour councillors have since issued a statement attacking two independent members for abstaining in the vote.
In particular, they have highlighted Cllr Ray Sutton, representing the Kegworth Ward, who was named as Chair of the Audit and Governance Committee later in the evening.
The statement from Labour reads: "At Tuesday's full council meeting, two abstentions from Independent councillors enabled the ruling Alliance group, consisting of Conservatives, Lib Dems and two other Independents, to retain the Chair of the Council.
"The vote for Chair, the first major item of business at the Annual Meeting, had been expected to be closely contested once again, with most votes during the previous two years split 19-19.
"However, the abstentions tipped the balance in favour of the incumbent Alliance, allowing Cllr Paul Lees to take over as Chair, enabling the Alliance to remain in power on future decisions by the Chair's casting vote.
"Further proceedings later in the evening saw Cllr Sutton, one of the abstaining Independents, elected by the Alliance as Chair of the Audit and Governance Committee.
Following the meeting, Labour Group Leader, Cllr John Legrys said: "Residents deserve clarity and accountability from their elected representatives, with transparency being at the heart of this.
"It was disappointing to see an independent councillor abstain during the Chair and Leadership vote, two crucial decisions for the council each year, only to see him elected by the Alliance as Chair of the Audit and Governance Committee later in the evening.
"The Labour Group will continue to scrutinise the administration's decisions over the following months and remain ready to run the Council should the ruling Alliance coalition break down."
Cllr Sutton told the meeting on Tuesday: "Ahead of this meeting, given my unsuccessful attempt to be elected at County, I did consult my 150 residents on my database to ask their opinion and they were very much of the opinion, and people may take a different view, that independence was the thing they wanted.
"Thinking for yourself, not being partisan, and being entirely looking to the future.
"We don't have Reform in this room. It's no secret that Reform showed us perhaps what was a dislike of the main parties, and that's all the main parties, that are represented in this room, apart from the few of us that are independent.
"So I do want to just say this, that we do our best in these situations because we're here to do our best for North West Leicestershire district and our residents above all else.
"And a large part of my electorate don't really care which side, but they certainly don't want me to be extreme.
"They do want me to work together as best as possible for the well-being, and there are some very big issues facing us, and so I think stability does have some merit in the situation with devolution and so on.
"Voting tonight has been very difficult on this and I'm very pleased with the way both leaders have spoken to me in the last few days, but I do want it to be recognised that my residents would not want me to be voting positively in this vote for either leader."
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