Monday, June 22

Has a major change at County Hall left BBI without a voice?

Do the Boston Bypass Independents have a voice at County Hall any longer?
That's the question of the week after an apparent change of party affiliation by the only BBI member to get elected at the polls on Thursday 4th June.
A sharp-eyed reader of Boston Eye wrote to say that Lincolnshire County Council's website information on local councillors now lists Councillor Ramonde Newell as an Independent, although immediately after election day the result was plain for all to see.

And the county's breakdown of the new look council showed Councillor Newell as the sole BBI member seated among the 60 strong Tory group.
However, a look at the site on Friday now lists him as Independent under his personal entry - not only that but he now styles himself "Councillor Major Ray Newell," rather than Major (Ret'd) which he has previously adopted on occasion.


Look still further, and you will find the entry that we published at the weekend when we searched the "Find your county councillor" section by party. A search under Boston Bypass Independents produces the message "There are no elected councillors for that party."

However, a search under Independents finds Councillor Newell listed among the eight Independent councillors elected - true independents and also members of the Lincolnshire Independents, who still list Boston Borough Council Leader Richard Austin among their members as the "Independent County Councillor for Boston South" - even though he lost his seat at the recent election.
So, what on earth is going on?
The correspondent who drew our attention to the change of affiliation is very angry at what appears to have happened.
"This does make one think that democracy has gone way out of line in Boston. Here we have a candidate standing as a BBI candidate, and as soon as he is elected, changes his party.
"This is different (slightly) from situations like Richard Austin, who never actually changed his standing at Lincolnshire County Council from BBI (as I understand) although he was Treasurer of the Independent party. For someone to stand as a rep of one party and change immediately elected is contrary to his manifesto. OK, I know the BBI immediately went back on their manifesto when elected but this is a major scam on the electorate.
"There were only eleven votes between Cpouncillor Newell and Paul Mould (the Conservative candidate.)
"If Councillor Newell had stood as an Independent maybe the result would have been different.
"What if someone had stood as Conservative or Independent and immediately elected changed to BNP? There would have been a public outcry.
"I am certainly not amused by this latest piece of 'fixing' by the BBI."
Another reader asked Lincolnshire County Council's Democratic Services department if they could explain how it is apparently possible to switch parties, but they referred him to Councillor Newell for comment.
We e-mailed Councillor Newell on Thursday morning with just such a request, and sent a follow-up e-mail again on Friday morning.
So far he has not responded.
Some explaining needs to be done, but whether it will be seems very unlikely.
Can you shed any light about what's going on?

You can write to us at boston.eye@googlemail.com Your e-mails will be treated in confidence and published anonymously if requested.

No comments: