Call for Councillors to Resign or face a Vote of No Confidence

11.57.04am BST (GMT +0100) Mon 8th Jun 2009

The Liberal Democrat Group Leader on South Cambridgeshire District Council has today called on Cllr Simon Edwards - up to recently in charge of the Housing Futures project - and Cllr Ray Manning (Leader of the Council) to resign following the massive rejection of the Conservative Housing Futures project by South Cambridgeshire tenants.

Cllr Sebastian Kindersley was speaking after the results of the Ballot were made public on Thursday June 4th. Cllr Kindersley commented:

"From the very start of this misguided and mismanaged project Cllr Edwards and Cllr Manning rode roughshod over the legitimate concerns raised by others. They were determined to blindly implement Conservative party policy without a concern for the financial realities for the South Cambridgeshire taxpayer. South Cambridgeshire citizens - whether tenants or not - have now lost a considerable amount of money.

Repeatedly we asked for the case presented to Tenants to be a balanced one; with proper information provided and all sides of the case put for public consideration. Our concerns were derided and the Conservatives actually went as far as to vote against this.

Repeatedly we asked for a delay in the consultation process as so many different mistakes and misjudgements were being made in the rush to ditch our Council housing. This was also refused.

Housing Futures was the single major issue for the Conservative administration and it has backfired on a massive scale - they completely misjudged the mood of our citizens. What is worse is that it has wasted nearly £800,000 of our money on a project that was doomed from the start due to Cllr Manning and Cllr Edward's refusal to make a balanced and transparent presentation of information to tenants.

This so-called consultation exercise patronized tenants and was a flagrant waste of precious financial resource, spent on forcefully promoting a simplistic message.

Is this arrogant, high-handed and willful negligence what South Cambridgeshire citizens want from their Leaders? The answer is no - and today we call on Cllrs Manning and Edwards to resign. The integrity of the democratic process and of the political leadership of South Cambridgeshire District Council have been badly damaged.

I intend to ask Councillors to support a Motion of No Confidence in the Leader and Cabinet at an Extraordinary Meeting of the Council. The Council already has a meeting planned for June 18th"and that would seem a timely and appropriate occasion to take this matter to conclusion.