Defecting Adur Tories told to hand back members' allowance

5:00pm Saturday 5th December 2009 in News By Richard Gurner

Two Conservative councillors who left to join the Liberal Democrats should pay back their members' allowance because of their poor attendance record – their former Tory bosses have said.

Adur councillor Carl English has joined colleague Gavin Ayling in leaving the local Conservative Party and then joining the Lib Dems.

The pair have made much of their move through various statements.

Coun English, through an internet blog, said: “Since my election in 2006, I have found it increasingly difficult to defend Tory policies, locally or nationally.

“On the doorstep, when people have attacked the Tories, I have found myself agreeing with them more and more that Adur is being let down by the Conservative administration."

However their former party bosses are demanding they pay their allowances back because of poor attendance at council meetings and have said that both councillors had been de-selected as Tory candidates for next year's local elections.

Adur District Council leader Neil Parkin and Worthing Borough Councillor Kevin Skepper, who is the chairman of East Worthing and Shoreham Conservative Association, are behind calls for the new Lib Dem members to pay back their allowances.

Coun English and Coun Ayling were yesterday unavailable for comment.

Comments(13)

Billys back says...
5:06pm Sat 5 Dec 09


If you switch parties after being elected you should immediately resign and force a by-election....but then that would require something called ...."honour".... something sadly lacking in all politicians at present!

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dogsdinner says...
5:25pm Sat 5 Dec 09

If they haven't been turning up of course they should pay it back. Doesn't sound like Ayling was ever a tory but knew he never stood a chance of being elected as anything else. So, taking allowances for nothing, dishonourable and deceiving the people he purported to want to represent.

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pyallop says...
5:52pm Sat 5 Dec 09

The next Government needs to change the rules so councillors are paid by the meeting. Under the current system you can turn up to a couple of meetings a year and collect a full allowance of several thousand pounds which is disgraceful. Most elected councillors work hard but there are always exceptions. I wonder when we will hear a response from these two on this. They were quick enough making news about their political switch.

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Keith Sunderland says...
10:18pm Sat 5 Dec 09

I tend to agree with you pyallop but when I suggested it to some guys at County they said that all that happened there was that there was a proliferation of meetings which took a very short time! I originally asked this because one county councillor who had just beaten me told me that he only did it to supplement his pension! The sooner we have enough good people wanting to be councillors the sooner we can get rid of people like this and the need to try and make rules to catch them. If any one would like to get involved and is prepared to work hard please stand..

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RSMYTHERMAN says...
5:02pm Sun 6 Dec 09

The reason why the system was changed was to reflect the wide ranging role an elected Councillor. Being paid for just turning up is a joke. The work of elected Councillors's is much broader than making speeches in the town hall.
Most Worthing / Adur decisions are taken behind closed doors anyway. The REAL debate happens on the internet on sites like this!

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StoneyB says...
7:04pm Sun 6 Dec 09

Amazing. The Tories are supposed to be doing well yet they are losing councillors. Interesting.

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pyallop says...
9:26pm Sun 6 Dec 09

RSMYTHERMAN wrote:
The reason why the system was changed was to reflect the wide ranging role an elected Councillor. Being paid for just turning up is a joke. The work of elected Councillors's is much broader than making speeches in the town hall. Most Worthing / Adur decisions are taken behind closed doors anyway. The REAL debate happens on the internet on sites like this!
Payments could be made for the percentatge of meetings attended. ie. Attend 50% then you get only 50% of the annual allowance. That would encourage councillors to turn up and represent the views of those who elected them.

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Cornfedapache says...
8:55am Mon 7 Dec 09

I assume, although the story doesn't say, that the poor attendance record is from when they were Tories, as well as when they were LDs.
So it's interesting that they weren't asked to pay the allowances back until they switched parties...
I could be reading it wrong, but...

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Keith Sunderland says...
9:25am Mon 7 Dec 09

Very interesting observation cornfedapache.

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dogsdinner says...
9:33am Mon 7 Dec 09

"Coun English, through an internet blog....." Which blog is this? Oh, Councillor Ayling's blog. So he announced it to virtually no-one then.

Presumably now they're the official opposition in Adur, one of these ratters will be claiming the additional allowance for the leader of the opposition. Extra money for doing sod all. What a joke! The pair of them should resign!

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dogsdinner says...
9:35am Mon 7 Dec 09

RSMYTHERMAN wrote:
The reason why the system was changed was to reflect the wide ranging role an elected Councillor. Being paid for just turning up is a joke. The work of elected Councillors's is much broader than making speeches in the town hall. Most Worthing / Adur decisions are taken behind closed doors anyway. The REAL debate happens on the internet on sites like this!
Being paid for not turning up is a rather bigger joke - on us!

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Gubbins says...
9:18pm Mon 7 Dec 09

What a load of b - - - - - ks. Lets face it, the Liberal Democrats have been stitched up and fallen in love with a couple of tory rejects. Score: tories 1 lib-losers 0

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Gubbins says...
5:40pm Wed 9 Dec 09

The Conservatives have set a good example here, if elected Councillors fail to perform then deselection is the answer. As for the Liberal Democrats, what can one say ? ! I notice they have one or two poor attendees as well.

Anyone can ask for Councillors attendance figures now.

Neil Parkin and Kevin Skepper have shown a bit of 'bottle' on this one. Will the Lib-Dems have the courage to deselect their poor performers ?

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