BOROUGH council leader Clive Sanders has axed one of his Cabinet colleagues and a second one has stood down.

Last Tuesday, it was announced that Councillor Donald Sherlock, Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council’s planning chief, has resigned, and Cllr Elaine Still, Cabinet member for communities, sport and culture, has had her post axed by council leader Clive Sanders in a bid to save money. Her portfolio will be dished out to the remaining nine-strong Cabinet.

“We want to make savings where we can,” said Cllr Sanders. “It is a possibility to spread her role to other places.”

Cllr Sanders dismissed speculation that Cllr Still had been sacked because of her public opposition to the Cabinet’s decision to set the house-building target at between 730 and 770 new homes a year, rather than 594.

In March, Cllr Still voted with a motion tabled by former Conservative, Independent Basing councillor Onnalee Cubitt, demanding a 594 yearly housing target.

The majority of Cllr Still’s Conservative colleagues abstained from the vote, or voted against it, but Cllr Still spoke in favour of the motion, and even dubbed her speech as “Still’s last stand”.

However, Cllr Sanders denied that her opposition led to the decision to axe her post. “It has nothing to do with it,” he said. “I can honestly say, hand on heart, that was never a consideration – you can’t start firing people because you disagree with them.”

Cllr Still has been a Cabinet member for seven years, and recently was in the spotlight over the future of Basingstoke Live, which she finally agreed should go ahead in 2013.

“I have been honoured to serve on the Cabinet for so long,” she said. “My views are at loggerheads with the direction that Cabinet is taking on housing numbers. They are looking at a higher number. I am arguing that we can go lower.”

Cllr Sherlock said he decided to quit following a controversial “call-in” meeting which challenged his decision to allocate 200 extra homes in Whitchurch, and 35 in Overton.

It later forced him to scrap a list outlining where thousands of new homes will be built over the next 15-years – a vital part of the borough’s development blueprint, the Local Plan.

He said: “I am very grateful to the leader (Cllr Sanders) for giving me the opportunity to have served in the Cabinet as a member for planning.

“However, I felt I could not give the very necessary commitment that is needed to take the Local Plan forward to the next stage.”

Cllr Mark Ruffell, chairman of the borough’s planning and infrastructure committee, will replace Cllr Sherlock, and Cllr Paul Miller will be put forward to fill Cllr Ruffell’s former role.