Conservative councillor Stephen West resigns from the party (From Basingstoke Gazette)
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Conservative councillor Stephen West resigns from the party
9:51am Friday 21st September 2012 in Local By Gazette reporter
Tadley councillor Stephen West has resigned from the Conservative party.
At a closed-door Conservative group meeting last night (September 20), the Tadley Central ward member handed in his resignation.
The move means the Tory’s lose their overall majority in the council chamber with 30 Conservatives, to 30 opposition members.
In a letter to Rod Bowker of the North West Hampshire Conservative Association, Cllr West said he had become “increasingly at odds with my party”.
And in the letter he took a swipe at Basingstoke Conservatives. “Our administration at Basingstoke and Deane is in a state of paralysis as leader Clive Sanders continues to struggle to get a grip on planning issues and the divisions within the Conservative group,” he said.
“As a borough councillor, I am no longer willing to be led somewhere where I don’t want to go and for that matter, where the electorate don’t want me to go.”
