Art gallery Tory told: Vote with party or we will ‘kick you out’

Published: 4 March 2010
by RICHARD OSLEY and DAN CARRIER

A CONSERVATIVE councillor was warned she would be kicked out of the party after threatening to break the party line and vote against cuts   to community computer centres.

The party’s high command denied that an explicit threat was made to Councillor Rebecca Hossack, the energetic art gallery owner who represents Bloomsbury, but she was clearly distressed in the corridors outside Monday’s full council meeting.

Some party sources said she had been threatened with “deselection” and that the treatment was tantamount to “bullying her into a corner”.

Against party policy, she said she wanted cuts to UK Online centres – places dotted around the borough where people without computers can get onto the internet to, for example, look for jobs or housing – to be reversed.

The affected centres have been one of the losers in a budget, pared down to ensure another freeze on council tax.

At Monday’s meeting, computer users had pleaded, in the intimidating arena of the main chamber, for the facilities to be spared £150,000 worth of cuts, telling how getting access to  the web had helped them.

While some centres will still get funding, others will miss out altogether. The case has led to scrutiny over the way decisions are made at the Town Hall and questions over whether deputations made by members of the public ever stand a chance of swaying the debate.

The lack of power for backbench councillors to make a significant contribution has also been raised.
Cllr Hossack said afterwards: “Why do we have deputations if we aren’t going to listen to the people who come here?”

Asked whether she would still be standing for the party in the May 6 local elections, she said: “Who knows? I might be deselected in the morning.”

Labour and Green Party councillors had asked for a straight up vote on funding of the centres – but deputy mayor Lulu Mitchell ruled out the last minute amendment to the Liberal Democrat and Conservatives’ final coalition budget.

While rival councillors traded verbal blows inside the chamber, the real action was taking place in the corridor where Conservatives tried to pacify Cllr Hossack with promises to review the cuts.

Labour members later walked out en masse, only to come back in waving a ring-binder file containing the constitution, arguing that there were no legal grounds to prevent a vote.

Outside the chamber, Cllr Hossack told Labour members: “They threatened to kick me out of the party. I said: ‘Fine, kick me out of the party’. But they then promised to look at it again. They promised. What else could I do?”

Conservative leader Councillor Andrew Marshall said he was not aware of any threat made to Cllr Hossack but added: “The budget meeting is one of the key meetings in the year where we expect the group to vote together.

He added: “The cut was actually first voted on last year – and Cllr Hossack voted for it. There is a case to look at the way full council works, but the reality is that the budget has been worked out over several months, not just one evening.”

Lib Dem deputy leader Councillor Janet Gra­uberg said “We have identified the centres that are most heavily used and are trying to give as much support as possible to them.”

Coalition toasts council tax freeze

THE Town Hall has frozen council tax for the third time in four years.

Liberal Democrat and Conservative coalition members toasted the freeze at Monday’s full council meeting after shrugging off suggested amendments to the council budget from the Labour Party and Camden’s three Greens councillors.

Both sides of the coalition claimed credit for the repeated freezes in council tax during the four year power-sharing arrangement which expires in May.

They are also trying to play up the comparison to tax rises ordered by the previous Labour administration between 2002 and 2006.

On Monday, Labour called for a freeze on chief officer pay and a review of fees and charges on services such as Meals on Wheels.

The Greens wanted a “Green New Deal” which would have included a home insulation programme and more solar energy.