ANYONE who has observed meetings of the Forest of Dean District Council could not accuse myself and the council leader, Patrick Molyneux, of being in cahoots.
Indeed, although I find Patrick personable and polite, being on opposing ends of the political spectrum we disagree on many, if not most, topics and have crossed swords often.
However, when I saw the motion of no confidence in the council leader tabled by Cllr Richard Leppington (UKIP, Beam) for our meeting on October 20, I was appalled.
Cllr Leppington’s challenge was based on the flimsiest of excuses: that the builder being employed by Patrick Molyneux to construct an extension on his home had an interest in some land being considered for inclusion in the Allocations Plan.
Patrick declared this relationship at the start of our special meeting on September 21, which considered the council’s housing Allocations Plan, in spite of the advice from the council’s legal officer that the relationship was such that a declaration of interest was not required.
The basis of Cllr Leppington’s motion was that Patrick had not declared the interest, (which he was not in any case required to make), at meetings of the Cabinet support group that was considering the Allocations Plan and: “as a consequence, the public perception is that this council has been brought into disrepute by the actions of the leader.”
This was clearly an unjustifiable attempt to cast aspersions on the actions of Cllr Molyneux in the hope that some members of the public would perceive wrongdoing where none exists.
Before the meeting I described the motion of no confidence as the grubby actions of a grubby politician.
However, I challenged Cllr Leppington in the debate to reveal that he too had a relationship with the same builder.
Cllr Leppington’s business, Saxon Printing, counted the builder among its customers.
The existence of this relationship was never declared by Cllr Leppington and had to be dragged from him by my direct challenge.
As such, he has certainly brought himself and his party into disrepute. If he has an ounce of integrity he will immediately resign as leader of the UKIP group and if he will not, his UKIP council colleagues should sack him.
– Cllr Bruce Hogan (Lab), Forest of Dean District Council, Lydbrook and Ruardean.