Kentish Gazette Canterbury & District
Tory infighting over new role for drink-drive councillor
aclaridge@thekmgroup.co.uk TWO Conservative councillors who publicly attacked party and council leader John Gilbey are “in trouble”.
Cllr Gilbey, leader of the 37-strong Tory majority on Canterbury City Council, hit out at Alison O’Dea and Ashley Clark after they criticised him for appointing drink driving councillor Neil Baker to a transport board.
The pair, who both represent Whitstable’s Gorrell ward, wrote a letter saying they did not support the decision and had written to Cllr Gilbey warning him against it.
‘Hurts’
They described the move as inappropriate and said it would help further damage the public image of politicians.
Cllr Gilbey replied: “They are entitled to their opinions, but frankly it hurts me and it hurts Neil to see the letter from Cllrs O’Dea and Clark.
“We had a chat and we agreed that we would disagree and it is not something that we should be speaking about in public. And, yes, they are in trouble.”
Cllr Baker, 30, who represents Tankerton, was banned from driving for 20 months after he crashed at Pean Hill in Whitstable on December 5.
He gave police a reading of 83 micro- grammes of alcohol in 100ml of breath – the legal limit is 35.
He was stripped of his position on the council’s executive, but was last month appointed to the city and county councils’ joint transport board for the Canterbury district.
Cllr Gilbey defended the decision, arguing Cllr Baker should not continue to be punished for his crime.
But last week he was attacked by Harbour ward Labour councillor Phil Cartwright and Cllrs O’Dea and Clark.
In a joint letter, the two Conservatives wrote: “The appointment to the joint transportation board of a member who is currently disqualified from driving motor vehicles on the public highway is something that we did not endorse when it came to the recent vote in the council chamber.
“Readers might be interested to know that four days prior to that meeting, Cllr Clark wrote to Cllr Gilbey advising him that the appointment was inappropriate.
“While politicians appear to be getting a bad press recently for very understandable reasons, we would remind readers not to tar us all with the same brush.”