Shock as senior councillors quit
Six senior members of Ryedale District Council have resigned from the controlling Conservative group in a row with the party association.
Coun Linda Cowling, leader for the past six years, has quit with councillors John Raper, Janet Frank, Eric Hope and David Cussons and Snowy Windress.
SIX SENIOR members of Ryedale District Council – including its leader – have resigned from the controlling Conservative group after threats of suspension from the constituency party association.
Coun Linda Cowling, a member of the council for 26 years and its leader for the past six years, has quit the party, plus four former council chairmen – councillors John Raper, Janet Frank, Eric Hope and David Cussons – and council planning committee chairman, Coun Snowy Windress.
Coun Cowling, who represents Pickering, said all six were now part of the council’s independent group and believed that other Tory members were also considering their positions.
It leaves the council with no overall control, with 13 Conservatives, 11 independents, four Liberals, and two Liberal Democrats.
Coun Cowling said the dispute between the Conservative group and the Thirsk and Malton Conservative Association, was triggered by the controver- sy over Coun Raper voting twice in a debate last autumn when he pressed his own electronic device to vote on a motion regarding the timing of council meetings – and then pressed that of a neighbouring Coun Cussons, who was absent from the meeting.
Coun Cowling said: “Coun Raper was disciplined and we believed that was the end of the matter but the constituency association said it wanted to interview both Coun Raper and Coun Cussons.”
Coun Raper did not attend a hearing meeting as he was at Buckingham Palace to receive an MBE for services to agriculture. Both Coun Raper and Coun Cussons were then told they were being suspended from the Conservative Party pending expulsion.
Coun Cowling said the situation was “a great shame”, adding: “Under the Conservative administration the council has made great strides in attracting big new investment, creating many hundreds of new jobs and generally taking the district forward. But the association’s behaviour is not what the public expect. I have no idea what the thinking is behind the association’s decision to suspend not only Coun Raper and Coun Cussons but also myself.”
She added: “To have created this crisis in the party right on the county council elections is unbelievable.”
Coun Cowling, who remains council leader until the authority’s annual meeting in May, said she was still backing Tory candi- dates Greg White, of Pickering, and Coun Val Arnold in the Helmsley and Kirkbymoorside divisions, and helping their election campaign.
Coun Frank said she resigned out of loyalty to Coun Cussons, adding: “It’s the assocation’s job to support councillors and they have not done that.”
Baroness Anne McIntosh, who was de-selected as MP for Thirsk and Malton prior to the 2015 General Election, said she believed the councillors’ suspension was “completely ultra vires – flouting the rules of the association which clearly state reasons must be given and supporting documents provided for any suspension. None were provided”.
She added: “It is no coincidence that all these excellent councillors supported me during my troubles. I admire them and what they have done in their work as councillors in the interests of Ryedale.”
A spokesman for the Thirsk and Malton Conservative Association said: “The association very much regrets that some members of the Conservative group feel no longer able to be part of it and their resignations from the Conservative Party have been accepted.”