IT'S official, the Conservative group in the Forest of Dean District Council does not use the whip to enforce its policies. Cllr Amos announced this in the Review and repeated it at the full council meeting on 28 October.
His remarks will come as a surprise to observers of the council. Cllr Len Lawton, for example, held the position of Conservative whip until a few months ago when he resigned it in favour of becoming chairman of the Corporate Scrutiny committee. If there is no longer any whipping (and we must assume Cllr Amos is truthful and sincere), then voting patterns demonstrate that Conservatives are adept at the game of follow-my-leader.
This could lead them into some interesting dilemmas. If Heaven forbid, the rumour that the government is to attempt to sell off tracts of the Forest proves accurate then this matter could come before the district council Development Control committee for debate. What will Conservative councillors do then? The ruling group, one assumes, will follow the Government as both are of the same political persuasion and will wish their members to vote in favour of the sale.
Conservative councillors will then have to decide whether to follow the dictates of their party or their conscience. They must be praying that the matter will not come to a head before next May's election for if ever there were a test of a candidate's true commitment to local issues, this is it.
There is one person in the Forest with the influence to kill this matter stone-dead before it progresses any further. Why has Mark Harper, our Conservative Member of Parliament, not spoken? – Daphne Pearson (Dr), Tinman's Green, Redbrook.