At last week’s Annual General Meeting, the minority Labour administration at Thanet District Council sealed a sordid alliance with the Thanet Independent Group members to retain their hold on power.
The pact ordered by socialist Council Leader Cllr.Clive Hart was a cynical and desperate manoeuvre to keep his party in control, and was further discredited by his nomination of all three TIG members (Cllrs. Cohen, Driver and Worrow) to the chairmanships of the most powerful committees at the Council, giving these largely unrepresentive councillors, two of whom have changed parties since they were elected only last year, large allowances to guarantee their continuing support.
TIG members have already secured concessions from the Labour administration costing many thousands of pounds to secure their votes and there can be no doubt that further concessions will be solicited in the future to keep the TIGs onside.
Conservative Group Leader, Cllr Bob Bayford said: “Every true and principled member of the Labour Group at Thanet District Council must be feeling ashamed today after their leader’s capitulation to the demands of the Thanet Independent Group. I call on all those with any decency to reassert their party’s honour by instructing their leader to meet with me to discuss an arrangement which has the proper interests of Thanet residents at heart, or to stand down.”