Author: Simon Perry
Last Council Leader Was Pushed Out Shock
1:29 pm Friday, 15th January, 2010, Isle of Wight
ShortURL: http://wig.ht/26H5
Read More- Island-wide, Isle of Wight Council, News, Opinion Piece
For once, we weren’t at the Full Council meeting this month due to a mixture of a heavy cold and snow-reporting exhaustion – that’ll teach us, as the County Press picked up a story during discussions in the chamber that night.
They say that it emerged the previous leader of the Isle of Wight council, Andy Sutton, was forced to quit, rather than step down as the council said at the time.
It was this action that enabled the fresh-faced Cllr Pugh to take the position as The Leader of Isle of Wight Council.
This all links to a number of councillors who were referred to the Standards Board over the passing of a planning application by Cllr Anne Bishop back in September 2007.
The CP reports (strangely at the bottom of page four, given the importance of the story) that at this week’s meeting “heard from (the) current deputy leader Cllr George Brown the then leader was told to stand down because a majority of his cabinet refused to serve under him and his deputy, Cllr Patrick Joyce.”
The bit left out
The bit that the CP has missed out is what we’ve been told by a trustworthy source who was at the meeting …
“Cllr George Brown had a ‘go’ at Cllr Patrick Joyce and attacked part of the record of decision which reported that Cllr Joyce had said in evidence to the Standards Boards that a majority of the Cabinet at the time had no confidence in the Planning Department.
“Cllr Brown said it was not true that a majority of the Cabinet had no confidence in the department. He was rather stuck for an answer however when Cllr Reg Barry asked him if that meant it was just a minority of the Cabinet that held such views.”
Public dispute – Very unusual
It’s most unusual for the Conservative party on the Island to have disputes (certainly publicly at least) – heck they even vote as a single block most of the time – so it’s even more unusual for them to make it clear that such a large falling out at a senior level took place.
Perhaps the timing of this unusual act – over two years after the actual event – is also of interest?
As we recently Tweeted, the outcome of the Standards Board inquiry into Cllr Sutton and Cllr Bishop is due any day soon (Monday / Tuesday is the latest estimate).
Do some people know something that we (the public) don’t?
Image: emdot under CC BY-SA 2.0
George Brown had a ‘go’ at Patrick Joyce in the latter’s absence, now that he is on the brink of suspension. Wonder if he would have said anything if Patrick had been there to defend himself ? Certainly Sutton and Cousins (who has been on the Cabinet since 2005) both looked to me to be very irritated at Brown’s statement.
Interesting that after Sutton stood down with Joyce and Melanie Swan back in September 2007, Ian Ward and Jilly Wood were both sacked from the Cabinet by the new leader. I make that 5 out of 10 – and with Cousins, whose expertise makes her pretty much unsackable by anyone ????? You can do the maths…..
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In the light of the gossip in the Council at that time, I suppose Geoff has gone as far as is possible at present without incurring some legal action from someone. It would be fascinating if he could tie-up the loose ends but perhaps someone will eventually, under the ’30 Years Rule’.
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Fresh-faced Cllr Pugh?
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Very odd C P today. The front page story ‘snow clearance costs money shock’ was a non story.
I doubt anyone believed Andy Sutton had chosen to resign as leader. It looked very much like a coup. We all knew something else had happened, we just didn’t know what. All I know now is that something was revealed in the investigation that for some reason we are not allowed to know. All very strange. None of it gives any of us confidence in how things are done. The Undercliff Drive fiasco with the last council was exactly the same. Despite the huge sums involved, no-one was ever charged, officer or councillor.
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Fair comment :)
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I wonder if we will ever find out the main player/ players in this?
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Seems that the moniker of Pughnoccio was well-deserved. He has said time and again that Sutton wasn’t pushed – now we learn from his deputy that he was being ‘economical with the truth’….
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The stink gets worse. Surely we are too small a place to have this kind of intrigue, spin and obfuscation.
I just posted elsewhere that we need Lumleys and Joyces but they are under attack from the current regime. Why do people vote like this ?!
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How insulting to all Islanders that the Island’s Conservatives ‘forget’ that they kicked out Sutton for two years?
Why the hell didn’t they mention this before?
They’ve been treating us like idiots for two years.
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