Westoe ward by election

Confused position of Independent Alliance

Following the the announcement of a vacancy in the Westoe ward of South Shields as a result of Mr. Branley’s falure to attend any meetings over the period of the previous six months, there has been a flurry of leaflets distributed in South Shields and indeed throughout South Tyneside. These leaflets do not add clarity to the debate over why there is a by election taking place and there has been argument about whether the former Independent Alliance councillor was removed or had resigned or attempted to resign.

To try and bring some clarity and closure to this issue I have sent the following email to each of the Independent Alliance councillors in South Tyneside:

Dear Councillor,

at the meeting of South Tyneside Borough Council on 30th. July 2009 a report was presented on the Agenda detailing the events leading to the current vacancy in the Westoe ward of South Shields. The report from the Head of Corporate Governance was comprehensive and included a detailed chronological timetable of events which included the representations and intercessions of Mr. Allen Branley, his wife Cllr. Jane Branley, and your Deputy Leader Cllr. Ahmed Khan.

No questions were asked of the report, no challenges were made to the report, and no councillor wished to speak to the report, consequently it was agreed nem con (by all).

This being the case, can I ask if you are all now in unified agreement that Mr. Branley was lawfully removed from South Tyneside Council as a result of his failure to attend any meetings within a consecutive six months period?

Further, will you publicly disassociate yourselves from the erroneous and false statements included on literature recently published on your behalf and distributed throughout South Shields and South Tyneside telling electors that Mr. Branley had resigned his seat?

Having issued challenges recently which have not been responded to, I am hoping that at least one of their number may now publicly acknowledge the real reason behind the calling of the election over this “casual vacancy”, after all if they had any disagreement over the official version of events, then they failed to take the opportunity to voice their concerns at the last meeting of the borough council.

:: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: ::