It is only three weeks ago we learnt of the shock resignation one of Sutton’s Conservative district councillors from East Cambs District Council, if you missed it click on this link to the Ely Weekly News story. Then today we learn that Sutton’s other Conservative district councillor  has resigned from the Conservatives though remains a councillor, click on this link to the Ely Standard story to learn more.

To quote from the Ely Standard these resignations have come about from “an accumulation of disquiet and conflict” in the Conservative group which runs our district council. A major cause of this disquiet and conflict is the unpopular restructuring of the district council being forced through by the Conservative leader of the council. This restructuring is putting around twenty members of staff at risk of losing their jobs and has a yet to be quantified impact on the services residents receive from the council.

The cuts and restructuring are being forced through despite the fact that the council’s accounts for this year are in surplus, and next year’s budget is fully balanced without any increase in Council Tax or ‘savings’ from these redundancies. In fact, at the same time as cutting services, the council is planning to put nearly £2,000,000 of our money into its own coffers over the next three years.

You might think I should be celebrating at the local Conservatives demise, but in truth I am very concerned about the damage this is doing to the running of our district council. If the Conservatives are racked with infighting they cannot be taking proper charge of our district council and ensure that it provides the services we all use.