| New Liberal Democrat Leader on the New Forest District Council, Cllr. Alan Weeks, has successfully exposed Conservative Council members as putting their own interests before that of the public interest, at his first Full Council meeting in charge of the group.
Cllr Weeks put forward a motion calling for the Scrutiny Review Panels to be shaken up so that the Liberal Democrats get a fairer representation, reflecting the fact that the Lib Dems currently hold 45% of the seats.
The Conservative members all voted against the motion, even though the motion would have had the impact of having the panels more closely reflect political balance.
Other members complained that the Tories also packed the scrutiny panels with there own chairmen and vice-chairmen. Cllr. Weeks says " It was a good opportunity to highlight what the Tories have been up to. They are running scared of proper scrutiny and think they can avoid proper challenge by rigging things on the scrutiny panels. Fellow Lib Dem Councillor Robin Harrison says "Tame scrutiny is worse than no scrutiny. The Tories are doing themselves no favours at all by taking this action".
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