Two Rushcliffe Borough Councillors have been expelled from the party for a minimum of 5 years after a formal hearing on Monday night.
The councillors were found to have both “bullied the [Bingham] Town Clerk over a sustained period with the object of removing her from office” and “harassed and repeatedly behaved unfairly and oppressively” towards her. She resigned.
At a full council meeting of Rushcliffe Borough Council a petition signed by 10% of Bingham’s electorate which called for the dissolution of the town council, and for Rushcliffe to take on governance of the town — something which has never happened nationally.
While the borough’s legal advice was that it could not legally take such a step under the Local Government Act 2007, the Conservative leader of the borough council Simon Robinson brought forward a recommendation that his authority impose an improvement board at the Tory-led Bingham Town Council.
Cllr Simon Robinson, Leader of Rushcliffe Borough Council and the Conservative Group at the Borough ,confirmed that Cllr John Stockwood and Cllr Francis Purdue-Horan are now expelled from the Conservative Borough Group with immediate effect.
Cllr Robinson said:
“After a formal hearing of the Newark Conservative Association, both Cllr Stockwood and Purdue-Horan were expelled from the party for a minimum period of 5 years.
‘This is following their conduct as councillors at Bingham Town Council and the findings of a Standards Committee Investigation carried out by the Borough earlier this year.
‘I hope both individuals will now do the right thing and go back to the electorate in a by- election as both Councillors were elected as representatives of the Conservative Party, which is not the case now.
‘Voters should have the opportunity to vote in two new councillors who represent the Conservative Party.’