Tories Break Decades-Old Tradition

2.30.00pm BST (GMT +0100) Tue 16th Jun 2009

Oxfordshire County Conservatives have broken the long-established tradition of sharing the non-political positions of Chairman and Vice Chairman of the Council amongst the various groups in turn. This year would have been the turn of the Lib Dem opposition, but instead Conservatives have been elected as both Chairman and Vice Chairman. Further to this, the Conservatives announced that they will keep these positions for the next four years.

Cllr Zoé Patrick, Leader of the Opposition said, "We still nominated Cllr Anne Purse, the current Vice Chairman, for Chairman, but the Conservatives voted against her. This is a great pity because Anne is one of the longest serving councillors of any party who has not already been Chairman of the Council. In the past year as Vice Chairman she has proved herself very competent and scrupulously non-political in her representation of the Council as a whole. I regret that the Conservatives are overturning such an old tradition of sharing these ceremonial positions. They have ignored the fact that the majority of people voting in the recent County elections (57%) did not vote Conservative!"

Related Links:

Speech proposing Anne as Chairman.

Speech thanking Anne for her work as Vice Chairman.