THE DEPUTY leader of the Wokingham Borough Partnership, Cllr Stephen Conway, says he is sad to see the independents leave the grouping.
Cllr Conway said the Lib Dems had valued their contribution to the arrangement, but respected their desire to go in their own direction.
“We very much regret that Gary and Jim have decided to leave the Wokingham Borough Partnership,” he said. “We have valued their contribution enormously.
“I am personally saddened as I’ve worked with Gary over many years on the planning committee and regard him as a friend. But as independents they have a perfect right to act in whatever way they wish.”
Cllr Conway said the partnership had been exactly that as the Lib Dem, Labour and Independent groupings had come together for briefings, but with the local elections near, the time had also come to look ahead to campaigning for their own respective parties, and seeing what the electorate felt.
“The partnership agreement was necessary because last May’s local elections gave no one party a majority of councillors,” he said.
“It was never a coalition but an arrangement to enable the council to function.
“The parties involved in the partnership were obliged only to support the election of the leader of council and the council’s budget and give each other support whenever possible.
“We involved the leaders of the Labour and Independent groups in all our executive briefings, so they were fully appraised of all the major decisions that we would be obliged to make.
“As we are now nearly at the end of the municipal year and the election campaign will soon begin, the partnership has achieved what we set out to achieve.”
