THE LEADER of the council has hit back at a call for him to stand down after a leaked email revealed that he wanted to “spend council money to give Conservative candidates an advantage in the elections”.
At the first meeting of Wokingham Borough Council’s new political year, held on Thursday, May 19, Liberal Democrat leader Cllr Prue Bray released an email that had been leaked to her.
Written by Cllr Keith Baker to the Conservative group, it asks fellow councillors to “take a long hard look at whether we can release some of the £1.7m reserves that was earmarked to cover the shortfall to provide a ‘boost’ to candidates on election year”.
This, argued Cllr Bray, “sends a clear message: the Leader of the Council thinks the interests of the Conservative party come above the needs of residents”.
She added: “Given that he also signed what we consider a very disingenuous and misleading letter which was sent out as part of the Conservative campaign in Emmbrook, we believe Keith Baker’s conduct has fallen below the level that should be expected of a councillor, let alone the Leader of the Council.
“Seven days’ notice is required to call a vote of no confidence in the Leader, so we cannot do it tonight. However, I can tell you that we are making a formal complaint to the Standards Committee. We think Keith Baker should stand aside.
“This council should have a leader who will put the needs of the residents of the borough first, not the interests of his own political party.”
At last night’s Council meeting, Cllr Baker declined to respond and didn’t speak to The Wokingham Paper afterwards.
However, in a statement, Cllr Baker said that the leaked email only reveals part of the story and he dismisses the allegations made by his Liberal Democrat counterpart.
“I reject wholeheartedly the accusations made by the Leader of the Liberal Democrats. What her leaked document doesn’t show is the long trail of emails in which the option she points to was swiftly rejected by myself and other Members of my Group.”
Although the email is headed ‘from Keith Baker’ and appears to be signed off by him, Cllr Baker said that the claim made over the spending boost was someone else’s idea.
He said: “The option in my email had been suggested by another Member”.
And Cllr Baker added that the Cllr Bray had matters of her own to respond to. During members’ question time at last night’s council meeting Cllr Tim Holton (Hawkedon ward) asked Cllr Baker is the Council Constitution “specifically prevents a petition being debated at Council if it relates to a live planning application?”
In his reply, Cllr Baker said that it did and cited the recent Elms Field petition, which reached the threshold of 1,500 signatures for discussion but was rejected as the regeneration plans were being investigated by the planning committee.
He said that Cllr Bray should say sorry for implying that the Elms Field petition was not related to a planning committee decision and it was a way for the council to avoid a debate on the issue. However, as we confirmed in January, the borough council said that petition would not be accepted.
“It’s amazing that Prue is not prepared to apologise,” he said in the council chamber.
Today, he added: “I also do not think that the Liberal Democrat Leader should be calling other people’s integrity into question. When she was challenged in the meeting about misleading residents over why Council could not debate the Elms Field petition, she again claimed that it was not a live planning application. This is completely untrue.
“Not only was it stated in the same article in which she was quoted, by a Council spokesperson, but has again been confirmed by officers.
“This is yet another example of the Leader of the Opposition making comments that are wide of the mark, as she did during the election.”
