By Press Release
The new Empowering Islanders (EI) group has been dubbed ‘Empowering Tories’, by the Green Parliamentary Candidate for the East Wight.
Cameron Palin’s dismissive words came after the existence of a plan circulated by Cllr Chris Jarman, leader of EI, came to light, proposing to call an Extraordinary General Meeting to hold a vote of confidence in current council leader, Lora Peacey-Wilcox. If she lost she would be replaced with Tory group leader, Cllr Joe Robertson. Cllr Robertson confirmed the existence of the plan and said that he was prepared to lead a cross-party group with a coalition cabinet.
Town councillor Palin, who has just become deputy mayor of East Cowes, said: “What we’ve seen is Empowering Islanders turn into a force to bring the Tories back into power, despite the 2021 local elections throwing the Tories out across the Island.
“Cllr Jarman was elected as an independent with the support of the Green Party and others, but he’s now shown his true colours.” He added, “Cllr Stephen Hendry, the Conservative councillor for Osborne, has written to me saying, ‘I don’t plan to sign anything. I would much rather the Alliance be the bad guys closing schools.’ I believe this shows that even among the Conservatives there is no clear direction or consensus about what they would do if they did take control. Green Party councillors are working with Independent members, Labour and LibDems, putting our differences aside for the good of the Island. It’s hard to see how you can get more cross-party than that.”
In recent weeks, the ruling Alliance administration’s cabinet has shrunk by two members — one quit, and became the deputy chairman of the Council, and another forfeited his position when he left the group, although he claims he was unaware he would lose his cabinet position and was sacked.
The EI group has said the current administration is attempting to run the council in an “increasingly fragile mode” while rejecting talent from other parties and “piling responsibilities onto a few members who were already significantly overburdened”.
It is believed that Cllr Hendry is not the only member of the Tory group unwilling to sign the motion. Various reasons are being put forward by Conservative members for wanting to overthrow the council leader, including that she swears in non-public meetings.
Cllr John Medland, who left the Alliance Group to join EI, but praised Cllr Peacey-Wilcox for her leadership two weeks ago, has now written to her saying that he supports the proposal to remove her from her leadership role after she dismissed Cllr Jarman from the cabinet. He added:
“Even temporarily siding with the Conservatives makes me metaphorically want to retch, but I have ultimately to go with what I feel is best for the Island.”
A seasoned watcher of the Island council might form the conclusion that, if a new group were to take over, they may not remain united for long!
