A CO-ORDINATED bid to wrest control of West Somerset District Council from the present Conservative administration will be launched at the quadrennial elections due to take place in May.
Around 20 ‘Independent’ candidates will stand for election in a co-ordinated campaign echoing the television comedy-drama The Amazing Mrs Pritchard.
In the television series, a supermarket manageress decides to run for election as an Independent MP, then suddenly finds herself leading a Purple Alliance party, and becomes the Prime Minister.
The parallel West Somerset scenario is being led by retired Dulverton shopkeeper Keith Ross (pictured), who is a sitting district councillor, with the backing of Minehead shopkeeper Graham Sizer.
They have rallied people to put up as ‘Independents’ at the May elections, although the group is closely linked with the Liberal Democrats.
Mr Sizer was formerly chairman of the Lib Dem-created pressure group Direct, and he also nominated the Lib Dem candidate, Ian Galloway, in the controversial Somerset County Council elections of 2005 when sitting Conservative councillor Colin Hill was ousted from his Minehead seat.
Councillor Ross admitted to The Crier that the ‘Independent’ group of candidates had been called together for a first meeting which had been hosted by a Liberal Democrat.
However, Mr Sizer denied being involved in any interviewing of potential ‘Independent’ candidates or screening of them to select candidates in order that they did not stand against each other in a particular ward and split the vote.
Mr Sizer said:” It has been blown up out of all proportion. There is no politics involved.
“There is a group just like any other group of politicians. There are a lot of people out there who are fed up with how the council is being run at the moment.
“They are good people. They just need a help in getting around the protocols of things. There has never been any screening. It is a hell of a broad platform.
“There has been no agenda in anything as far as bringing the ‘Independents’ together under one umbrella.”
Mr Sizer said he did not know how The Crier columnist Dudley Seale had formed the impressed that he had been asked to go before a ‘selection panel’ when he expressed an interest in standing for the council.
Councillor Ross said the next ‘Independent’ group meeting would be on neutral ground at the Queens Hall, Minehead.
However, the premises are owned by former Labour councillor Marcus Kravis – and Labour members at County Hall have helped to keep the Lib Dem administration in power.
Councillor Ross said the meeting on March 21 was for anybody ‘with a mind of their own’, which meant ‘somebody who is not led by a political party’.
He said: “We will give them our support to get them elected, ‘we’ being the existing members of the council who are Independent.
“There is help readily available through the Independent group at the Local Government Association, which is there to help councillors and candidates to get a foot on the ladder.
“They do not become an Independent political party. There are no group meetings. All decisions are made in open debate in front of the community, not behind closed doors as political parties do, and it will include all members of the council in that initial debate.
“Many of the people I have been talking to will be quite happy not to be a controlling group. They are happy for the best person to do the job.
“If that means Roger Webber (Conservative) is the best person to run finance, then that will be his job – if he gets re-elected.
“We have about 20 candidates at the moment. It will be interesting to see if another 11 come out of the woodwork on the 21st and we can cover the whole district.
“We are also keen that people represent the community in which they live. Somebody living in Dulverton, for instance, would not do justice representing the Quantock Vale ward.”
Photo submitted.
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