Brentwood & Ongar Liberal Democrats

Cllr David Kendall restated his commitment at last night's Annual Council meeting to take a 5% cut in his Leader of the Opposition Special Responsibility Allowance (SRA) for the next financial year.

After being confirmed as Chair of Overview & Scrutiny, which also attracts an SRA, Cllr Barry Aspinell also confirmed that he will take a 5% cut.

Cllr David Kendall has questioned the ruling administration's "double standards" over the dichotomy of action taken by the Conservatives over the appointment of chairs.

Back in 2009, Lib Dem Deputy Leader Cllr Barry Aspinell was stripped of his chairmanship of the Overview & Scrutiny Committee whilst he was being investigated by the Standards Board (charges he was subsequently completely cleared of). However, this year, the Leader, Cllr Louise McKinlay, has appointed a number of her own councillors to the front bench despite them currently being under investigation by the Standards Board.

Cllr David Kendall and Cllr Barry Aspinell have been re-elected as Leader and Deputy Leader of the Liberal Democrat Group on Brentwood Borough Council for a sixth consecutive term.

Cllr Kendall said:

"With a strong and talented group of eight councillors spread across four wards, with a rich and varied experience and knowledge base, Barry and I look forward to continuing to hold the Tory administration to account and serve our residents by offering a top class opposition that exposes and opposes the administration."

Essex County Council Liberal Democrats have announced that Cllr Mike Mackrory will be the new group leader and Cllr Theresa Higgins will be the deputy leader, following the sad death of Cllr Tom Smith-Hughes.

County Cllr David Kendall said:

"I welcome the news that both Cllr Mike Mackrory and Cllr Theresa Higgins have been elected as Leader and Deputy Leader of the Liberal Democrat group at County Hall unopposed. They both have a wealth of knowledge and understanding of how the County operates and will be more than ready to hold the ruling Conservative administration to account.

In Brentwood, despite the national picture, we bucked the trend and were delighted with the results and support we were able to achieve across the Borough. We not only held the two seats we were defending in Pilgrims Hatch and Brentwood North with increased majorities, but made a spectacular gain in Brentwood West and achieved a sensational win in Shenfield which has been Conservative since records began.

Brentwood Lib Dems are celebrating a stunning night at the polls that saw them hold two seats, gain two more and the Conservatives lose a total of three seats.

Karen Chilvers won back Brentwood West defeating the Tory Mayor with a 336 majority after losing this seat by 10 votes last year.

Graeme Clark pulled off the most sensational result of the night by coming from nowhere and winning the Tory strongold of Shenfield with a 242 majority. Shenfield has always been Conservative since records began.

Brentwood & Ongar Liberal Democrats were deeply sad to hear that Cllr Tom Smith-Hughes, Leader of the Lib Dem group on Essex County Council had passed away this morning after a long illness.

Tom was a real gentleman who had served his community with pride over many years and will be missed by all his friends and colleagues in the Liberal Democrats but especially by his colleagues in Chelmsford, who issued this statement today:

Four important planning referrals have been deferred until AFTER the borough council elections, therefore letting the Tory administration "off the hook" and making it a lot easier for these applications to be potentially approved after Brentwood residents have cast their votes.

Residents were appalled at the March planning meeting when two large applications in Clements Park and St James Road, both of which will seriously affect the lives of residents in the hotly contested Tory/Lib Dem marginal seat of Brentwood West where Karen Chilvers is standing, were deferred to a later date. Now, with the April agenda published and these two applications deferred until mid-May, it appears that this is for political reasons as an approval would have made a Tory loss almost inevitable.

Responding to the news of a parody account set up on Twitter, Brentwood Liberal Democrats would like to clarify that their only official party feed is @LibDemsBwd and asks tweeters to check that they are following the right one.

Sadly, an individual or group of individuals has turned to the social networking site to ridicule a specific Liberal Democrat candidate in this year's council elections, consistently attacking her work in the community, such as getting a review of the signage on J28 on the M25, and her work with animal charities.

Brentwood Liberal Democrats are standing a candidate in each one of the thirteen wards up for election on Thurday 3rd May 2012.

Lib Dem Leader Cllr David Kendall said:

"We go into this Borough Council Election campaign fielding a strong team of candidates and our manifesto "Taking Brentwood Forward".