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‘WE WILL DEFY GOVERNMENT’
Westminster Council’s threat dismissed as ‘political games’
THE new leader of Westminster Council this week set the Town Hall on collision course with the government after branding his new regime “fiercely independent” and warning he would not bow to its demands.
Conservative Councillor Colin Barrow, who replaced Sir Simon Milton as leader last month, said: “We will stand up for ourselves and take on the government if we need to.”
He was speaking in the context of a party political row kickstarted when shadow communities’ secretary Eric Pickles MP called on Tory councils to defy government orders to introduce a controversial “chip and pin”-style bin tax.
The system, which would see households charged for the weight of their bin bags, is seen as hugely unpopular and Mr Pickles has said he would name-and-shame Conservative councils “collaborating” with the government.
Mr Pickles wrote: “Councils which introduce bin taxes will be vilified in the popular press and punished in the polls. Nationally we will not hesitate to criticise any supposedly Conservative council which collaborates with the Labour ministers and props up Gordon Brown’s discredited stealth tax regime.”
Mr Barrow said he would do what was best for Westminster. He said: “I think the point that Mr Pickles is making is that we shouldn’t just lay down and have government diktat imposed on us.
“Every council is different and we will look at the proposals in a practical context as we would do any proposals.” Councillor Paul Dimoldenberg, leader of the Labour Group, said: “I am sure that Westminster residents would like to be reassured that the council will not be party to Mr Pickles’ party political games, particularly as so much of the council’s activities are funded directly by the government.” |
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