LEFT CLICK ON SELECTED BUTTON IN COLUMN ON THE LEFT FOR ACCESS

ALL SECTIONS UPDATED MAY 2009

Kellet Ward is a rural area with five villages and a number of smaller settlements. Farming activity is widespread and there are a number of quarries, caravan sites, rural pubs and businesses catering for leisure activities.

Village Halls in each of the villages are centres for social activity and the village communities are dependent on village schools and play areas for young people. Each of the larger villages has its own village shop but the post office at the shop in Nether Kellet was closed in 2008, despite a well supported campaign by local residents to keep it open.

Councillor Roger Mace has been the representative of Kellet Ward on Lancaster City Council since 1999. He is currently Leader of the Conservative Group on the City Council and since May 2007, he has been one of the two Conservatives in the City's Cabinet of ten members.

COUNCIL MEETING 18 MAY 2009 - AND CABINET STRUCTURE FOR 2009-10

Council decided on 18 May that Cabinet for 2009-10 should be based on Proportional Representation (PR). Conservatives believe that non-PR would provide a more effective Cabinet, more capable of consistent decision making than has been demonstrated by the PR Cabinet of 2008-9, and we voted against a PR Cabinet for 2009-10.

Votes cast in the first poll for Leader of the Council for 2009-10 were Abbott Bryning (13 votes) Stuart Langhorn (21 votes) and Roger Mace (11 votes). The voting system is by transferable vote. Roger Mace was eliminated on the first ballot. Conservatives had resolved not to give support to a Candidate from any other party, and accordingly Conservatives abstained on the second ballot for Leader. Voting in the second ballot was Abbott Bryning (Labour) 14 votes: Stuart Langhorn (Liberal Democrat) 21 votes. Councillor Langhorn gained support from the non-mainstream Groups in the Council, i.e. Independents and Greens as well as from Liberal Democrats.

As is well known, a Cabinet based on Proportional Representation does not have collective responsibility for Cabinet decisions. We demonstrated the willingness of the Conservative Group to offer Leadership to the District, but were not successful on this occasion.

The answer to those who find a Cabinet based on proportional representation to be unsatisfactory is that at present no one political group has enough City Councillors to form a Cabinet on its own. It is the electorate that must change this. Councillors alone cannot do it - and we cannot "go to the electorate" to correct the situation until Central Government permits it (in May 2011). To form a Conservative Cabinet, we need a much larger Conservative Group on the Council. Months before the 2011 election, candidates will have to come forward, and they will need to articulate the good reasons - backed up by numbers - as to why people should vote for a Conservative Council.

As to there being "apparently no official opposition on the Council", the reason is that unlike that in some other places, the Lancaster City Council Constitution does not provide anywhere for "an opposition" or for the "Leader" of an opposition. 

Conservatives in the Cabinet have made no promises and owe no allegiancies to other Groups in the Cabinet.

Conservatives are not leading the Council, but we do not oppose just for the sake of opposing. Conservatives will continue to press - both inside and outside Cabinet meetings - for the adoption of Conservative proposals which we believe to be in the best interest of the residents of our District.