I WOULD like to comment on last week’s article regarding the split of key district council roles.

New ICHC leader Graham Ballinger states: “It is time we were fair to people of all sides. There are two groups who are both in opposition on this council, each with eight members, and we get a disproportionate number of key positions. That is wrong….”.

I would argue that ICHC’s contingent in Bewdley are not practicing what he preaches.

As well as being a member of the district council, I have been a member of Bewdley Town Council since 2009. That council has a number of small functions but the primary one, like that of the Charter Trustees in Kidderminster, is the upkeep of the mayoralty.

The town mayor and the deputy are elected by a majority vote from the 13 councillors. The political make-up of the town council is 6 Conservative, 4 ICHC, 2 Labour and 1 Independent.

Of the six Conservatives, one has been mayor of the town (Dr Jan Adams in 2011) None, including Dr Adams, have held the role of deputy mayor.

All four ICHC councillors have been mayor once, two of those have been mayor since their initial election to the council in 2010. One ICHC member has been deputy mayor twice but didn’t get elected as mayor for a second time as they admirably supported Dr Adams’ election to that position.

One of the Labour members has been both mayor and deputy mayor twice since 1999, the other has been mayor once and deputy mayor once and has been mayoress to the other Labour member during his two terms as mayor. That councillor has also just started a second stint as deputy mayor.

The independent has been mayor once and deputy mayor once.

There was a brief period of consensus in 2011 when my Conservative colleague, Dr Jan Adams was elected as the first Conservative mayor of Bewdley for over 20 years. Aside from her, the coalition of ICHC, Labour and the independent on the council have opposed every single Conservative nomination for mayor or deputy over the last four years simply because they are Conservative.

Wednesday, May 22 saw the election of Conservative John Campion as mayor of Kidderminster. In her speech in support of his election, Independent Councillor, Helen Dyke, said that the Charter Trustees were ‘proud to elect their mayor in a dignified manner and not make it a political issue’.

I wish that were true in Bewdley. I understand Kidderminster councillors have a gentleman’s agreement to elect their mayor on the basis of seniority. Stourport Town Council has a similar system of cross-party cooperation which has seen the role alternate between the two largest parties for the past six years.

Shuttle readers may view my comments as sour grapes but I have no ambition to be mayor or deputy mayor of Bewdley as, working full time, I do not have the flexibility to do the role properly and be the best possible ambassador for my town.

I care passionately that Bewdley has the best possible ambassadors representing it. I do not agree that such positions should be allocated year on year by seven out of 13 people and I certainly do not agree that previous mayors should be recycled.

That is no sleight on the people that hold or have held such positions, I simply do not agree that such an honourable role should be used as a political football.

The solution? I would love to see a system where the residents of Bewdley directly elect the town mayor, but sadly there is no current legislation to allow this to happen.

Therefore the people of Bewdley will have to hope that ICHC will start to practice what their new leaders preaches.

JULIAN PHILLIPS Bewdley/Arley district councillor Bewdley town councillor Langford Court Bewdley