A Salford councillor is defying the city mayor’s call for him to resign following his shock election to another authority 160 miles away. Coun Chris Twells has been a Liberal Democrat representative in the Orsdall ward since his election last year.
Coun Twells, 31, stood in the Tetbury with Upton ward for Cotwold District Council in Gloucestershire in May, and beat the sitting Conservative candidate by 60 votes. In a bizarre twist, he now sits on TWO councils and has been suspended from Liberal Democrat Party while an investigation takes place, effectively making him an Independent in both Salford and the Cotswolds.
At Wednesday's Salford city council meeting, city mayor Paul Dennett ramped up the sarcasm when he said: “It would be remiss of me not to give a very special congratulations to the Salford Liberal Democrats for their one and only gain of the election… not in Salford but in Tetbury, in the Cotswolds.
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“The dedication he showed to upturning the Tories in the Cotswolds was indeed admirable - and he now becomes the first councillor I have ever heard of who holds two council seats simultaneously, 160 miles apart.”
And he continued: “Before this election, I had not been aware that this practice was entirely legal. But I think that everyone present can agree that legal or not, holding multiple council seats, registering multiple residences in different council districts, and standing for seats spanning the length and breadth of the country within short time frames is against the spirit if not the letter of the law.”
The controlling Labour group on Salford city council have now passed a resolution saying: “We believe Ordsall deserves dedicated councillors that serve our community's interest, not their own.
“Coun Twells chose to stand for another council seat 160 miles from Ordsall in the Cotswolds. Having won in the Cotswolds, he is refusing to step down from Salford Council and give up his council pay.”
They have also launched a petition saying Coun Twells ‘should never have been allowed to do this’, adding: “It makes a mockery of the people of Salford. Local residents deserve to be the first priority of their elected representatives.
“We demand the Liberal Democrats stop taking Salford for granted and that Coun Twells resigns from Salford city council immediately and allows Orsdall residents to have their say at the ballot box.”
They are also calling for the Government to change the law to no longer allow the same person to even attempt to represent two different areas.
Although Coun Twells did not speak at the council meeting, he told the Local Democracy Reporting Service he had no intention of resigning but instead would not contest his re-election next year.
And he refuted suggestions from the city council’s opposition leader, Conservative Robin Garrido, made in the meeting, that his election had been ‘fraudulent’.
Coun Twells said: “I do take exception to the use the word fraudulent by Coun Garrido, but I’m not going to make a scene in the chamber as I don’t see that that’s going to help anyone.
“Nothing I’ve done is fraudulent and it is completely within the law and the [local election] monitoring officer has confirmed that.
“I’m sitting as an Independent member while my suspension from the Liberal Democrats is active. Suspension is a neutral act. It doesn’t mean I’ve done anything wrong and I’m hoping that within the next few months, the case will be resolved and I will be back sitting as a Liberal Democrat.
“I’ve been a Liberal Democrat member for 13 years, I’ve worked for the party for most of that time and I’m never going to apologise for unseating Conservatives.
“Like many people in this city, I have a job that requires me to move around a lot. I spend time living at two addresses. I have my flat down at Salford Quays where [Labour] Coun Mike McCusker came to visit on the eve of polling day.
“It’s well-known in the chamber where I live. I will be playing a full part. I’ve just been doing casework now on my laptop.
“The workload of a councillor in an English district is not enormously onerous. There’s a lot of work that can be done remotely. Again, I’ve been doing casework for my residents in Tetbury before I came to the meeting this morning.
“I have an address in the Tetbury area as well. The way that the law works is that your qualifications to stand for election can be based on occupying property or work.
"I don’t want to worry anyone, but I’m technically qualified to stand for up to five districts in England and Wales, which is not what I’m going to be doing. But many people in this chamber will be qualified to stand from multiple addresses.
“I’m looking at a colleague who is a resident in Manchester, but is eligible to stand for Salford city council by virtue of owning property. It’s not unusual.
“I’ve told the city solicitor, the chief executive, the city mayor and anyone else who would care to listen, that I will be stepping down from the council in March next year so that there’s no separate by-election which will cost the taxpayer £20,000.
“I’ll be criticised if I don’t step down and also if I do. The only exception to that is if the General Election is called sooner or if there is another by-election within my ward for an MP or councillor.
“By this time next year, I will just be a councillor in Tetbury with Upton. However, being councillor is not a full-time job. We need more younger councillors who are in work in this chamber. I’m lucky in that I work for myself, I run my own consultancy and I do have that flexibility to attend meetings and do my work.”
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