UPDATED (25/6/20): Another One Bites the Dust - Who is Really "Independent"?

Fiercely Independent

UPDATE (25/6/20): Mendip District Council has now updated its website to reflect Bente Height re-joining the Conservatives. It shows 2 Independent councillors - Helen Sprawson-White (former Lib Dem) and Steve Henderson (former Tory), plus 1 "Other" Chris Inchley (former Labour).

The arrangement between the Lib Dem Minority Administration and the Conservative, Green and other councillors remains hidden.

We have published and will publish more separate articles on the goings on at Mendip District Council.

With the way things are, nobody will miss this Council when it is abolished - apart from the officers who will lose their jobs and the councillors who will no longer be councillors.

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Until this week, there remained only four councillors of Mendip District Council's total of forty-seven, who were not aligned with the Westminster parties.

Although a public announcement was not made, we have been told today by Shepton Mallet Councillor Bente Height that she has re-joined the Conservative Party. The Mendip District Council website shows no such change, at the time of writing.

In a respectful, courteous and frank conversation with our Deputy Leader Denise Wyatt, Councillor Height confirmed that she was no longer an Independent councillor.

Councillor Height stood for Mendip in the Shepton East Ward in the 2019 local elections as an Independent. She won by ten votes over Nick Tolson.

Shortly after, Height became the Vice-Chair of the Council. She told Denise that she could not remember who had nominated her at the 2019 Annual General Meeting.

In 2015, Councillor Height stood as a Conservative candidate and won. She confirmed to Denise that she resigned from the Conservatives in 2016 over a planning issue, and that her reasons were well-publicised.

We asked her whether she would be standing down as Vice-Chair of the Council. She said that she thought she had only been elected to the role for a year.

There has not been any Full Council meeting or Annual General Meeting since the botched budget meetings earlier in 2020, before the Coronavirus hit. This includes virtual meetings.

So we will see what happens at the next Full Council later this month, and whether there is a new Vice-Chair.

Finally, we asked whether she would be resigning her seat, which would cause a by-election.

Councillor Height said that she would not.

So she has gone from Conservative to Independent and back to Conservative in five years.

At Somerset Independents, we would not class such behaviour as being fit of a true Independent. We would ask that Councillor Height asks the residents that she represents, whether she still has their support.

With another Shepton Councillor Edric Hobbs, joining the Liberal Democrats a few weeks ago, this leaves just three councillors unaligned. Unlike Councillor Height, Councillor Hobbs did not respectfully respond to our questions. He did not even bother to respond at all.

We believe that Councillor Hobbs should also ask his local residents whether they support him.

Somerset Independents understands that another Shepton councillor, Chris Inchley, supports the recall of councillors. We agree with Councillor Inchley.

Somerset Independents has already called for clarity over how it is that the Liberal Democrats cling on to a Minority Administration. They do not have a majority of councillors, relying on other councillors to vote with them.

We have asked councillors and officers. Still we do not know what the full arrangement is. The public need to know.

Leader of Somerset Independents, Andrew Pope, says:

"There is a lack of openness and transparency at Mendip District Council - both principles are required of councillors in the Seven Principles of Public Life, a.k.a. the Nolan Principles.

Incredibly, the so-called "opposition" councillors - Green and Conservative, all voted for the Liberal Democrats budget in February.

This is most odd - usually they would abstain or vote against the Liberal Democrat budget.

But at Mendip District Council, anything seems possible, even bizarre behaviour like this.

And we heard on the BBC just after the 2019 elections from Councillor Shane Collins that the local Green Party has "worked informally" with the Liberal Democrats. We also heard similar claims from the Liberal Democrats themselves. Yet other Greens have denied any electoral pact, when we have asked them.

Exactly what the arrangement is must now be made clear.

The public deserve to know."