PARTIES ROW OVER 'LOW TACTICS' CLAIM; Tory election leaflet at centre of dispute

Huddersfield Daily Examiner (Huddersfield, England), May 27, 2008

Byline: By BARRY GIBSON Local Government Reporter

A COUNCILLOR has denied using "low tactics" to win re-election.

The Greens have accused Kirkburton Conservative ClrAdrianMurphy of putting out a misleading leaflet just before voters went to the polls.

Clr Andrew Cooper, who represents the Greens on Kirklees Council and Kirkburton Parish Council, said: "The leaflet contained a number of spurious allegations regarding our party."

It was distributed the day before the May 1 poll, which saw Clr Murphy defeat his Green challenger by more than 600 votes.

Clr Cooper said: "The leaflet claimed we had increased the parish precept by a staggering 60% - from pounds 80,000 to pounds 127,000 - at a time when the parish council has pounds 140,000 in the bank.

"The Green Party has 11 of the 25 seats on the parish council so we don't have a majority to push through unpopular measures even if we wanted to; which we don't.

"The truth of the matter is that the parish budget was agreed by all parties on the council, with only one abstention.

"The money the parish council has in the bank is to a large extent already allocated for existing commitments. It is not simply sitting there for no purpose, as the Conservatives alleged.

"Kirkburton Parish Council costs the average council taxpayer pounds 14.39 a year while Kirklees Council costs them pounds 1,327.80."

Clr Cooper criticised the Conservatives for distributing the leaflet.

He said: "We, of course, would have preferred to have won the recent election in Kirkburton.

"But we believe people's opinion of politicians in general is diminished when people resort to these rather low tactics to win votes."

But Clr Murphy defended the leaflet.

He said: "Everything I said was factual.

I don't tell porkies, unlike some others."

The Conservative said his statements about the parish council were accurate.

He said: "It's a Green Party-led council; there's no disputing that. I don't know how they can justify such an increase when they have pounds 140,000 in the bank.

"The year before that, when I was on the council, we got the precept down to pounds 80,000."

CAPTION(S):

HIT OUT: Clr Andrew Cooper ACCUSED: Clr Adrian Murphy