It wasn't me
THE former deputy leader of the council believes he has been stitched-up by the Conservatives in a row over a controversial town centre casino development.
Ex-Liberal Democrat Adrian Fudge said: “The Tories completely misrepresented the situation and have continued to do so.”
The deal attracted national attention when it emerged that the contract had been signed on election-day last May, when the Conservatives – who said in their election literature that they would resist the casino – comprehensively ousted the Lib Dems from the Town Hall.
Mr Fudge took the flak for the deal and was the subject of a parliamentary bill proposed by Tobias Ellwood, Tory MP for Bournemouth East, aiming to prevent mayor decision making during the run-up to local elections.
Mr Fudge maintains that the Lib Dems had no involvement in finalising the deal – which had already been passed by council in February, before the election campaign.
He added: “I’ve no doubt that the developer wanted that contract signed and I suspect it was the developer that was more concerned about an incoming administration.”
But the current deputy leader of the council, Cllr John Beesley, called that suggestion “bizarre”.
“I thought that he and his colleagues were supposed to be in control of the council at the time, they certainly don’t sound as though they were in charge,” he said, “they don’t sound as though they were making the decisions.
"It sounds very much to me like it’s all somebody else’s fault on his watch, I don’t think politics works like that.”
A Tory vote against Mr Fudge becoming an honorary alderman – to recognise 20 years’ council service – was overturned after an inquiry found that there had been no wrong-doing in the casino deal.