Independent councillors in Nottinghamshire have called for Ben Bradley to resign as leader of the Conservative-led authority.
Bradley stood for the Tories in last week’s East Midlands Mayoral election, losing to Labour’s Claire Ward by a distance of around 50,000 votes.
But he has announced that he will be carrying on as leader of Nottinghamshire County Council, which has provoked fury among independent members who say he has been “squatting” in County Hall as he campaigned to become mayor.
An extraordinary motion is set to be heard before his leadership is formally confirmed at a public meeting of the full council at 10am on May 16th.
The motion which would be debated at the meeting reads: “This council has no confidence in the leadership of Nottinghamshire County Council. Over the past few years, the Conservative administration who run this council have had one aim and objective – that being to get the current leader of this council elected as the Mayor of the East Midlands Combined Authority at the expense of providing a good level of service across all departments of this council.
“We therefore call for the immediate resignation of Councillor Ben Bradley as leader of Nottinghamshire County Council.” It comes after Councillor Bradley lost to Labour’s Claire Ward in the East Midlands Mayor election on May 2.
Councillor Jason Zadrozny, the leader of the Independent Alliance, said: “Over the past few years, Tory Ben Bradley has been entirely focused on getting elected as the new Mayor. As a result, the council has failed residents over the state of our broken roads and pavements, education, our finances are in a parlous state and much more. They can’t even get the basics right.
“During the Mayoral election, Ben Bradley made a number of personal attacks on the new Labour Mayor. Ben Bradley’s position as council leader is untenable and we plan to put that to the vote next week. It’s time he moved to one side, admitted he has failed our county and stopped squatting in County Hall.”
Councillor Bradley responded to the request for the meeting by saying: “I hope Jason enjoys playing these childish games. I will be getting on with my job working for local residents, just as I always have.”
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