'This should be stopped now'

7:20am Sunday 17th August 2008

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THE position of a former Tory’s seat on decision-making committees at Hillingdon Council has been slammed after he admitted his involvement in a hate campaign.

On Wednesday, August 6, Councillor Ian Oakley admitted a string of charges, including slashing the car tyres of opponents in the battle to be Parliamentary candidate for Watford.

He is due to be sentenced on September 16, after a psychiatric assessment has been conducted.

Although Oakley resigned as a Tory on the council, he still sits on two committees, for which he is entitled to claim expenses.

There have been calls for Oakley to resign from the council since his arrest and, since his admission of guilt, there are now further calls for him to resign from the committees.

He is currently a member of a policy overview committee and planning committee, for which it is believed he is still claiming £20,000 a year in expenses.

Councillor Mike Cox, leader of the Lib Dems at Hillingdon, said: “This should be stopped now. An emergency meeting could easily be called.

“It is not right he is still claiming expenses for being on the committees.”

However, Councillor Ray Puddifoot, leader of the council, has said the best procedure is to wait until the next full council meeting, due to be held on September 11, at which he can be automatically removed from the committees.

Should the planned meeting not take place, the result of the sentencing expected on September 16 could decide Oakley’s future.

Explaining the procedure, Cllr Puddifoot said: “We can only remove him from a committee during a full council meeting.

“Between now and the sentencing there are not any committee meetings, so he will not be involved in making any decision.

“It was said in court he faces a custodial sentence and if it is three months or more I will ask him to step down from the council.

“But if I am being asked to do it immediately, the procedure is not as easy as it seems.”

Cllr Puddifoot said he would have to write to the standards committee on the council and explain that Oakley has not turned out as members expected as a councillor.

He added: “It is a long-winded process and the easiest and most practical way of going about it is to wait until his sentencing.”

Councillor Anthony Way, leader of the Labour group, said: “I think it is ludicrous that he has resigned from the Tories and still allowed to sit on the committee and claim his expenses.

“This has nothing to do with his role as a councillor so it should not have to involve the standards board. ”

Oakley wrote a letter to the Watford Observer in response to one Cllr Cox had written to the paper.

In it Oakley states: “I am clearly doing something right in my campaigning in Watford that the Lib Dems feel so threatened by me that they have to resort to personal abuse.”

Cllr Cox, said: “It just goes to show what kind of sick mind he has. The timing of his letter was ironic and he has undoubtedly denied everything until the proof was in front of him.”