Lib-Dem councillors resign from party
THREE prominent Liberal Democrat councillors have resigned from the party after discovering that a colleague had featured on a sex chat line website three years ago.
Former Bideford Mayor Tony Inch, his brother, Simon, and current deputy mayor Caroline Church, will sit as Independents on Torridge District and Bideford Town Councils.
They walked out after their attention was drawn to an article in The Sun newspaper in 2004 featuring Mrs Myrna Bushell, who was elected to Bideford Town Council as a Liberal Democrat in May. Her husband, Mel, was also elected.
In the article, Mrs Bushell told how she could earn up to £100 a week "talking dirty" to men who called her on a premium phone line. The article can still be seen online.
She was quoted as saying: "They always ask me what I'm wearing and what I'm doing. I usually say 'I've just got out of the bath. I'm dripping wet and rubbing baby oil all over my body' or 'I'm watching a blue movie with just my high heels on'.
"The reality is I'm often standing in my cold, damp hall dressed in a tracksuit with a blanket wrapped around my shoulders and slippers on my feet, or I'm at the ironing board in the kitchen."
This week, Mr Inch told the Gazette he was not happy about the way the local Liberal-Democrat leadership had reacted to the revelation.
Mrs Church, a former Bideford Lib-Dem branch secretary, said the resignations were not about personal differences.
"It is on a fundamental point of principle," she said.
Yesterday (Tuesday), it became clear that Mr and Mrs Bushell were not members of the LIberal Democrat party when they were selected to stand in the May elections.
Noel Thompson, chairman of Torridge and West Devon Liberal Democrats, said it appeared that procedures had broken down at local branch level.
"This is something we are looking into," he said. "People acted in good faith, and the Bushells might have intended to join the party, but they are still not paid-up members.
"We are examining the situation to make sure correct procedures are followed in future.
"We are also trying to persuade the councillors who resigned to come back to us, because at the end of the day, no one has done anything wrong. It's a disagreement within the branch."
George McLauchlan, clerk to Bideford Town Council, said Mr Inch had spoken to the monitoring officer of the Standards Board for England.
"As far as we are concerned, there has been no contravention of the code of conduct, because this does not impinge on her duties as a councillor," he said.
Mrs Bushell told the Gazette this week: "All I know is there has been a disagreement with someone. I am not making any comment.
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