Strange political times indeed in Lewisham where the Socialist councillors backed a Liberal Democrat proposal to freeze Council Tax, but Labour’s proposal to raise Council Tax got through on the casting vote of the Conservative chair of the council (even though the Conservatives had previously backed a freeze*). Local councillor Brian Robson has the story. * You

Council finances are £13 million a year worse off because the Conservatives sought electoral popularity and ignored advice from successive Directors of Finance. Labour Councillors say that Westminster Council's current economic problems are a direct result of Conservative Councillors failing to make tough financial choices over many years and preferring the electorally popular choice of...

Ok, so here is the state of play in the English local Council elections as of mid evening. Just reflect on these stunning results.... Conservatives 1330 Councillors +217 Lib Dems 439 Councillors -8 Others 159 Councillors +34 LABOUR 159 Councillors -250. The Party of Government has come in joint 3rd! Labour has lost control of ALL four Council redoubts  it was defending. Tonight there are hund...

Camden's Conservatives have set up a council tax time bomb for local residents by following a populist punt by George Osborne to 'freeze' council tax for the next two years. In his recent New Year's message, Tory leader Cllr. Andrew Marshall says: "Camden’s Conservative councillors have today called for a further two year freeze in council tax until 2013, following from t...

Labour Councillors say that a zero Council tax rise in Westminster is the only option local residents will accept after the Conservatives lost £17 million in now-failed Icelandic Banks. Labour say that had the Council increased the Council Tax this year, at a time of severe economic conditions, there would have been difficulties in collecting the tax from residents who would have been very r...

With 26 of the 34 local elections in England officially declared so far, UKIP have triumphed in Staffordshire and Norfolk. The Party has picked up four council seats on Staffordshire County Council as Labour were decimated, losing 29 of their 32 councillors. And in Norfolk, Rex Parkinson-Hare took the Yarmouth Nelson and Southdown ward with 779 votes, beating Labour on 702 and the Conservatives on...

Westminster Labour councillors have stepped up their opposition to a proposed motorcycle parking tax writing letters to all local Conservative councillors and the Leader of the Conservative Party, David Cameron. The letter to Westminster's Conservative councillors reads: The "No to the Bike Parking Tax" is an action group formed 4 months ago to reverse the introduction of the increasingly unp...

A SCOTS council has announced it intends to freeze council tax for the second year in a row, while at the same time slashing 75 jobs.

As Cabinet Minister Lord Strathclyde joins the growing number of senior Conservatives opposed to Westminster's plans to introduce Evening and Sunday parking charges, Labour has called on the West End's 11 Conservative Councillors to 'speak up or stand down' on the Council's plans. Labour say that 11 out of the 12 Conservative Councillors representing the four West End ward...

The Conservatives retained overall control of Lincolnshire County Council in the local elections today in a sweeping victory that looks ominous for Gordon Brown and Labour.