Defecting councillors' Wilde cards

To paraphrase, and with apologies to Mr Wilde: “To lose one councillor may be regarded as a misfortune... to lose two looks like carelessness.”

The Conservatives still retain a comfortable majority on the district council, but questions must surely be being asked as to why the past fortnight has seen two of the group’s most experienced members - and both from Bexhill, at that - declaring they have had enough of party lines and are re-aligning themselves as independents.

So has Cllr Maynard indeed been careless and perhaps taken his eye off the political football?

Certainly there are many who feel that the Tory-led authority has become too arrogant for its own good: paying lip service to public consultation but then doing just what it wants anyway.

And while it’s a truism that you cannot please all of the people all of the time, a glance at the Observer’s letters pages confirm that Rother and its decision-makers are hardly regarded with unbridled affection by some voters.

Its £5.6 million Next Wave project has been a case in point, with some council tax payers clearly feeling that it has been more of a vanity venture than something Bexhill desperately needed.

Many seem to think that what Bexhill does need is its own voice in local government, with a better means of reflecting residents’ views and a recognition that it is the district’s biggest town by far, worthy of its own legislature.

As was apparent at this week’s full council meeting, there is deep unhappiness with the Cabinet system, which is now under review because there are those who feel it has lost its original ethos and has instead been concentrating too much power in too few hands.

And there is deep scepticism about Rother’s moves towards charging extra for services that many other authorities regard as being bound up in their raison d’etre - planning advice, green waste collection, and so on.

Whatever thoughts are in Cllr Maynard’s mind and those of his lieutenants as they contemplate deserters in the ranks, they should surely be asking themselves, why?

If they are not, and simply believe a shrug of the shoulders will suffice, those who suspect the leading party cares little for those whose interests it claims to represent will have their answer.

And where two have ventured, others may follow.