I have been asked why, in the light of my previous post, I voted for Conservative Cllr Skeats to chair last night’s CCEA Scrutiny Panel when I deputised for Cllr Epps.

On the first round of a secret ballot to elect a chair for the panel, I voted for a Labour councillor. The vote produced a dead heat and a run-off ballot was held between Cllr Skeats (Con) and Cll Lovelock (Lab). I abstained on this run and the result was a again a deadlock.

At this point the election of a chair was deferred to the next meeting and a vote was held to install a temporary chair just for the evening. I could not support Cllr Lovelock (and there are one or two other Labour councillors I would not support) and the only way to break the deadlock was to vote for Cllr Skeats, which I did, happy to leave the next run of an election for chair of the panel to its next meeting when Cllr Epps would be back. I took the view that this was preferable to having Cllr Lovelock in the chair for a meeting when the items on the agenda related to her time as Leader of the Council.

So there you have it.