Surrey Heath and Woking Tory Defection Chaos

12.00.00am BST (GMT +0100) Mon 20th Jul 2009

Once again the Tories are busy trying to heal the splits emerging within their council groups

Once again splits and divides are emerging from our local Conservative Council groups.

This week, Councillor Peter Ankers, immediate past mayor of Woking, resigned from the Tory group on Woking Borough Council to sit as an Independent councillor. Cllr Ankers expressed concern about the financial competence of the Tory-led council.

As a result the Tories have once again lost control of Woking Council, which is now "No Overall Control".

But this is not the only embarrassment for the local Conservatives.

Cllr Wendy Bentall recently resigned from the Tory group in Chobham Parish Council and now sits with the Independent Group. This is the sixth resignation or disqualification of a Tory councillor from Chobham Council in as many years.

And yet another Tory councillor has come close to being disqualified from office.

Councillor Lee Chivers has not attended a full Council meeting since January 2008. The law states that Councillors are automatically disqualified if they do not attend a meeting of the council for a period of 6 months.

Councillor Chivers has only escaped disqualification by attending meetings of the Council's Planning Committee.