DEFECTIONS BY TORIES 'A SLAP IN THE FACE'

Councillors quit over 'unsavoury behaviour'

- by EDWARD BARNES

WIRRAL'S Conservative leader says a decision by three councillors to leave his party was "a slap in the face" to supporters.

Cllr Jeff Green said he was "surprised and disappointed" by former colleagues who split from the authority grouping this week.

Cllr Andrew Hodson, who will now sit as an independent Conservative, had alleged a culture of tolerated bullying, intimidation, and favouritism in a statement announcing he was leaving the group. He has split from the Tories alongside his wife Kathy and Cllr Graham Davies, all Heswall councillors.

The decision is a fresh blow to the Conservative group, which was previously the second largest in the local authority. The Conservatives have held Heswall comfortably since the ward was created in 1973, though the Liberal Democrats have come close in more recent elections.

Cllr Andrew Hodson was first elected in 1994, Cllr Kathy Hodson in 2013, and Cllr Davies a decade later.