An inconvenient vote

Tuesday night's Council meeting saw a most unusual debate on the issue of closing some of the public toilets in Malvern Tenbury Wells and Upton on Severn.

All to save £4,000 (1% of this year's increase in government grant) the Liberal/Green Administration clearly exercised a three line whip in the face of great opposition from other councillors, members of the public and Town Councillors. In fact four votes on different amendments were tied with the Chairman effectively having to make the decision to close the toilets.

I am all in favour of saving money but cannot see why £4,000 requires such fighting for when the projected cost of a new headquarters building rises by £1.5m, without any explanation. The Administration managed to keep that in the budget by two votes.

In both cases it was somewhat frustrating to see councillors voting contrary to the opinions they had clearly expressed to the public.