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Embattled Doncaster mayor loses no confidence vote
THE embattled Mayor of Doncaster Martin Winter today lost a vote of no confidence, amid a police inquiry into alleged corruption at the council.
Mr Winter, the district's elected mayor, lost the vote by 42 votes to only eight, with seven abstentions.
But he said he had no intention of resigning - and vowed to stand for a third term as mayor next year.
Last week it was revealed that South Yorkshire Police had launched an investigation following allegations made by Mr Winter against the authority's former managing director.
The vote at today's full council meeting followed widespread hostility towards Mr Winter's leadership style and his alleged failure to maintain the integrity of the council.
The council has been beset with internal strife which prompted the District Auditor, in May, to issue a public interest report and threaten government intervention.
Since then, the bitterness between councillors and the mayor has increased. However, Mr Winter is not be constitutionally obliged to resign in the wake of today's vote.
The motion of no confidence was put by the Independent Alliance and read: "To protect the integrity of the council and the elected members and the communities they represent, this council supports a vote of no confidence in the elected mayor's style of leadership and conduct which conflicts with the best interests of the council."
All the opposition groups gave early indications they would support the motion.
Relationships on the council broke down almost completely after the May elections when Mr Winter first left the Labour group and was then expelled by the party for setting up his own independent group.
His plan to create a unifying cross-party Cabinet quickly foundered when he refused to deal with the Labour group and refused to accept the Tory group's nomination, and both the Independent Alliance and Liberal Democrats refused to nominate anyone.
The Mayor's hopes of recruiting former colleagues to the Cabinet took another blow when Eva Hughes decided to return to the Labour group after initially joining his rebel "gang of three" which included the now Deputy Mayor, Stuart Exelby.
The Cabinet currently only has five members, including the Mayor and Deputy Mayor.
The police inquiry, meanwhile, concerns contracts awarded in 2005 when Susan Law was the council's chief officer.
News of the investigation brought a terse response from Ms Law's legal representative, who warned Mr Winter and the council they could face legal action for breaching the compromise agreement under which the managing director left the council in January last year.
Ms Law's representative, Alastair Robertson, honorary secretary of the Association of Local Authority Chief Executives, said: "We will be looking closely at the proceedings of the vote of no confidence in the mayor to ensure there is no attempt to dig up groundless allegations, which were dismissed by the council itself last year, as a way of deflecting the attention away from the real problem in Doncaster.
"The mayor, the council and Susan are all bound by the agreement made when the council and managing director parted company last year."
Ms Law left the authority with a 120,000 pay-off and total costs to the council of over 300,000.
A public interest report by the district auditor published in May severely criticised how the council had handled the affair and warned it faced government intervention.
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Weather for Yorkshire
Saturday 26 May 2012
Today
Sunny
Temperature: 9 C to 21 C
Wind Speed: 17 mph
Wind direction: East
Tomorrow
Sunny
Temperature: 9 C to 22 C
Wind Speed: 13 mph
Wind direction: East
