LAST Tuesday the Conservative administration on Malvern Hills District Council surpassed even its low standards in undemocratic behaviour.

Just as with the South Worcestershire Development Plan, because they disagreed that the post of joint chief executive should be advertised nationally (as the council agreed in June) they brought their proposal back for a re-vote.

They proposed that the minute of the last meeting be altered to read that the applicants should be restricted to the two current postholders, one of whom it is understood wants to retire.

Neither the monitoring officer, nor legal services manager pointed out to the council that this could not be done: minutes must be a true record of the meeting.

The opposition brought a legal opinion to prove that the Conservatives' proposal was against common law, which the chairman at first insisted on ignoring.

The motion that was passed, although amended slightly, still involves changing the minutes of the last meeting.

Cllr. Baker emphasised that advertising nationally may result in two redundancies and therefore double the cost, something which the Conservatives were intent on avoiding.

So, we have a ruling group that has scant regard for both the constitution and common law in order to get its way, a way that may well result in just one candidate to whom the job is awarded in order to avoid further redundancy costs.

Caroline Carver

Malvern