Telford and Wrekin Liberal Democrats voting records on T&W Council

The Telford and Wrekin Liberal Democrats currently hold three seats on the Council, Bill and Karen Tomlinson and Karen Blundell. These are all long serving and experienced Councillors and by all accounts work hard in their respective wards and have done so over their many years on the Council.

Looking closely at the their voting record however reveals the following:-

NB this table was prepared by using data supplied by Council officers and represents the recorded votes in this Council Cycle so between May 2015 and the date of this blog post 9th Feb 2019. A recorded vote is a vote where members have especially asked the Council to publicly record the voting, this is typically done when the issue is important. The number below represent the times a member has voted one way or another.

		With Labour	Against Labour	With Conservatives	With All Parties	Abstained
Party	Names	Administration	Administration	Opposition alone	Unanimously
Liberal	Karen Tomlinson	15	Never	Never	6	2
Liberal	Bill Tomlinson	18	Never	Never	7	2
Liberal	Karen Blundell	12	Never	Never	7	2

What is interesting is that whilst the Liberal Democrats from time to time vote with all parties and abstain they have never in this Council actually supported the Conservatives on any issue or resolution, nor have they voted against any Labour Administration motion or being precise only where the issue was also supported by the Labour Administration. As the Conservatives are the main opposition party, then it can be said that the Telford and Wrekin Liberals have never supported the Opposition and voted against the Labour Administration.

This points towards an observation made recently to me by residents in Shawbirch that the Liberals “prop up the Labour Administration”, as can be seen above there is not to my knowledge any pact or agreement but there is certainly a common belief in policies or an alignment of views.

At the current time the Conservatives are fighting the Council elections which are to be held on 2nd May 2019, if residents of Apley, Dothill or Shawbirch are considering supporting the Liberals then please take note of the above, as for me their records of opposition to Conservative policies and motions speaks for itself.

The more detailed data including the resolutions themselves can be found here:-

Date	Motion		With Labour	With Conservative	Abstained
			Administration	Opposition
09/07/2015	Proposed changes to Arriva Bus routes
	Liberal	Karen Tomlinson	1
	Liberal	Bill Tomlinson	1
	Liberal	Karen Blundell

09/07/2015	Close Newport Recycling Centre
	Liberal	Karen Tomlinson	1
	Liberal	Bill Tomlinson	1
	Liberal	Karen Blundell

09/07/2015	Against Bedroom Tax
	Liberal	Karen Tomlinson	1
	Liberal	Bill Tomlinson	1
	Liberal	Karen Blundell

26/11/2015	Against Government Grant Reduction
	Liberal	Karen Tomlinson	1
	Liberal	Bill Tomlinson	1
	Liberal	Karen Blundell

03/03/2016	Service and Financial Planning
	Liberal	Karen Tomlinson			1
	Liberal	Bill Tomlinson			1
	Liberal	Karen Blundell			1

24/11/2016	Protecting Children
	Liberal	Karen Tomlinson
	Liberal	Bill Tomlinson	1
	Liberal	Karen Blundell

07/12/2016	Future Fit
	Liberal	Karen Tomlinson	1	1
	Liberal	Bill Tomlinson	1	1
	Liberal	Karen Blundell	1	1

02/03/2017	Service and Financial Planning
	Liberal	Karen Tomlinson	1
	Liberal	Bill Tomlinson	1
	Liberal	Karen Blundell	1

02/03/2017	Retention of Services at PRH
	Liberal	Karen Tomlinson	1
	Liberal	Bill Tomlinson	1
	Liberal	Karen Blundell	1

20/07/2017	Overnight Closure of PRH
	Liberal	Karen Tomlinson	1	1
	Liberal	Bill Tomlinson	1	1
	Liberal	Karen Blundell	1	1

21/09/2017	Shortfall in School Places
	Liberal	Karen Tomlinson			1
	Liberal	Bill Tomlinson			1
	Liberal	Karen Blundell			1

11/01/2017	Telford & Wrekin Local Plan
	Liberal	Karen Tomlinson	1
	Liberal	Bill Tomlinson	1
	Liberal	Karen Blundell

11/01/2017	Reverse Parking Charges at PRH
	Liberal	Karen Tomlinson
	Liberal	Bill Tomlinson	1	1
	Liberal	Karen Blundell	1	1

01/03/2018	Service and Financial planning
	Liberal	Karen Tomlinson	1
	Liberal	Bill Tomlinson	1
	Liberal	Karen Blundell	1

10/04/2018	Inquiry into CSE
	Liberal	Karen Tomlinson	1	1
	Liberal	Bill Tomlinson	1	1
	Liberal	Karen Blundell	1	1

26/07/2018	Retain Childrens unit at PRH
	Liberal	Karen Tomlinson	1	1
	Liberal	Bill Tomlinson	1	1
	Liberal	Karen Blundell	1	1

26/07/2018	Against merger with Shropshire
	Liberal	Karen Tomlinson	1	1
	Liberal	Bill Tomlinson	1	1
	Liberal	Karen Blundell	1	1

20/09/2018	White Ribbon Town
	Liberal	Karen Tomlinson	1	1
	Liberal	Bill Tomlinson	1	1
	Liberal	Karen Blundell	1	1

20/09/2018	Slow Progress with CRE
	Liberal	Karen Tomlinson	1
	Liberal	Bill Tomlinson	1
	Liberal	Karen Blundell	1

29/10/2018	Overnight Closure of PRH
	Liberal	Karen Tomlinson				1
	Liberal	Bill Tomlinson	1
	Liberal	Karen Blundell	1

So please consider carefully your voting in this election, as a vote for the Liberals based on the experience of this Council Cycle is actually a vote to support the policy agenda of the current Labour Administration.

This is a picture of a poster from the Conservative Party archives but the message remains the same, that over the last 50 years or so up and down the Country a vote for the Liberals can in fact be a vote to let in Labour.

On May 2nd 2019 please vote with the above in mind, the local liberals are nice people and work hard but their policy is one of Labour Support.