I understand the calls for Kelham Cooke to step down as Leader of South Kesteven Council after he and his mates were photographed on two separate occasions ignoring social distancing rules– but his recent 'transgressions' are only the latest examples of poor leadership and it's clear he has no intention of resigning anytime soon.

He's obviously hoping to 'ride out the criticism' by following the example set by others who've been caught red-handed breaching the very rules on which they've been lecturing the rest of us for months.

I challenge those now defending Cllr Cooke's 'leadership qualities' to release the official tape of last month's South Kesteven District Council meeting so the public can decide for themselves whether they are getting the leadership they deserve.

The tape reveals an appallingly led shambolic meeting with multiple examples of petty party politics, poor judgement and absence of clear leadership.

In more than 20 years serving on various local authorities I've seldom seen such shameless shenanigans under any leader. It was nothing short of an affront to democracy.

The council's Constitution was blatantly politicised, as Cllr Cooke shamelessly steam-rollered 40-pages of changes to the council rule-book through on a party political whip: every Conservative councillor instructed which way to vote rather than allowing individual elected members to make up their own minds.

Chaos continued with a farcical 'election' to choose a new scrutiny committee chairman in which the only candidate allowed to stand was Cllr Cooke's (Conservative) nomination...

We're all rightly outraged when tinpot dictators in other parts of the world pull similar stunts. But wake up, it's happening right here in South Kesteven!

Cllr Cooke's insistence that only Conservatives are allowed to chair scrutiny has long been a bone of contention: other equally Tory-dominated local authorities take a more pragmatic approach. At Lincolnshire County Council for example, the Leader of the Opposition chairs a powerful scrutiny committee helping to achieve more robust, transparent and accountable decision-making.

Scrutiny is supposed to provide balance to hold the Leadership to account: but under Cllr Cooke the choice of who is on the council funded payroll as scrutiny chairmen – and vice-chairmen -is entirely in his gift. In effect, he marks his own homework – probably why scrutiny is so ineffective at SK.

Cllr Cooke ran the Conservative local election machine last year which delivered tens of thousands of leaflets promising: NO PARTY POLITICS!

Conservative councillors break that solemn pledge to the electors regularly as the party whip is ruthlessly imposed and 'backbenchers' become silent voting fodder, shamelessly putting their allegiance to the Party that got them elected above all else.

Sadly, Cllr Cooke's failures of leadership have been largely unreported by main-stream local media who rely on a constant flow of rose-tinted stories fed to them by the council's team of professional spin-doctors – paid from the public purse.

The minders are clearly powerless to protect the Leader when he's hundreds of miles away with his mates.

Now he's back, I hope they remind him he's Leader of the whole Council - not just Leader of the Conservative Group of councillors.

If he is to have any chance of helping restore damaged reputations, Cllr Cooke needs to start practising the inclusive, collaborative working he promised everyone when he became Leader.

For an Independent blow-by-blow account of how the last council meeting under Coun Cooke's leadership descended into chaos, go to Coun Ashley Baxter's blog at https://bit.ly/2PGRc2q Phil Dilks Independent councillor serving Deeping St James.

• This is the first in what may become a regular serious of comment pieces for Coun Dilks. Such an invitation is open to all councillors of all political stripes, including Coun Cooke, who of course, is welcome to a right of reply.

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