28 October 2009

Plymouth's Tories witnessed their finance chief forced onto the defensive during an Emergency Council meeting this week.

Replying to the Labour motion calling for a full report on the CityBus privatisation process, Senior Conservative, Cllr Ian Bowyer, was forced to admit that the answer he gave at a Council meeting only two weeks go was not true.

Plymouth Labour Group had managed to secure this emergency debate amid widespread concern that Cllr Bowyer had revealed commercially confidential information by speaking openly to the press at the end of September, when normally strict rules stop politicians revealing classified details

When invited repeatedly during the debate by Labour Councillor Bill Stevens to explain how he had come by the sensitive information Cllr Bowyer chose to remain silent.

Speaking after Tory councillors had voted down Labour's call for openness, Cllr Stevens said, "This conduct from a Cabinet member is breathtaking. Serious questions remain unanswered. Cllr Ian Bowyer must come clean and give a full account of his actions. He has caused confidential information to be published that could be damaging to CityBus. We expect senior officers to mount a full and thorough public investigation at the highest level. If this cannot be done inside the Council then independent auditors must be called in. We in the Labour Group, speaking on behalf of the huge majority of concerned Plymothians, are not prepared to let this matter drop."