Fury over 'scurrilous' Labour leaflet (From Bucks Free Press)

Fury over 'scurrilous' Labour leaflet by Wycombe candidate Andrew Lomas

9:15am Friday 23rd April 2010 in News By Oliver Evans

LEAFLET: Andrew Lomas

CONSERVATIVE leaders have rounded on Wycombe’s Labour election candidate over ‘scurrilous’ claims in an election leaflet.

Conservative councillors hit out yesterday at Andrew Lomas’s claims about the local Tory record on hospital bed blocking and council rents.

They said there had been massive improvements for the first topic – and Mr Lomas had got his facts wrong for the second.

He branded Buckinghamshire County Council ‘uncaring’ for how its social services teams got patients out of hospital, freeing up clinical beds.

It says: “Tory-run Bucks County Council’s social services are one of the worst offenders when it comes to bed-blocking.

“Not only does this affect poorly and vulnerable people, it wastes taxpayers’ money by taking up hospital beds that could be better used.”

Yet Councillor Patricia Birchley, spokesman for adult and family wellbeing at the council, hit back at its full meeting yesterday.

She said: “The number of delayed transfers of care has reduced by more than half and we are now well below the national average.”

Cllr Birchley said: “Maybe it was a problem but that is scurrilous – it is not there any more.”

And Wycombe District Council leader Cllr Lesley Clarke told The Bucks Free Press she was furious about other claims in the leaflet over housing.

It refers to a U-turn on council housing rents in May last year where the increase was slashed from 6.2 to 3.1 per cent (see link, bottom of story).

It reads: “HUMILIATED: Tory-run Wycombe District Council was left red-faced when its shameless attempts to hike rents in the middle of a recession were over-ruled by the Government.”

Both claims were headed “The REAL face of Cameron’s Conservatives.”

Yet Cllr Clarke said rents are set by the Government and not the council.

She said: “I believe that he is working to bring the council into disrepute. It was his Government that caused the problem in the first place.”

Last night Mr Lomas hit back.

In a statement, he said of social services: “We are told that things are finally getting better. Whilst this is to be welcomed, the people in the town who I speak to recognise who created this mess in the first place.

“If the bed blocking has to get as bad as it has before the Tories acknowledge there is a problem, then I dread to think how far further other services in Wycombe have to slip before the issues are acknowledged.”

And he said of the housing row “I’m disappointed that the Conservatives feel the need to bring the debate down to attacks on personality, when housing in the town is such an important topic.

“The fact is that, during an economic downturn, a Labour government has chosen to invest in housing – to limit rent rises for those on modest incomes. This should be applauded.”

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