April 26, 2011 2.43 pm This story is over 155 months old

Tories vow to keep Labour out of City Hall

Tight race: Lincoln’s Conservative group are vowing to hold on to their control of City Hall at this year’s local elections.

Lincoln’s Conservative group are vowing to hold on to their control of City Hall at this year’s local elections on May 5, as the Labour group vouches a comeback.

City Council Deputy Leader and Conservative Councillor Marc Jones

This year’s elections are set to be a tight race, as Labour and Conservatives battle over the 11 councillor seats up for grabs.

Last year Labour and Conservatives won 16 seats each, with one Liberal Democrat giving Conservatives control on a per-issue basis, but not in a coalition.

Lincoln’s Labour party is hoping to regain control of the City Council, after four years of losing majority seats to Conservatives.

But Marc Jones, Deputy Leader and Conservative Councillor, said “We were genuinely amazed at the state of things at City Hall when we took over in 2007.

“For years Labour had been burying their heads in the sand over the problems faced across the city.

“The first thing that we faced was a fire risk assessment on the City Hall building of over £1 million, a £2.5 million over-spend on the yearly budget and grants being paid out without any proper accountability.

“We are quite clearly the only option when it comes to managing the city finances responsibly and with the challenges ahead we hope that people look at our record of service protection and spending prudence rather than opting for the spend in haste repent at leisure approach of the Labour group.”

Councillor Darren Grice, the current Leader of the City of Lincoln Council, is up for re-election as Bracebridge ward councillor in the May 5 local elections.

Councillor Ric Metcalfe, Leader of the Labour Group on the City Council, said in a party message that the local elections on May 5 “will be one of the most important for some years”.

Labour lost control of the City of Lincoln Council in 2007, after more than 25 years of governing the city.