Boston Council leader Aaron Spencer forced to resign

Boston Council is set for its second change of leadership in six months after Cllr Aaron Spencer was forced to resign by Conservative colleagues.

The deputy leader, Cllr Nigel Welton, will act as leader until a new leader is appointed by the council.

At a meeting of the council’s Conservative ruling group last night, Cllr Spencer says he was told to resign or face a vote of no confidence.

He says those who asked him to stand down cited the fact that he had worked at Boston West hotel and golf club – which has just submitted a plan for a major development (see page 4) – for two months, and the fact that he removed former leader Cllr Michael Cooper from the planning committee.

Cllr Spencer believes that he has been victim of a conspiracy and those who worked to get rid of him did so as a result of a personal vendetta.

Cllr Spencer took over from Cllr Cooper as leader in July last year. Since then, he has spearheaded the PE21 project to redevelop the town centre and has been a highly-visible presence as leader.

He was 27 at the time and was one of the youngest council leaders in the country.

A spokesperson for Boston Council said yesterday: “We can confirm Aaron Spencer has resigned as Leader of the Council.

“Nigel Welton, as Deputy Leader, will act as Leader until the Council appoints a new Leader.”

Speaking to the Boston Standard, Cllr Spencer said he would now be an independent councillor, and would be happy to return as leader if he got the backing from fellow independents and opposition councillors.

“I’m am independent now and if councillors want my drive and my passion and my vision then I can finally bring the council together; get us all working together.”

He believes he was “betrayed by people for no other reason than petty vengeance”.

He said some Tories weren’t happy with his plans for more cross-party co-operation, and says his removal had nothing to do with his performance as leader.

“If I was doing a poor job and not bringing loads of investment in and talking to politicians at high level then I could understand, but I’ve done more in the past six months than the past two leaders have done in five years to move the town forward.

“The Local Government Association came in and said I had drive and ambition for the town.”

He said his young age had also been a factor. “I think there’s a lack of respect because of my age. That’s always been the case. People call me young lad in the party. Think there’s a lot of jealousy as well. Everyone in the Tory party talks down to me.

“There’s no way that anyone can say they have got rid of me based on my performance. Its personal.”

With regards to his work at Boston West, he said he had been completely open and he and former councillor Alistair Arundell, who is now one of the businessmen who owns the complex, had met with the council’s monitoring officer Michele Sacks to make sure they were okay with declarations of interest. He stressed that he had never spoken publicly about the development plans.

“They wanted a leader who was going to be a bit of a puppet and I’m not like that.

“It’s a shame because it will be the town that suffers really.”

The latest move will leave the council set up with 15 Conservative group members, seven Independents, five Bostonian Independents, two Labour group members and one unspecified.

It means the Conservatives are currently equal in number to their opposition