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| David Whipp and the Lib Dems |
David Whipp and his eight Liberal Democrat colleagues have all resigned from the shared administration (Executive branch) on Pendle Council.
The move comes following an Extraordinary meeting of the Council last night, at which the Lib Dems sought to remove the Leader of the Council, Asjad Mahmood (Ind), claiming they had lost confidence in his leadership after he voted against the introduction of a taxi safety app at a meeting in December.
The motion to remove the Leader was defeated with 14 votes against, 7 for, and 8 abstentions. Dorothy Lord (Lib Dem), broke party ranks and abstained from the vote, as did most of the Conservatives. The defeat of the motion was greeted with loud applause by a number of taxi drivers in the viewing gallery.
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| Cllr Yasser Iqbal (PTI) |
Cllr Y. Iqbal also questioned the actions of former Cllr, Kieran McGladdery (Con), who resigned in protest of the result of the December Taxi Licencing app vote, saying if (former) Cllr McGladdery was present at the meeting, the finely balanced vote to suspend the app would probably not have passed.
Cllr Nadeem Ahmed (Con), criticised the calling of the meeting and cited the costs to be in excess of £1000 for what he called Cllr D.Whipp's "political broadcast" and "electioneering". He went on to say that Councillors have lots of important issues to face and removing the leader would lead to further chaos.
Cllr Mohammed Iqbal (Ind), voiced his disappointment in the motion presented by Cllr D. Whipp following years of successful collaboration, and highlighted that the taxi app has not been cancelled, merely suspended to allow time for more taxi drivers to conform. 
Cllr Mohammed Iqbal (Ind)
He noted that currently only 30 out 874 drivers have signed up for the app, and that enforcement now would overwhelm the Council. Cllr Iqbal went on to say that the Leader, was not the only person to vote against the app at the Taxi Licencing meeting in December.
The resignations leave the Executive in the hands of the the Independent group (Zafar Ali, Mohammad Hanif, Mohammed Iqbal, Asjad Mahmood).
In a post on his Facebook page Cllr D.Whipp wrote:
"Councillors again failed to take action on Pendle's taxi-safety issue at a special meeting of the borough's full council this evening.
My group on the council proposed a vote of no-confidence in Cllr Asjad Mahmood as Leader of the council over the taxi issue.
But councillors in the 'blue' corner refused to back the move and the vote was lost.
Late last year, Independent and Tory councillors watered down measures aimed at enforcing daily safety checks on taxis.
A Colne councillor resigned after his colleagues went along with weakening the safety regulations.
Taxi safety improvements were a key part of the agreement on running the council between ourselves and the Independents.
With that policy in tatters, my group has withdrawn from the council's administration.
We will continue to fight for tighter regulation and enforcement of daily taxi-safety checks.
The full 'no-confidence' debate can be viewed on the council's YouTube channel.
