RE-SELECTION OF NEWCASTLE-UNDER-LYME COUNCILLOR PETER WHIELDON

That this House calls for an investigation by Newcastle-Under-Lyme Conservative Association into the re-selection of Mr Peter Whieldon as a Conservative candidate for the Seabridge ward in the forthcoming borough council elections on 1st May 2008; asks to what extent members of the Association have been informed by the Leader of Newcastle-Under-Lyme Borough Council that the Cabinet has in the past two years confidentially agreed to write off thousands of pounds in business rates owed by a sequence of insolvent companies co-owned by Mr Whieldon, namely £13,441 in 2008 in respect of Move (Newcastle-Under-Lyme) Limited, £16,618 in 2007 in respect of W J Leisure (Newcastle-Under-Lyme) and £13,300 also in 2007 in respect of Venue Master One Limited (trading as The Albion); and further asks whether Mr Whieldon declared to the Association, before he first stood for election in 2004, that another company which he co-owned - Pubscene Limited - had been recently wound up after a petition to the High Court by HM Customs and Excise, owing £4,487 in business rates to the Borough Council.