Shamed Chester Tories allowed back into council Conservative group

Jun 17 2009 by David Holmes, Chester Chronicle

TWO shamed Tory councillors on Cheshire West and Chester Council have been allowed back into their group.

Max Drury was forced to resign from the party after being found guilty of harassing a former business partner and Richard Lowe had the Conservative whip withdrawn for making a sick joke about missing Madeleine McCann.

Cllr Drury, who represents City ward, resigned from the Conservative Party ten months ago but continued as an independent.

He was criticised by District Judge Nicholas Sanders for relying on his status as a councillor when caught making threats against James Meadows and his wife Joanne through email, telephone calls and calling at their home.

Tory council leader Cllr Mike Jones said Cllr Drury, who has bipolar disorder, had since been acquitted in a second court case for harassing his next door neighbours and cleared of bringing his position into disrepute by the Standards Board for England.

He said: “He’s very apologetic. He was seriously ill at the time. He was under a huge amount of stress as a result of what this guy did to his business.

“He had to re-mortgage his house and everything else. The tablets he was on didn’t quite agree with him.”

Cllr Jones said if Cllr Drury stepped out of line again he will “get chopped”.

“He wrote to me and he’s very apologetic. His medication is now stable and he’s stable. He’s fine,” added Cllr Jones, who said people with mental health problems should be given a second chance.

In a separate case, fellow City ward representative Cllr Richard Lowe has also rejoined the Conservative group after serving a four month suspension. There had been some confusion because Tory Central Office previously said Cllr Lowe had been expelled.

Cllr Lowe was forced to apologise for “inappropriate” comments on the Facebook website in response to boasts by fellow Conservative Matt Lewis about dressing up as Madeleine McCann for a New Year’s Eve party.

Cllr Lowe wrote on the social networking site: “Is this a cunning (Baldrick style) plan to obtain the reward money? Room for one more?”

Cllr Jones said: “He’s done a lot of growing up in the last three months.”