Will Vivien Pengelly, Plymouth’s imperious Tory leader, be toppled? Luke Pollard thinks so

By PRSD, on Saturday, December 12, 2009

Vivien Pengelly is all set for world domination – kinda – but first she has to win back her council seat. Luke Pollard, Labour Prospective Parliamentary Candidate for South West Devon, explains why Labour have targeted her Plymstock seat, and why they can make progress. Take it away, Luke…

Cllr Vivien Pengelly must feel quite chipper at the moment. She’s just seen off her persistent opponents and sold Plymouth CityBus, triumphing after a bitter confrontation with Labour and the unions. The plans for her Life Centre in Central Park are progressing despite cost escalations and widespread grumblings from around the City. She has succeeded in removing provision for social housing as a condition of residential planning permission opening the floodgates for more luxury flats and Tory voters inside. And soon she hopes to see off Plymouth’s two Labour MPs and see them replaced by two of her Tory chums. She must think that soon there will be no stopping her taking her rightful place among the recognised leaders of Tory Local Authorities. For, if rumours are to be believed, Mrs Pengelly values recognition.

The problem is, there is potentially big obstacle to overcome first. And it comes probably on the same day as the General Election – her re-election as a Plymstock Councillor.

Until a few months ago being re-elected on Thursday, May 6 2010 must have been a near certainty. Plymstock is a pretty safe Tory ward untroubled by many of the woes affecting her more urban colleagues. However, is it still now? In selling CityBus she managed to unite core Conservative and core Labour voters against her plans and annoyed a few swing voters in the process too. Few except the numerically challenged and Conservative true believers would regard selling CityBus at a knock down price at the bottom of the market as a good deal for council tax payers – and that’s the feeling in her ward too.

I know this as Plymstock is one of Labour’s targets in the coming local elections and we’ve been doing a bit of work there. Her majority is large but there is sufficient discontent with her performance as their local councilor amongst the voters to produce an upset. Certainly those who attend local tea dances and Tory-leaning societies praise her regular attendance at social events but when it comes to policy and delivery the response isn’t as rosy. So, against her last manifesto – what she promised to do if elected – how is she doing?

Not good. At the last election she promised to deliver a swimming pool for Plymstock – a promise now so over-promised and under-delivered it is still comical the Tories roll it out at each election. She promised a pool but there’s no swimming pool in Plymstock… still.

She promised not to sell CityBus, but what used to be Plymouth’s local bus company will soon be emblazoned with ‘A Go-Ahead Company’. In forcing through the sale in super-quick time without proper scrutiny she has done herself and Plymouth few favours.

She also promised to keep Council Tax low but last year Plymouth’s Council Tax increase nudged in at a whopping 4.8 per cent, only just less than the 5 per cent cap that would have forced government intervention. Indeed the three largest increases of Council Tax in Plymouth’s history have been under Conservative stewardship. Not exactly a record to boast about in re-election literature is it?

But what of her loyal followers – her Tory council colleagues? Well, again, there’s a mixed picture here. There is certainly unease among her flock over a batch of her recent decisions – CityBus being only the latest highlight. If she cannot win over her own councilors to her ‘slash and burn of public services’ philosophy, should she worry that fickle swing voters might not trust her?

The problem with her ward is that to topple Mrs Pengelly and score a rare victory for commonsense over entrenched and misused power you would need the opposition vote to combine. I’m prevented from ‘doing deals’ with other parties to secure victory, but there is a possibility that this could happen in the local election. Let me explain. Mrs Pengelly’s perfect storm is one where opposition voters combine behind a single candidate, swing voters annoyed by Council Tax rises, slashing of public services and the sale of CityBus vote against her and her own Conservative voters sensing a chance to retain a Tory Council but send a message that the Tories need to pick up their game vote her out. Who could unite her ward against her? I bet she knows.

Politicians who assume re-election is inevitable and ignore their voters are in the wrong job. How much listening has Cllr Pengelly done recently? Perhaps not enough.

• Luke Pollard is Labour’s Prospective Parliamentary Candidate for South West Devon. Visit his website.