ACCUSATIONS of gerrymandering and rank political opportunism have been levelled at three Cradley councillors who have abandoned Halesowen Area Committee to vote on Stourbridge matters.

After storming out of several Halesowen Area Committee meetings Labour’s Cradley councillors Tim Crumpton, Richard Body and Gaye Partridge taken the unprecedented step of taking their voting rights to Stourbridge.

The bizarre turn of events is due to a change in Dudley Council’s constitution by the new Labour ruling group which allows councillors to pick and choose which area committee they can vote on.

Councillors and residents were stunned to see Cradley and Wollescote councillors Tim Crumpton, Richard Body and Gaye Partridge pitch up turn up and demand voting rights at Monday’s Stourbridge Area Committee meeting.

The three will no longer be able to vote on Cradley matters at the Halesowen Area Committee which would mean they would be unable to back capital grant allocations for organisations in their ward.

Dudley Tory leader Councillor Les Jones said: “What the Cradley councillors are doing is bizarre, incomprehensible and can even be described as gerrymandering.

“They complain the Halesowen Committee was too Conservative but they have more Labour councillors after the election so they should have stayed and fought their corner instead of throwing their toys out of the pram.”

He added: “I don’t know what the residents of Cradley will think about their own councillors not being able to vote on matters in their own ward.”

The Conservatives believe the Labour councillors have jumped ship in a bid to take over the Stourbridge Area Committee, a charge that Cllr Tim Crumpton refuted.

He said: “To say we have come over to Stourbridge as part of a take over plot is totally wrong because we are looking at replacing the area committee system by the end of the year anyway.

“The way we were treated on the Halesowen Area Committee by the Tories was scandalous because they made the whole process so partisan.

“They even were refusing our capital grant allocation bids on political grounds which is totally out of order and I was delighted to see the Stourbridge Area Committee is not conducted in that manner.”

He added: “We will represent the people of Cradley at all times, our election victory show people think we are doing a good job.”

Halesowen Area Committee has been staunchly Tory for years with 12 Conservative Councillors constantly outvoting the three Labour councillors however, after May’s elections the gap had narrowed to ten to five but now it will be 10 to 2 in favour of the Conservatives.