Greenhalgh to quit?

The last few days have been pretty horrendous for Tory High Command. Hot on the heels of the Aidan Burley Nazi story comes the news from Political Scrapbook that Hammersmith & Fulham council leader, Stephen Greenhalgh is to resign.  Nowhere Towers is intrigued by this news. Is he really going to quit so that he can take a seat in the House of Lords or has the party found him a nice safe Commons  seat somewhere?

More news when we get it.

UPDATE: @1239

The Fulham & Hammersmith Chronicle has the latest. Apparently, Greeno is stepping down in 6 months time. Nowhere Towers asks “Why wait? For the sake of the borough, go NOW”.

UPDATE @ 1301

The Evening Standard tells us that Greenhalgh is to become a “council estates champion”. Seriously, you couldn’t make this stuff up. This is the man whose co-authored a report that called for the bulldozing of council estates,

Mr Greenhalgh said he would work with neighbourhood forums, residents’ groups and businesses to decide how the money should be spent. Funding would be pooled and he also wants to appoint a “neighbourhood commissioner” to help tackle crime.

Crucially,

Mr Greenhalgh will step down from the council leadership in May but will carry on as a back-bench councillor.

Nowhere Towers suspects that this new role has been created for him by Eric Pickles, so that he may lean heavily on local authorities and use his experience to find ways to push through large-scale council estate bulldozing plans. Greenhalgh also has had considerable contact with construction firms that donate money to the Tory Party’s coffers.

UPDATE @ 2103

I saw a report on BBC London News earlier where Greeno said he was going to “concentrate on White City”.  I think we know what that means. White City is the developers’  jewel-in-the-crown. Here’s a text report from the BBC on the announcement that H&F council was cutting council tax by nearly 4%. We know what that means too: more savage cuts to public services and sneaky increases in parking charges.

In the Fulham & Hammersmith Chronicle, Greeno was quoted as saying,

“I do not think the people of White City are getting value for money, nor do I think are wider taxpayers. I want to focus that money on getting much better outcomes for people living there and ensuring that the neighbourhood is fully involved in how that money is spent. I’ve given my heart and soul to this job, and next year I will have been leader for six years. It’s the right time for the next person.”

“The key words and phrases here are “value for money”, “outcomes”… “wider taxpayers”. How do those words relate to a geographical location? Especially the phrase “value for money”? Is someone going to make money from all of this? Why, of course.