A TORY councillor claims he has been expelled because he would not "toe the party line" over the future of Townsend Primary School.

Cllr Mike Everingham, who has served on the council since 1991, hit back by saying the Conservative party was "no longer fit to run our town".

Slamming council and Tory group leader Stephen MacLoughlin's "jack boot actions," the former army sergeant major added: "The Conservatives have condemned democracy to the gallows."

Cllr Everingham said he had received an email from Cllr MacLoughlin before Christmas asking him to respond by January 4.

He said: "The correspondence threatened expulsion if I didn't conform with the Tory whip.

"I had agreed with the scrutiny board findings that the council's consultation exercise over the future of Townsend school was fundamentally flawed.

"The board's recommendations were completely ignored by the Conservative leader, who took the matter to full council and applied the party whip.

"I didn't respond to Cllr MacLoughlin's email and when he phoned on Saturday night I said I had no intention of conforming to any kind of whip. He then told me I was no longer a Conserv-ative group member."

Cllr Everingham added: "The Tories' political actions are in contempt of the established form of dealing with schools which have problems.

"Their dictatorial methods have proven to me that their kind of party politics has no place in local government.

"I am ashamed of the Conservatives' undemocratic methods and believe that I can best serve the interests of the people in our town and, particularly the residents of Boscombe East, by continuing in office as an Independent.

"Local government needs councillors with a strong independent voice, fearful of no-one.

"I have always been a bit of a rebel; now I can speak my mind freely."

Independent group leader Anne Rey said: "We are thrilled to welcome Mike; there will now be four Independents on the council which makes us bigger than the Labour group.

"I am disgusted by the way Mike has been treated by his party.

"This is the last straw; the Tories are playing politics with children's lives and are hell-bent on ignoring what residents want."

Cllr MacLoughlin said it was Cllr Everingham's decision to leave the Tory group.

He said: "Cllr Everingham voted contrary to the Conservative group at a couple of meetings last year. I wrote to him saying he needed to make up his mind about whether he was prepared to vote alongside his colleagues on policy matters or if he felt he no longer wanted to be part of the Conservative group.

"I gave him until Friday to get back to me; he didn't get back so I chased him with a phone call. He then confirmed that he didn't want to be a Conservative councillor. It was his decision.

"If, with hindsight, he had taken a different line I would have been happy to discuss the situation."