Conservative councillors told to stay away unless they intend to back controversial incinerator plan

Derrick Murphy at the standards committee hearing at County Hall.PHOTO BY SIMON FINLAY (Image: Archant Norfolk)

Members of the Labour, Lib Dem, UKIP, Green and Independent groups are being allowed a free vote at the end of this morning's landmark debate.

But party sources say that Conservatives were told at Friday's group meeting not to attend unless they intended to vote to press on.

Bill Borrett, leader of the 40-strong County Hall Tory group, said he could not comment on any discussion at the group meeting because it was private.

Asked whether people had been told to stay away if they intended to vote for the contract to be cancelled, he added: 'I don't know that, I'm not omnipotent, I don't know what people are saying to each other, I can't say what's been said to everybody by everybody else.

'What I will say is that I'm expecting there will be people from both sides of the argument in the Conservative group like there were in October.'

One insider present at the meeting said it was agreed that Tories from West Norfolk should be allowed a free vote on the issue, which has caused deep divisions,

But the source said other members were told they would have to toe the party line and a councillor who queried this was told: 'If you don't like what's happening, don't turn up.'

Independent Alexandra Kemp, whose South Lynn ward lies next to the site of the proposed incinerator, said she had written to Mr Borrett to ask for an explanation but had not received a reply.

'I think it's wrong, there's a whole host of issues about stopping councillors representing their divisions,' she said. 'People are elected to speak up. The power of party structures has got too strong.'

UKIP leader Toby Coke said its members were not 'whipped'.

'We don't have a whip, we don't approve of that at all,' he said. 'If you can't make your own mind up you shouldn't be in this game.'

Council leader George Nobbs, who heads the 14-strong Labour group on the authority, said: 'I would have hoped that every party leader would have given their members a free vote.'

James Joyce, deputy leader and leader of the 10-strong Liberal Democrats said members were not told how to vote.

And Green leader Richard Bearman said: 'Our members are never whipped.'

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North West Norfolk MP Henry Bellingham has said the county's Westminster representatives will try to get financial help from the government if the plant is scrapped – so long as the county council asks them to.

But George Nobbs, leader of Norfolk County Council, has branded claims made by Mr Bellingham as 'irrational'.

Conservative Mr Bellingham had previously raised the prospect of the council getting a loan to cover the compensation bill if the incinerator did not go ahead, which could be paid back over a number of years.

When asked why there might be a case for such help, Mr Bellingham said: 'The penalty clause may have been signed under duress. The county council needs to be very reticent about paying anything until they have gone through every inch of that contract. Were the people who signed it competent? This administration needs to go through it with a fine-tooth comb.

'If it falls to be paid, let's have a request from Norfolk County Council to the government and the Norfolk MPs will mobilise and push every inch of the way to do our best on their behalf.'

But Mr Nobbs, Labour leader at County Hall, said: 'Henry Bellingham's statements are becoming more and more irresponsible.

'Anybody who understands how the commercial world works or has a rudimentary knowledge of government contracts, will be shocked by Mr Bellingham's bizarre and uninformed assertions.

'I feel sure his colleagues among other Norfolk MPs will be as alarmed as I am by the increasingly irrational turn his comments are now taking.'