Cllr Ranjit Dheet and the rest of Ealing’s Labour Group last night were forced to into a humiliating retreat from false and libellous allegations that the Chairman of Panning, Ian Potts illegally overturned the Council’s opposition to the Southall gasworks.

Cllr Dheer could not back up his outrageous allegations, and under the threat of legal action was forced to admit that Cllr Potts had not changed the Council’s opposition to the gasworks development.

Cllr Dheer and his colleagues then fell into line behind the Conservative amendment that mandates the Leader of the Council to take further steps to stop this development. The Leader will write to the Government Office for London and will have legal officers look carefully into the processes that resulted in the Mayor of London’s decision.

Cllr Dheer’s smear tactics had been exposed and I call on Southall residents to get behind the Council in its actions to overturn the Mayor’s decision.

“Cllr Ranjit Dheer’s unfounded attacks on the Chair of Planning are plainly politically motivated and show that he is more interested in playing politics than in supporting the Council’s opposition to the gasworks development. Whilst Cllr Dheer's smears against individuals are going nowhere, we Conservatives are leading the fight to stand up for Southall by having the Mayor's decision overturned. We believe that local democracy must triumph, and the decision of this Council to reject the gasworks development must be upheld. That is why we amended Cllr Dheer's motion to take away the ugly smears and replace them with positive action to have this decision overturned."

Gurcharan