A senior Conservative councillor has already conceded defeat in the forthcoming Babergh elections.

Peter Beer, who is the Great Cornard member for Babergh, and is also a Suffolk County councillor, told a mix of non-Conservites at a full Babergh council meeting last week, he fully expected them to be in power after the May 4 elections.

Cllr Beer also appeared to lose his temper when leader John Ward pointed out his hypocrisy in voting against a £5.30 average increase for a Band D resident, while voting for an increase of nearly £100 over two years as a county councillor.

John Ward (left) pointed out Peter Beer's voting hypocrisy

During the debate on Babergh introducing a 2.99% council tax increase Cllr Beer referred to a cabinet decision, which at the time included Conservative members, made in February last year to reduce free parking times, from three hours to one hour in Hadleigh and Sudbury.

"I do not trust you not to bring in car parking charges in the new administration," said Cllr Beer.

"I know you will say it is the new council that will make that decision but unfortunately a lot of you will be returned in May and you will have the majority."

"unfortunately a lot of you will be returned in May and you will have the majority."

He told Sudbury and Hadleigh members to bear than in mind.

Angry Cllr Beer during council meeting

However, Cllr Dave Busby pointed out that if the budget had been bolstered by car parking charges in Sudbury and Hadleigh, the council tax for the whole district could have been far less, maybe even frozen.

He told Cllr Beer: "You can't have it both ways."

Meanwhile, Cllr Beer's inconsistency was highlighted when he voted for an increase of more than £100 in the Suffolk County Council increases in council and social care taxes over the past two years..

Cllr Ward said: "As a county councillor you voted for a £57.51 increase the week before last and this time last year we had a £5 increase and would not vote for that but voted for a £42 increase at the county council. That is almost £100 in two years,

"The residents of Great Cornard should know that as there is an election coming up.

"You don't like voting for small increases but you will vote for big ones."

Cllr Beer was warned by the chair to be silent as he disrupted proceedings insisting he had made clear how he was voting and why and against acused Cllr Ward of being greedy.

The 2.99% increase was voted in by a large majority, with two against and one abstention.

Babergh's Conservative Group has been beset with problems since winning the majority in 2015. A number of councillors, including Hadleigh's Sian Dawson and Alan Ferguson along with Sudbury's Simon and Melanie Barrett left the Conservative group to become Independent Conservatives. Leader Jenny Jenkins was removed in a coup and replaced by then Conservative John Ward.

The four returned to the Tory fold but Simon Barrett and Alan Ferguson failed to get elected in 2019, although Barrett subsequently won a by-election in Great Cornard in 2021. The Tories lost their majority and a coalition cabinet. led by Cllr Ward, was formed.

However, an internal row caused four councillors to leave the Conservative Group, including leader John Ward and they became Independent Conservatives. A new Cabinet was formed without any of the Conservative Group.

Cllrs Barrett and Dawson have been hitting the headlines for the wrong reasons, with Cllr Barrett adding to his rap sheet of Code of Conduct complaints being upheld against him, by making an obscene hand gesture towards the leader in the council chamber during a full Babergh council meeting.

Cllr Dawson was filmed picking her nose and eating it and was found to have misled Hadleigh town council in a monthly report during her short lived spell as a portfolio holder.

Meanwhile, the president of the Hadleigh Conservatives was convicted of leading a convoy of protesters to Cllr Ward's house and causing his home alone daughter distress.

Nationally, the Conservatives are more than 20 points behind Labour in all the polls.