A FORMER Liberal Democrat councillor and chairman of Hampton Liberal Democrat Group is urging people not to vote for the party he once fought for because he has no confidence in their leadership.

Bob Parslow, of The Avenue, Hampton, told the Times that he was so upset at the way the Liberal Democrat Council behaved over Oldfield House and Twickenham Riverside that he would no longer vote for them.

He said: "I think the leaders of the Liberal Democrats are behaving so badly that I cannot support them any more. I think the leadership have just forgotten what leadership is.

"It just seems extraordinary that they don't seem to take any notice of anyone around them anymore."

Mr Parslow, a Liberal Democrat councillor from 1993 to 1998, stood down as head of the Hampton Liberal Democrat Group last year after they passed a vote of no confidence in the Liberal Democrat leadership.

This week he said there were very few Liberal Democrats willing to stand up for their beliefs anymore. Citing Maureen and Bryan Woodriff as exceptions, he said: "I wouldn't vote for anybody who had been a Liberal Democrat councillor before. There isn't one of them will to stand up and be counted."

Council leader Serge Lourie said: "Bob Parslow has made his attitude abundantly clear about Oldfield House and doesn't agree with the council's decision to turn it into a unit and to run the service in a more sensitive way.

"As far as Twickenham Riverside is concerned, he has never contacted me about it and I had no idea that he was against the provision of a cinema and a swimming pool which will help revitalise Twickenham.

"The evidence on the doorstep is that this is a very popular scheme."