IT'S a case of handbags at 20 paces as Worcester city councillor Gary Kibblewhite lashes out at his former Tory colleagues.

He has criticised the party for "not bothering" to send anyone to this year's National Housing Conference in Yorkshire, which he attended last year when he was chairman of the housing sub-committee.

"Is this lack of attendance a true reflection of the Conservative concern to the housing problems in Worcester?" Coun Kibblewhite asked in a letter to this newspaper, claiming it "beggared belief" that the opportunity to attend workshops and seminars was passed up.

Really?

The council is handicapped not by a lack of knowledge of housing matters, but by limited finances.

Chin-wagging at seminars failed to alter the situation when Coun David Barlow was leader of the city council.

There's little reason to suppose anything has altered now there's a Tory at the helm.

Perhaps Coun Kibblewhite assumed that the Government's increasing zeal for the free market and the role of the private sector meant Conservatives in local authorities would find a friendlier welcome than would Labour's old guard.

But Margaret Thatcher never appeared to give a fig for local government, and it's unlikely Tony Blair does either.

I'd rather city councillors met people in their wards than popped off on a junket, and feel sure thousands of tenants would agree.