So here's the story. 

Lesley Scott-Boutell is standing to become a County Councillor in the Stanway and Pyefleet division in Essex.

Lesley has been an elected Borough Councillor for nearly 20 years and is very popular with local residents. 1/

She's a local herself and really cares about her community. She has an excellent track record and is someone who gets things done rather than just talk about them. She certainly doesn't let her disability (she is deaf) hold her back. 2/

She's the only person who stands a chance of defeating the sitting Tory, @cllrKBentley, tipped to be the next leader of ECC.

Lesley doesn't have a big campaign team helping her. She has a few people giving her their time voluntarily. 3/

By contrast, Cllr Bentley's campaign got big name support on Sat. when Priti Patel arrived to support him. That wasn't a huge surprise as Ms Patel turns up during every local election to actively campaign against Lesley as she holds a corner of Patel's seat that isn't blue. 4/

So Lesley's small team of volunteers designed posters and banners and placed them strategically around the division. That sounds pretty standard but took a lot of time and effort and of course the assets cost money to get printed. 5/

Some of the posters and banners were placed in people's gardens ie on private property, with the owners permission, of course. 6/

Yesterday ALL of the posters and banners were removed. This wasn't done in the dead of night. No, this was done by someone from ECC! When the person was challenged for taking assets that were on private property, they said that they had instructions to remove them! 7/

In at least one instance a privately owned fence has been damaged. When the owner challenged the person, the operative refused to give his name, ironically stating that he "didn't want to get involved". He said that he was acting on the instructions of ECC Highways. 8/

When asked to provide the name of the person who gave him the instructions, he refused and repeated his wish to avoid involvement. That wish did not, however, prevent him from inexplicably taking a photo of the resident's house. Why?? 9/

Only someone with enough clout, authority and vested interest could have issued those instructions to an ECC employee.

Mr. Bentley, Lesley Scott-Boutell's opponent, is the current portfolio holder for Highways in Essex and deputy leader of Essex County Council. 10/

This was a surprisingly efficient undertaking. Mr. Bentley hasn't been able to get potholes filled, despite claiming to have done so in a campaign video (the camera only shows the one pothole that's filled and avoids the others a few metres away that haven't been repaired). 11/

So to recap. An ECC 'employee' was instructed to remove someone else's property, even when they had to trespass to do so and damage that property to boot. This all happened less than 48 hours after the Home Secretary openly supported the Head of Highways candidate. 12/

So far we have theft, trespass and criminal damage as well as the breaking of electoral laws.

We are clear, the LAW has been BROKEN. 13/

If you can't win an election fairly, get out of politics!

The fact that Lesley is disabled only makes this underhand and bullying behaviour against her worse. Ms Patel has form for bullying of course but I had hoped that the party was better at local level. Clearly not. 14/

My great grandmother received a CBE for her campaign work for the Conservative Party. She would be turning in her grave and frankly I'm glad she's not here to see what has become of the party she worked so hard for. 15/

I think @cllrKBentley should apologise and if he had any involvement whatsoever in the removal of property from private houses, he should immediately resign.

In my opinion he is responsible whether he gave the instruction or not. 16/

The Home Secretary, responsible for law and order, @pritipatel must comment, too. Was she aware of these crimes at any point? Will she continue to support a compromised candidate just to keep someone she dislikes from becoming an Essex County Councillor? 17/

Is this really democracy or a corrupt one party state? Are the Tories so scared of democracy that they endorse and support bullying a disabled woman in this way? 18/

If you live in Stanway and Pyefleet, vote for Lesley Scott-Boutell and end the Tory sleaze in your area at least. Please support her campaign as a stand against cheating and for democracy regardless of which party you normally support. 19/

If you're feeling at all angry at this outrageous behaviour and don't want to see another election lost to cheating, please dm me to find out how you can help Lesley. 

If you can get to Colchester and spare a couple of hours to help the small team, even better. 20/

I now have a vision of Lesley's posters and banners everywhere as a sign of support and a visual protest against the subverting of our democracy. Let's turn this into something positive and #GTTO!

My dms are open if journalists wish to contact me. End.

Update: ECC's Head of Compliance confirms that there has been no 'official' action taken by Highways that he can see on their computer system now and they do not have Lesley's property as far as he knows.

U/1

I understand that Cllr Bentley's position is that he knows that Highways removed all of Lesley's literature (including by trespass on 3 private properties) but denies issuing the order himself.

U/2

Lesley's team continues to work with Essex County Council to get to the bottom of this and Lesley's agent is making a complaint to the police for theft, vandalism and interfering with the electoral process.

U/3

They have a full description of the vandal purporting to be on official business and this is all being handed to the authorities.

U/4

My opinion:

This is how low the Tory party has sunk. No election too small for Tory sleaze and the 'leadership' style is filtering down to local level. Please retweet!

U/End