A COUNCILLOR has defied the odds and not been kicked out of the Conservatives despite standing against the party as an independent in another district.

Following an extraordinary meeting of the executive council Coun Aubrey Tarbuck has been informed that he can remain a Conservative in Worcester.

Your Worcester News reported in February how Coun Tarbuck, along with fellow Broadheath councillor Don Hull, were controversially deselected by West Worcestershire’s Conservatives over fears that a huge housing estate could be built on the edge of Worcester.

They both stood as independent candidates but lost their seats to the two Conservative replacements Paul Swinburn and Roger Bass.

If Coun Tarbuck had been elected as an independent in the Malvern Hills district he would have almost certainly been deselected as a Tory councillor in Worcester.

But that would have meant the city’s controlling Conservative group would have lost their newly won one-seat majority.

Speaking after the meeting Lucy Hodgson, chairman of the Worcester Conservative Association, said: “At the meeting we said we were not happy with what he had done but the meeting felt that he could still remain in the party.

“We treated him fairly, we heard what he had to say and the decision was that he could stay.”

When asked whether that had anything to do with the fact the Conservatives only have a one-seat majority on the city council, Mrs Hodgson said: “Not at all.”

But Coun Tarbuck said he thought they could not afford to lose him. “They are stuck between a rock and a hard place,” he said.