THURSDAY, APRIL 5

David Cameron's local Tory party has come under fire from a councillor who claims it has censored him and does not look after the best interests of people in the town. Chipping Norton town councillor Keith Greenwell (left) has resigned as deputy chairman of the Chipping Norton and District branch of the West Oxfordshire Conservative Association, the Tory leader's constituency group. Mr Greenwell is quitting the party and will stand as an independent candidate in the May elections for the town and district councils. He alleges his integrity had been compromised after he was fed misleading or false information from the party which he later relayed to voters. The branch has denied his claims. Mr Greenwell said: "Local Conservative councillors tried to insist they should be allowed to censor my page on a website before posting it. I am no longer prepared to accept this interference and restriction on free speech."

One of the key local interests Mr Greenwell believes is not being addressed by the local party is the future of Chipping Norton Hospital.  He said the party was originally committed to keeping a hospital staffed by NHS nurses but was now happy to accept it being run by the charity Order of St John. He claims that when he called for an emergency town council meeting to discuss the issue he was put under pressure by Mr Cameron (right) to withdraw this request and was repeatedly told by party members it was better to have what was on offer than nothing at all.

In the weeks leading up to his election as leader of the Conservatives in 2005, Mr Cameron promised he would prioritise the needs of his constituency. He assured the Banbury Guardian this week that this was still the case. Mr Cameron declined to comment on Mr Greenwell's resignation but said he had worked tirelessly to secure the future of a hospital in Chipping Norton. He said: "I have fought extremely hard to get the hospital issue sorted out to make sure we have got a good hospital in Chipping Norton and I won't have anyone say otherwise. I recently arranged a meeting to get everyone involved together, including the Strategic Health Authority, Customs and Exercise and the Primary Care Trust to resolve the issues and I have worked very hard on this issue."

Consultant agent to the West Oxfordshire Conservative Association Barry Norton (left) said: "These are wildly false accusations. When he (Keith Greenwell] was elected as a Conservative local councillor he wanted to put his views forward but these were not always the views of the party and when I told him that he was obviously unhappy. If he can't agree to take the views of the party, whether national or local policy, than it is probably better we go our separate ways."