A government source confirms to The Times (£) that Eric Pickles’ relationship with local councils has become dysfunctional.

They hate him and he hates them.

As a result, LibDem council leaders have asked Nick Clegg to step in so that they don’t have to deal with the Tory Community Secretary.

The paper reports that LibDem LGA leader Richard Kemp, who helped coordinate yesterday’s Times letter warning against the scale and front-loading of local cuts, has requested on behalf of colleagues that they should deal with Clegg and other Cabinet office ministers so as to “minimise” contact with Pickles, with whom their working relationship has collapsed.

In a further letter to The Times (£), most of Labour’s senior council leaders welcome yesterday’s LibDem letter, and call for cross-party cooperation on this “urgent issue”, arguing that residents “are relying on councillors of all parties to work together in the interests of the public and be their voice during tough times”.

The letter is signed by councillor David Sparks, Leader, Labour Group, Local Government Association and 130 colleagues, including many Labour council leaders (listed here).

They write:

David Cameron acknowledged in a speech in 2009 that “local government is officially the most efficient part of the public sector”. As councillors and elected mayors we will work to continue to drive down the costs of delivering quality public services. However, we feel that the Secretary of State for Local Government, Eric Pickles, has been disingenuous about the impact his cuts will have on our ability to provide services. The design and depth of the cuts to local authority budgets will undoubtedly hurt local economies and damage frontline services.

Because of the costly long-term impacts these cuts will have to our communities and our local economies we believe it is important that we keep the discussion with the Government open. We therefore invite Liberal Democrat councillors to join us in writing to their fellow Liberal Democrat, Chief Secretary to the Treasury Danny Alexander, to ask him to ask Eric Pickles to look again at the unfairness of the Tory-Lib Dem Government’s cuts.

Meanwhile, one Tory councillor from Wookey Hole in Somerset begs to differ, and writes to the paper to attack the LibDems for failing to live in the real world, while congratulating Eric Pickles for his “Churchillian resolve”.

Reader comments

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2. M McLaughlin

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5. Double.Karma

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6. Rachel Hubbard

   Work with us to stop Pickles, say Labour councillors today | Liberal Conspiracy http://goo.gl/er0u3