Monday 18 July 2011

Another Broken Lib Dem Promise

This is what Hedge End Lib Dems said in May:

"The Liberal Democrats have worked hard for our area.  They will continue to fight any plans from Hampshire County Council to sell off green fields for massive housing development locally"

What did they do in July?  They voted to designate the green fields at Woodhouse Lane "a preferred strategic development location", opening the floodgates for hundreds of houses to be built there.


And who is the landowner who will profit from the sale of Hedge End's countryside?  None other than Hampshire County Council who seem to have gone from enemy to development partner in just two months.

Whatever happened to the Lib Dems who kept their campaign promises?  Are they going down the same path as their national leaders?

Nick Clegg on broken promises

3 comments:

  1. Its good to see the Local Lib Dems sticking to form.

    They say anything to get elected, then do what ever they want.

    I fear the day when a local party will do just what it says on the tin.!!

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  2. Can the system be changed so that they are only paid for the meetings they actually attend? I read in the Eastleigh News that hedge end councillor Pretty attended less than 50% of the meetings - can it be arranged that only 50% of the allowance is paid? How long has the system been abused? If attendance is so low - who is actually representing the Electorate?

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  3. Many years ago it used to be the case that councillors were paid for attending meetings, but that system was abused as well.

    I think the answer is openness and publicity. Blogs such as this one and those of The Black Balaclava and TGR Worzel give people a chance to know the truth, or at least an alternative view of the facts, and then judge what the political parties say at election time.

    Cllr Pretty was re-elected with more than 50% of the vote in his ward two months ago. It looks like people either didn't know or didn't care about his attendance record.

    I was personally very surprised by the less than 50% figure, because I had the impression that Derek was a hard working and conscientious town and borough councillor.

    The fact remains though that he, and the other Lib Dems elected in May, made a promise to defend the countryside against building and traffic. They had a chance to do this on 14th July and did not take it.

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