Town Council To Debate Local Plan?

Will Lib Dems Keep Their 2012 Election Promise? 

Having avoided the issue four times in 2011, local Lib Dems have a fifth chance to keep their repeated election promise to say NO to more building and traffic in our area.

At next Wednesday's town council meeting I will be proposing the motion:

"In light of the Draft Local Plan summary consultation representations published by the Borough Council, and the overwhelming public opposition expressed therein, Hedge End Town Council urges Eastleigh Borough Council Cabinet to reconsider the large scale development proposed for Hedge End and Botley in favour of a plan for smaller-scale, sustainable, organic growth evenly spread across all the Borough's settlements."

In an agenda consisting otherwise only of rubber stamping committee decisions and receiving routine reports it has again fallen on the lone independent councillor to propose a motion of any substance.

It is still not certain that the debate will happen as history shows the Lib Dems to be reluctant to address the Local Plan in the most local forum , the Town Council.

In July when I first proposed a motion they decided they had not had time to read the plan and postponed any decision to September.

In September the Lib Dem leadership amended my motion to further delay any discussion until December.

In December the Chair of the Highways and Planning Committee decided that full council had been wrong to devolve the debate to her committee and passed the buck back to full council.

At December's full council meeting, the item was not on the agenda - it was never really explained why not.
I was able to raise the point in response to the "Chairman's Remarks", but without a Lib Dem seconder it was not possible to have a debate, despite it being the clear wish of the Council itself in September that it should "make a full response to the Borough Council."All that happened was that individual councillors were invited to respond to the Borough consultation as private citizens - and then there were only three of us who did so.

Consequently the voters of Hedge End do not know what the majority of their Town Councillors think about the most significant document to affect the future of our community for the next twenty years.

Lib Dem Election Promise 2011