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| Broken Lib Dem Promises 2008 |
Hedge End Lib Dems are in a flap over the Conservative County Council's refusal to release prime agricultural land at Woodhouse Lane for housing development.
Hedge End Councillor and leader of Eastleigh Borough Council Keith House is desperate to avoid having to rethink his party's
local plan which would see nearly
3000 houses built on green fields in Hedge End and Botley. He revealed at a
council meeting last month that they are still trying to convince the County to change their mind. Because if those green fields are not released the Lib Dems will have to upset residents in other parts of the Borough. Perhaps in Hamble - where as the county councillor Cllr House himself is sitting on the healthiest Lib Dem majority in all of the Eastleigh divisions, and where the Lib Dems are planning not a single house on new green field sites.
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| Where the new houses will go |
Cllr House complains that any new sites would be "
more
controversial than Woodhouse Lane, which was far and away the least controversial
site in Eastleigh’s Local Plan". But not that long ago the Lib Dems thought Woodhouse Lane was controversial. Controversial enough to splash all over the front page of this Standpoint from just before the last county council elections. But that was when they opposed building at Woodhouse Lane or "Oil Land" as they chose to describe it.
What do the Lib Dems say about it in this Standpoint? They say they are "determined to do everything to stop our villages merging into a massive urban sprawl". "The Lib Dems will keep up the campaign for our villages - watch this space". "The Conservative County could cash in for housing - or they could choose to save our fields. What will they do?"
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| Broken Lib Dem Promises 2011 |
We now know the answer to that question. For the time being at least. We also know that far from keeping up the campaign to save our green fields, Hedge End Lib Dems have executed a cynical flip flop which sees Hedge End and Botley losing more of their green fields than any other rural parish in the borough.
At both local and national level, Lib Dems say one thing to get elected, but break their promises once they are in power.
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| Broken Lib Dem Promises 2012 |
See also: More Countryside Lost to Lib Dem Housing Plans
The Hedge End area has had more than it's fair share of developments over the last 15 years. Ugly estates like Dowds Farm have eroded the few green spaces that were available to residents (which has now been replaced by a characterless tiny urban park). It is now time for other areas to take their share of this continual build programme of the Lib Dems and if it hurts in Hamble - so be it. Why did the LDs assume they could build on the Woodhouse Lane site if the land has not been released?
ReplyDeleteCouldn't agree more with Hedge End Blogger's last paragraph and exactly the reason why I shall NEVER vote Lib Dem again.