Lib Dems Avoid Town Council

Six of the nine Lib Dem borough councillors who also sit on Hedge End Town Council chose to stay away from this week's meeting of full council.  That was a bit of shame, as a borough council report is on the agenda, and it's not as if they had nothing to talk about after Monday's marathon local area committee.

So let's acknowledge that Cllrs Bloom, Welsh and Tennant dragged themselves away from canvassing in support of "Mike4Eastleigh" to answer questions about their approval of 1400 houses at Boorley Green.

It was a pity that Cllr Kyrle was not there as we could have acknowledged his sticking up for the natural environment (what I think he called the "feathery and furry things") and voting against the party line.  Sadly his was a lone voice in front of the Lib Dem bulldozer on Monday.

Cllr Tennant used his "County Council Report" to regale us with tales of his recent four week trip to China, but some of us struggled to understand what it had to do with Hedge End, or indeed Hampshire County Council.  I asked if he could use his contacts in China to get some spare tarmac to repair the roads in Hedge End.  He quipped back that they don't use tarmac on a lot of the roads in China anyway.

I also asked the borough councillors why they had approved two planning applications, one with 0% affordable housing, and the other with 30% affordable when the approved quota is 35%.  They had lost the chance of 85 or so more affordable houses, which everyone agrees is what we need.  The answer I got is "that was the best we could negotiate".  So it looks like we have to accept the loss of green fields and don't even get the right number of affordable houses.

Another question I raised was about Hedge End Town Council's own concerns about the Boorley Green development which had been sent to the Borough and were recorded in the officer's report which was debated on Monday.  These concerns were about

• the impact on the road infrastructure
• the high density of housing with only two access roads
• the impact on roads between the Maypole Roundabout and Sunday's Hill
• the impact on the envrionment, and
• the impact on existing doctor's surgeries with no provision for a new surgery at Boorley Green.

Sadly the only answer I got was that all these matters had been debated on Monday, and they weren't going to go through them again.

Oh, and although there is an urgent need for the personnel sub-committee to meet, the chair of that sub-committee is busy until after 28th February.

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