Conservative councillors walked out of a Wealden District Council meeting, accusing the authority of gagging their views over a controversial local plan which could lead to thousands of new homes being built in green spaces.
Today’s extra-ordinary Full Council is scrutinizing the 9,000 pages of a new Draft Local Plan for Wealden, the most important document the current Green/Lib Dem-Alliance is likely to produce in its four-year term of office. It will have ramifications for residents of Wealden for decades to come and see huge areas of green spaces given over to new housing.
The protestors claim that the entire Plan process has been forced through in tremendous haste. They say that much of the detail has not been discussed by Councillors and yet has now been published for public consultation.
“We do not agree with the way the Alliance proposes to dump hundreds of houses in unsustainable communities”, said Conservative Group Leader, Cllr Ann Newton.
It is known that a significant number of opposition councillors at Wealden have felt infuriated and, in some cases, said to have been intimidated by recent communications regarding the legitimacy of whether they can vote on the plan.
The prospect of a significant number of democratically-elected opposition councillors being forced to abstain from voting on the Wealden Alliance Local Plan will be seen by many as an utter travesty for local democracy and the residents they represent.
“Due to this corruption of process, the Conservative Group have collectively withdrawn from the process until we have assurances from Officers that we will not be prosecuted from voicing our residents’ concerns committing on the draft plan”, said Cllr Newton.
Speaking outside the chamber, Conservative Cllr Michael Lunn said:
We do not agree with the way the Green/Lib Dem Coalition proposes to impose hundreds and thousands of houses on unsustainable communities. They promised to reduce housing numbers, they have not. They promised to protect the High Weald AONB, they have not.
The process has been corrupted by the pursuit of narrow political self-interest by a number of Coalition members, with council officers apparently too weak to resist their demands.
A significant number of opposition councillors have felt infuriated and, in some cases, intimidated by recent communications regarding the legitimacy of whether they can vote on the plan.
The prospect of a significant number of democratically-elected opposition councillors being forced to abstain from voting on the Wealden Green/Lib Dem Coalition Local Plan is an utter travesty for local democracy and the residents they represent.
Due to this corruption of process, the Wealden Conservative Group have collectively withdrawn from the process until we have assurances from Officers that we will not be prosecuted from voicing our residents’ concerns on the draft plan.
