Cllr Paul Hodgkinson (Churn Valley), Leader of the Liberal Democrat Group on Cotswold District Council, has issued this New Year message for the Cotswolds.
“At the end of a year in which Cotswold District Council has been constantly in the headlines for all the wrong reasons (including two Private Eye ‘Rotten Boroughs’ awards) it is clear that we cannot allow 2012 to carry on in the same manner.
The Liberal Democrat opposition went into 2011 with an open and genuine offer to the Conservative administration to emulate party co-operation at national level in a bid to work together in the interests of the district. That offer was ignored and we have had to fight hard to mitigate the results of some very poor decision making by a Cabinet that is often out-of-touch with the reality of life for local taxpayers and businesses in these tough economic times. Their employment of a ‘magician’ motivator for £19,000 was a spectacular own goal.
Like most ordinary people, we were outraged when the administration decided to collect additional revenue from hard-pressed motorists by vastly extending the scope of car park charging in towns across the district.
Our successful campaign, supported by large numbers of residents, finally brought some sanity to the situation though we are still fighting the baffling decision to extend parking charges to Sundays and night time at the Brewery Car Park in Cirencester.
As in the previous year, the news agenda in 2011 has been dominated by what is now widely referred to as the Cotswold Water Park scandal. We saw Dennis Grant, former CEO of Cotswold Water Park Society jailed for a massive fraud as a new row erupted over excess landfill dumping in Lake 31 at Keynes Country Park. It is likely that further questions will be asked about that affair in 2012.
Our campaigning Water Park councillor, Esmond Jenkins, found himself under attack for his fearless questioning of what he saw as flawed decision-making and too close a relationship between the council and developers.
Meanwhile, the City of London Police have been called in to review the initial police handling of the investigation and Gloucestershire County Council has appointed Graham Garbutt to conduct a review of its own involvement in the transfer of publicly owned land to holiday home developers.
We hope these new investigations will finally get to the bottom of the affair.
Our calls for CDC Leader, Cllr Lynden Stowe, to disclose how much his companies, including Cotswold Media, were paid by Grant and by the Watermark Group, have been arrogantly dismissed though we still insist that the public has the right to know and intend to go on asking these very important questions. We agree with disillusioned former Conservative councilors that mixing business interests with civic duty is a practice that makes most decent people feel decidedly uneasy.
There’s no doubt that public disquiet over the Water Park scandal played a part in our success in the May elections when we bucked the national trend and achieved the best results in the country with seven gains, taking our representation on the council to 12 seats. Not only did you elect the youngest councillor in the South but the Deputy Prime Minister, Nick Clegg, was quickly on the phone to congratulate us on that success.
We finally managed to get the CDC administration to heed our demands for doorstep recycling of plastic bottles which will now start next August. Of course, we will continue to press for all recyclable plastics to be collected.
Our members have fought hard to secure affordable housing in a district which has one of the lowest average wages in the South West combined with some of the highest property prices. More than one report has condemned the Cotswolds as one of least affordable rural areas in the country for homes.
We will go on campaigning for a better deal for ordinary working families and will oppose the present regime’s enthusiasm for the provision of expensive holiday homes for wealthy outsiders at the expense of decent housing for local people. If the present trend continues we could see the Cotswolds transformed into a playground for the rich and famous while working families struggle to keep a roof over their heads.
In 2012 we pledge to go on working in the interests of the local community and will use our increased representation on the Council to campaign for greater transparency and accountability. We will go on asking the difficult questions and demanding answers as the public expects us to do.”
