Warwick’s voice is being heard and acted upon

I feel sad that a councillor who was elected twice under the label as a Conservative should decide that the same label is no longer appropriate for her or her constituents.

The reasons she gives are what bewilders me. She seems to be saying to everyone that the Local Plan, St Mary’s Lands and the council debate regarding Cllr Dhillon are what have motivated her to change from being a Conservative to an Independent. I would like to challenge her on each of those matters because I think when you become elected you also put yourself in a position to be held to account.

The Local Plan has clearly aroused a large amount of interest and controversy. It is wrong to say that it is being pushed through in the way that Cllr Bromley insinuates and that her voice is not being heard.

At the end of 2011 the whole council received briefings and then debated and agreed the principles upon which the Local Plan was to be prepared. This set the direction for the Local Plan. It was agreed unanimously (Cllr Bromley included). The details of the Local Plan were then consulted upon in 2012 which generated a large number of views. This version was agreed by all councillors for the purposes of consultation with the local community. This year (2013) we, as councillors, considered the response and made changes to the plan which we then decided to consult upon again. Council officers are now logging the responses and analysing it and we, as councillors, will then be considering how we respond. No decisions have been made on the Local Plan nor are they likely to be much before next spring. So a plan whose basis was agreed by all councillors and which has been through two rounds of consultation and which may be changed further, is being pushing through? Hardly, I think Cllr Bromley.

Councillor Bromley complains about the lack of consultation in respect of St Mary’s Lands which is an important part of Warwick town. We have been considering its future and received a report in June this year. The two scrutiny committees both asked that there be widespread consultation before any hard and fast decisions are made. When the executive then received the report we listened to the scrutiny committees (which included Cllr Bromley’s views) and agreed to all the requests. The portfolio holder, Cllr Hammon, made a personal statement of commitment to the effect and said it again at the recent full council meeting. So I ask myself what lack of consultation?

Finally, to Cllr Dhillon’s treatment. Cllr Bromley was advised that the process we undertook whilst not usual was, though, legal and in accordance with all due proper process. She was advised so in public by the county council’s head of law and governance. The process had been checked out with the independent person on the standards committee who also spoke at the council meeting. Indeed, Cllr Dhillon’s own legal representative agreed that there was no problem with the process we followed. The issue is quite simple but has been obscured by Cllr Bromley as if it is about St Mary’s Lands or Cllr Dhillon being the town mayor, when it is about his behaviour towards a district council officer. Cllr Dhillon accused an officer in public of taking bribes (without offering any evidence) and he tried to bully him by asking what he was scared of. Cllr Dhillon was found “guilty” not long ago of paying a lack of respect to various council officers.

Councillors do need to challenge officers, it is part of their role but they should do so by asking for information and by asking questions not by trying to bully or cajole them. Cllr Dhillon has been a councillor for six years and should know this. I know Andrew Jones and I know he is prepared to be challenged by councillors but no employee of this council should be bullied. I regret to see that Cllr Bromley was so worried that Cllr Dhillon was publicly held to account for his behaviour at full council and separately by the Conservative group that she decided to leave the Conservative Party. It is strange because not even Cllr Dhillon has resigned over his treatment. All of which says a lot about her own values.

I will leave your readers to reach their own conclusions over why Cllr Bromley has changed parties but if you think that the district council does not do anything in Warwick town nor make investments then please have a little look at the list below.

l Health and wellbeing activities £120,000

l Chase Meadow Community Centre £445,000

l Warwick Sports Club £36,000

l Community development activities £120,000

l Environmental improvements to St Mary’s Lands £15,000

l Pageant House £60,000

l Fire station/gas works £280,000 (levered in £2m-plus investment)

l St Michael’s open space £40,000

l Millbank open space £77,000

l Central Ajax £15,000

l Racecourse business support £6,000

l Saltisford Canal £15,000

l Warwick Boxing Club up to £10,000

l St Nicholas Park £65,000

l Lepers’ Hospital study £15,000 (levered in £15,000 match funding)

l Warwick town centre support £10,000

Total: £1,329,000 (plus £2 million-plus levered in from other sources)

On top of this we have:

l Loaned £150,000 to the town council to enable it to complete the works to the Court House.

l Sold 21 Church Street (and parking spaces) to help a local company expand;

l Sold 10-14 Chapel Street to help a local school;

l Purchased land in Priory Park to protect local amenity.

And we are:

l Facilitating development of primary care hub on the old police station site;

l Developing and implementing the Warwick Town Centre Action Plan;

l Seeking to secure investment in the Racecourse area;

l Working with the county council to see if we can improve the traffic management impacts of the Local Plan;

l Developing ideas to make sure infrastructure for development wherever it is located is provided.

It is clear on this evidence that Warwick’s voice is heard and acted upon; perhaps it is just that Cllr Bromley doesn’t listen to it and doesn’t see it. In any event we in the Conservative Party on the district council and in the town will continue to make sure that Warwick remains a great town.

Cllr Michael Doody, Leader of Warwick District Council