Conservatives ousted from power at Hart Council
In a dramatic move the Conservatives have been ousted from power at Hart Council. Even though they are the largest party, they hold only 14 of the 33 seats.
A new Leader has been appointed to Hart District Council… Cllr Neighbour Liberal Democrats
— patricia hughes (@HartCEx) May 25, 2017
The joint Chief Executive, Patricia Hughes confirm the move in a tweet last night. Liberal Democrat party group leader Dave Neighbour has been elected as leader of the council. He announced the members of his cabinet, but not the respective portfolios. They will be councillors Ambler, Bailey, Cockarill, Collett, Oliver, Kinnell, James Radley. All these councillors are from the Liberal Democrats and CCH. This confirms there will be no places for the Conservatives.
[Update – Portfolio positions announced by Hart Council]
-
Cllr David Neighbour – Leader and Cabinet Member for Finance
-
Cllr James Radley – Deputy Leader and Cabinet Member for Services
-
Cllr Simon Ambler – Cabinet Member for Partnerships
-
Cllr Stuart Bailey – Cabinet Member for Housing
-
Cllr Graham Cockarill – Cabinet Member for Planning
-
Cllr Adrian Collett – Cabinet Member for Regulatory and Community Safety
-
Cllr Sara Kinnell – Cabinet Member for Leisure, Health and Wellbeing
- Cllr Alan Oliver – Cabinet Member for Contracts
[/Update]
Cllr Gerry Crisp appointed as Chairman of Hart District Council for 2017/18 and Cllr Wendy Make peace Brown as the Deputy Chairman
— patricia hughes (@HartCEx) May 25, 2017
Liberal Democrat, Gerry Crisp will become chairman. The deputy chair position will be taken by Wendy Makepeace-Brown of CCH.
We understand the following people have been elected as chair of the various committees:
- Chris Axam (CCH) – 5 councils partnership
- Gill Butler (CCH) – Licensing
- Graham Cockarill (Lib Dem) – Planning
- Ken Crookes (Conservative) – Overview and Scrutiny
- John Kennett (Conservative) – Staffing
- Wendy Makepeace-Brown (CCH) – Audit
The council coup has been facilitated by the defection of two Tory councillors, Sara Kinnel and Richard Woods to CCH late last year. We do think that changes of party allegiance should lead to by-elections. Where such ‘crossing of the floor’ leads to a change in administration, the case for by-elections is unanswerable in our opinion.
We are yet to see what impact, if any, there will be on the Local Plan.
[Update – Portfolio positions announced by Hart Council]
Cllr David Neighbour – Leader and Cabinet Member for Finance
Cllr James Radley – Deputy Leader and Cabinet Member for Services
Cllr Simon Ambler – Cabinet Member for Partnerships
Cllr Stuart Bailey – Cabinet Member for Housing
Cllr Graham Cockarill – Cabinet Member for Planning
Cllr Adrian Collett – Cabinet Member for Regulatory and Community Safety
Cllr Sara Kinnell – Cabinet Member for Leisure, Health and Wellbeing
Cllr Alan Oliver – Cabinet Member for Contracts
Waste of time seeking prospective MP views?
The current planning model is a classic example of divide and rule whereby the local councillors can blame the planning inspector for housing numbers…and the MP can say ‘local matter nothing to do with me guv’…primary beneficiary of all of this mess are party-donor developers.
Yes James that will happen. Speaking to planners at last display eve. They will present the current plan to council if council decided to change it then it has to be redone and will definitely add a huge delay allowing sites such as pale lane and grove farm no protection.
I can now see elvethan chase now going to appeal and getting built because of delays in the local plan which will a real shame.
James Elvetham Chase has yet to come to planning comittee that is the first step
We need to hear Cockeralls stand on Winchfield before the general election as he’s standing as lib dem candidate
Democracy in action…. not.
That’s going to be the interesting part of this. The Lib Dems have been speaking with something of a forked tongue. HCC councillor David Simpson has been consistently opposed to Winchfield. But district councillors all voted for WInchfield in November 2014.
Yep. They have a bit of a history. One thing in their leaflets and what they say on the doorstep and another when when they voted on winchfield.
Disappointing from libdems. They were against winchfield. Power more important to them?
We don’t know yet. But I suspect CCH will try and bring back Winchfield
Presumably they’ll only attempt this until they read the testing results saying Winchfield isn’t a viable location.
I’d like to hear what difference this is going to make.