Climb down by Cllr Ketteridge. Nothing to discuss! (Saffron Walden Constituency Liberal Democrats)

Saffron Walden Constituency Liberal Democrats <info@saffronwaldenlibdems.org.uk>

Climb down by Cllr Ketteridge. Nothing to discuss!

October 10, 2007 7:32 AM

A major humiliation for council leader Jim Ketteridge and the Conservative administration occurred at tonight's meeting of Uttlesford Council (9th October). Last Wednesday Cllr Ketteridge stifled a scrutiny call-in of the 4th September decision to make Elsenham New Town the council's preferred option for housing growth. Instead he promised the assembled residents of Elsenham, Henham and further afield that he would bring a proposal to the 9th October Council meeting to make Option 4 - the new town proposed by Uttlesford Conservative councillors - equal with the other three options suggested by council officers. Few have been able to understand how a council can have four preferred options and, at the 9th October meetuing, it was learned that the Government Office of the East of England agreed and said 'not on'!

So tonight there was no need for Cllr Ketteridge to suspend the council's rule book to be able to put forward his promised proposal, because he had no proposal to put.

The crowded council chamber was aghast at this turn of events. Local residents now have to wait until the next Environment Committee on 30th October for any clarity. Any consultation on options for growth is now postponed at least until November and December.

At the meeting the Lib Dems again repeated their plea for a more consensual approach to these development plans rather than even more plans being hatched behind closed doors. Just maybe lessons have now been learned by Uttlesford's Conservative councillors