Green Party activists in North Staffordshire have
welcomed a video highlighting the actions of the Conservative group on Newcastle-under-Lyme
Borough Council and in particular council leader Simon Tagg around the sale of
green sites.
The video was created by members of Save Newcastle’s
Green Sites (SNGS), a campaign group set up to protect green spaces threatened by
development as part of the council’s local plan for housing.
In a statement on their Facebook page SNGS describe
the way the borough council has gone about preparing and consulting on its ‘strategic
options’ for building housing in and around Newcastle as ‘dubious.’ They also
draw attention to the harm poorly thought through development will do to
wildlife and the health of people living in the area.
The video gives a breakdown of the council meeting on
17th November at which the strategic options were debated.
A spokesperson for North Staffs Green Party said, “this
is an eye-opening takedown of the worrying practices of the council and in
particular its leader.”
The focal point of the video is a speech by council
leader Simon Tagg in which he deliberately misinforms the meeting six times and
attempts to deflect blame for the failings of the plan onto the previous Labour
administration on nineteen separate occasions.
Throughout his tone alternates between
self-justification and thinly disguised sarcasm, the spokesperson for North
Staffs Greens described Mr. Tagg’s performance as, “one of the most disappointing
things I have seen in twenty years involvement with local politics. He makes no
attempt to engage with either the questions put to him by fellow councillors,
or the concerns articulated by members of the public over the local plan.”
Those concerns were expressed at a demonstration held
outside the council offices on the night of the meeting at which a
representative of the Green Party spoke.
The Green Party also sent a letter to Simon Tagg
raising concerns about the way the council was organizing its public
consultation, citing breaches of the Nolan rules.
Mr. Tagg’s response, as shown in the video was a
single comment on Twitter saying they should ‘stop being political.’
The Spokesperson for North Staffs Greens said, “the
reply received is all too sadly indicative of the failure of leadership at the
borough council and suggests a wilful refusal to take criticism seriously by Mr.
Tagg.”
“We remain committed to standing with the communities
taking action to protect their green spaces, if Simon Tagg has a problem with
either us or them being ‘political’ in this way, maybe he should consider taking
up another line of work.”
Newcastle Borough Council’s public consultation on the
strategic options runs until the end of January and can be accessed at:
https://consult.newcastle-staffs.gov.uk/kse
The Save Newcastle’s Green Spaces video can be watched
on YouTube at:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kyQSK_Ky3Ck
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