Saturday, 25 December 2021

Video Highlights Shocking Failure of Leadership at Newcastle Borough Council.

 

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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