Slammed Scheme gets Go-ahead
What influence do Southwell's Conservative District Councillors have?
That question was put to the test at the January Planning meeting of the District Council. The Councillors were discussing an application to build 67 houses on land at the corner of Allenby Road and Halam Road. Detailed proposals had already been subject to considerable criticism by the Town Council and other Southwell Groups.
Flood Mitigation concerns
Objections were made to the layout of the houses, location of the play area, parking layouts, future maintenance of hedges and, in particular, the mitigation of flood risk. Many District Councillors agreed with the objections at their December meeting, instructing the planning officers to negotiate changes with the developer.
District Council Cave-in
It would appear that the developer refused to make any changes. Instead, some photo-montages of various views were submitted showing what the site would look like when approached from Halam. In spite of claims by Southwell District Councillors to have real influence with the Conservative Group, the Planning Committee then went ahead and approved the application. As a further concern, the conditions attached to the approval make no mention of the flood risk or how it is to be mitigated.
Not one of Southwell Conservative District Councillors on the Committee voted against the scheme even though they had heavily criticised it.
Local Election Results May 2023
A spectacular set of elections both nationally and locally here in Newark and Sherwood!
Overall Lib Dem gains were 405 nationally, which posed a problem for Sky News, whose swingometer apparently was not able to contemplate a set of gains of this magnitude. We exceeded 'Exceeded Expectations'!
Our local gains at the district level saw the addition of our third District Councillor with the victory of Keith Melton in Trent Ward. We also kept 2 of 3 councillors for Southwell, now Karen Roberts and Peter Harris. We were encouraged to see the increase in our share of votes in other seats where we were able to field candidtes. Congratulations to everyone.
We had a very good performance in Southwell Town Council, gaining 10 of the 14 seats for which there were candidates, with 6 of these won in elections and 4 being uncontested. Two Conservatives, one Labour candidate and one Independent were also successful. One place on the council remains to be appointed to.
The Conservatives had a terrible set of district and parish elections, losing about half of their district councillors and many PCs. The final DC result was Conservative 14, Labour 11, Independents 11 (8 for Independents for Newark and 3 for other Independents) and Lib Dems 3. Discussions will take place for some time on the composition of the new administration, which is unlikely to include Conservatives for the first time since 2007.
On behalf of the executive, we are extremely grateful to everyone who stood as candidates, as well as everyone who performed the various roles which were necessary for the campaigns. We are a small party and many of you worked very hard.
We are very grateful for their past work to councillors who have stood down at this election, including Peter Scorer and Stuart Thompstone. Malcolm Brock has stood down from the District, though continues to serve on Southwell TC.
We welcome new members to the party, who were motivated by this campaign. This phenomenon was particularly marked in Trent Ward. Upton support has to be singled out, evidenced for anyone who drove through, by the huge number of LD stakeboards and posters.
Philip Barron
Chair, Newark Liberal Democrats
7 May 2023