Councillors "gagged" over building on Leamington allotments
Councillors who have supported allotment campaigners in Leamington have been "gagged" by an order preventing them from voting on the issue.
Warwick District Council was due to hold a meeting on April 22 at which councillors would be given the chance to vote on whether they think the area of land north of Milverton should be built on for new housing.
The meeting has since been postponed and those who have openly campaigned to save the allotments have been advised by the authority's solicitor that they should not speak or vote about the issue when the meeting does take place.
Coun Bill Gifford (Lib Dem, Leamington Milverton) was one of these councillors. He said: "I am bemused.
"It makes it difficult to fully represent my constituents if I am effectively gagged.
"But I am not a lawyer. I understand that others have been told the same."
Allotment campaigner and Woodbine Street resident Jim Dean said he was "astonished and dismayed" when he heard that certain councillors would be barred from voting.
He said: "These councillors have done what we have elected them for. They have listened to their constituents' very real concerns, they have weighed up the arguments and have agreed to support us.
"Now in the very chamber in which they should rightly be arguing our case, they are to be gagged because they felt strongly enough to speak out."
Councillors Chris White (Con, Warwick South) and Bob Crowther (Lab, Leamington Clarendon) have also supported the allotment groups.
District council leader Coun Michael Doody (Con, Radford Semele) explained that councillors who had openly expressed their views on the housing plans would be barred from voting because of government legislation.
He said: "If councillors give people the feeling that they would wave one way or another, that is known as 'pre-determination' and the councillor is seen to have already made his or her mind up. Therefore they are not able to vote.
"It is UK legislation. I did not make the rules. Councillors know these rules so before they went out on a limb, they obviously had made a decision that they would go out and say 'I am supporting you'.
"I don't like the rule but you have to abide by it or suffer the consequences."
The meeting is expected to take place in early to mid-June.
What's the fuss about?
The Core Strategy is a national scheme that has designated that 10,800 new homes should be built in Warwick district by 2026.
But if Coventry is unable to provide the land needed to fulfill its quota of new housing, Warwick district, Rugby and Nuneaton will have to take on some of the city's share - which would mean an extra 3,500 for Warwick district.
Some of housing may have to be built on green belt land and areas where allotments currently lie - including a stretch of land north of Milverton.
Last year the government-commissioned Nathaniel Litchfield report recommended an extra 10,000 new homes but the district council has said it will reject the recommendation.
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Weather for Leamington
Tuesday 22 May 2012
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Temperature: 11 C to 24 C
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