For anyone who hasn’t read the “Cease-and-desist” Gazette & Herald article from today here is a brief summary of the fallout from the Full Council meeting on Tuesday 11th March.
The meeting was called to approve the Local Transport Plan, a huge document that will lay the foundations for how people move around Wiltshire in the future. It was a controversial document not so much for what WAS in it but because of what WASN’T in it! The Liberal Democrats and Greens had previously questioned our commitment to the environment because we had refused to implement measures such as School Streets, Congestion Charges and Clean Air Zones which punish people who have no choice but to drive a petrol or diesel car. I am fundamentally opposed to such schemes because we are a rural county and residents in The Lavingtons have few alternatives to using their private cars.
Tuesday’s meeting opened with Catherine Read, Leader of the Green party in Wiltshire, being offered an opportunity to follow-up on the questions she had submitted on the subject of the Local Transport Plan. Her name might be familiar to you if you received a leaflet from her recently, falsely claiming that I was opposed to tackling speeding in our villages. More on this later!
Ms Read’s letters suggested that Wiltshire Council bans drivers from streets around schools at drop-off and pick-up time, and that the Council implements Clean Air Zone charges for drivers of petrol and diesel cars. Quite how we would function here if Lavington Lane, Sandfield, Drove Lane and Great Cheverell High Street all closed for half an hour at 8:00am and 3:00pm every weekday I don’t know! Would your boss be fine with you turning up late for work every morning?!
Anyway… to cut a long story short, at the end of my speech to the chamber I defended residents across The Lavingtons and then called Ms Read out for printing and delivering leaflets containing demonstrable lies about my commitment to road safety here. As soon as I sat down I emailed a cease-and-desist letter to her requesting an apology and corrective action. It is entirely unacceptable for someone to print lies about someone else and then deliver it throughout that persons community.
I now see in today’s press article that she has refused to apologise and has submitted a complaint about me for standing up to her in the meeting! A double dose of disrespect for residents in The Lavingtons who just want honesty from politicians.
The press article states that Wiltshire Council has removed my comments from the recording of the meeting which is hosted online; understandable since I was notified after the meeting that we needed to remain politically neutral as we had entered the pre-election period. I have no issue with this but I wanted to share my original comments with you so that you can judge for yourself whether I was wrong for calling her out. So here is what I said…
