At the March 23 full Council meeting, the Conservative group abstained on a key vote over the sale of a council-owned car-park in Christchurch.
Conservative Council Leader Drew Mellor claimed that the Conservative group chose to abstain, in order to delegate the decision to the one Christchurch Conservative Councillor and the other Christchurch councillors, due to the direct impact it would have for their residents.
But opposition members, including Green Councillors Simon Bull and Chris Rigby highlight that the abstention shows that the Conservative Cabinet are failing to lead and take responsibility for decisions made under their administration.
As the largest political group in the council, their decision would likely have determined the outcome. Instead, Councillor Bull and Rigby suggest, it was politically convenient for them to abstain.
“It is certainly a dereliction of duty,” Councillor Bull said.
Councillor Rigby agreed, stating,“They don’t want to make a decision on it, because if the Waitrose store pulls out of Christchurch because they can’t buy the car-park, they can say that the Christchurch Independents made that choice, not the Conservative group.”
The Conservative cabinet had initially recommended the sale, partly in response to Waitrose stating that their continuation in Christchurch might be conditional on acquisition of the adjacent Christchurch By-pass car-park. Waitrose’s current lease on the site runs out in 2027.
However, the independent Christchurch ward councillors were opposed to the sale and think that Waitrose’s withdrawal from the site is unlikely.
Voting against the sale alongside the independent Christchurch councillors to ensure the council retained the car-park, Green Party Councillors argued that the decision had wider ramifications for adjacent and nearby wards.
“If this threat from Christchurch Waitrose does go through, then my ward in Winton East has the next closest Waitrose to Christchurch. Does this mean that the people who are going to want to shop in a Waitrose are now going to start driving across the borough to come to Winton. It’s going to affect the local ward here, it’s going to affect the wards in between with cars coming through, more traffic, more pollution across the entire conurbation.”
Councillor Rigby therefore felt that it was critical that all councillors had the opportunity to weigh up the impacts of the decision on the wards they represent, as well as the broader conurbation.
“Saying that it’s a Christchurch issue for them to deal with is wrong, because it’s not. We’re BCP, we are all Christchurch councillors in effect, same as we are Bournemouth or Poole councillors. We all represent our conurbation.”
Councillor Bull also argued that the supposed delegation of decision-making to the Christchurch Independents, was contradictory to the aims of the Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole merger that the Conservative councillors, including many incumbents in the present unitary authority, spearheaded under the previous separate local authorities.
“If you’re allowing Christchurch Councillors to have a say on that issue, then what happens in Winton should just be down to the Winton Councillors, what happens in Poole, to the Poole Councillors. It’s a ridiculous argument when it was the Conservatives that wanted the merger of BCP.”
Ultimately, Councillor Rigby said he felt the abstention was about “having zero accountability for decisions.”
“And that is a shocking way to lead.”
Photo credit: Bournemouth Daily Echo