Many of our supporters have indicated that they will be voting tactically at the local elections on Thursday in order to save the Green Belt. If you are considering voting tactically then it may be worth checking out the results from last year to see who the most likely candidates are to win in your ward. Check out this link below and click on your ward.
Remember that the current makeup of the Council is Labour 34 seats, Conservative 21, LibDem 5, Green 1 and Independent 5. If the ruling Labour Group lose 1 seat then they will lose their majority and the Council is likely to end up in “No Overall Control”
https://democracy.wirral.gov.uk/mgElectionResults.aspx?ID=5&V=1&RPID=501546914
It seems that all parties are stating in their election leaflets that they are against building on the Green Belt, but who can we believe?
Please try and ensure that the Candidate you pick is genuine when they say they want to do everything they can to protect the Green Belt.
There are many new candidates who have never sat as a Councillor before and there are also some who are currently sitting as a Councillor. So, we can check their record to see how they have voted in regard to progressing the Hoylake Golf Resort, which includes building a hotel, 160 executive houses and 40 apartments on Green belt.
On 25th February 2019, the following candidates, who are up for election this May voted FOR continuing with the Hoylake Golf Resort project on the Green Belt:
Phill Brightmore - Pensby & Thingwall (Labour)
Angie Davies – Prenton (Labour)
Steve Foulkes – Claughton (Labour)
Brian Kenny – Bidston & St James (Labour)
Christine Jones – Seacombe (Labour)
Tony Smith – Upton (Labour)
Joe Walsh – Bromborough (Labour)
Jerry Williams – Bebington (Labour)
Please consider the current Council’s record on the Local Plan and the Green Belt review:
They have failed to put a Local Plan together since 2004 and are one of only a few Local Councils to have been repeatedly been threatened with intervention by the Government.
Just before the Council Elections in 2017 Council Leader Phil Davies stated that “the Green Belt is the Jewel in Wirral’s Crown” and “I am not prepared to allow our Green Belt Land to be built on. I am resolute about that commitment”, whilst continuing to promote building on the Green Belt for the Hoylake Golf Resort.
Undertook a much-criticised Public Consultation on the Green Belt Options Review in the summer of 2018 and, to date, have failed to publish any proper assessment or analysis of the 3000 responses submitted by the public.
Wrote a letter to Local Residents about the Local Plan in August 2018, only for the letter to be criticised by Peel Holdings for spreading misinformation about the number of houses that Peel say that they can develop at Wirral Waters (upto 6450 in the next 15 years if the Council gave the right support and co-operation)
https://wirralleaks.wordpress.com/tag/richard-mawdsley/
Appointed Brian Bailey to oversee the Local Plan, who was on a salary of £115,000 per year and who left the post after just a couple of months.
Then offered the job to Stewart Halliday as a consultant to replace Brian Bailey in overseeing the Local Plan, despite Halliday having left York City Council under a cloud and despite being made aware that the Council had paid over £60,000 to Halliday via his Consultancy Company which had been “struck off” by the HMRC.
https://wirralleaks.wordpress.com/tag/stewart-halliday/
Missed the deadline of January 2019 for submitting the Local Plan which would automatically have allowed them to use the lower 2016 housing target figures of 488 house per year (instead of 803 house per year)
Repeatedly blamed the Government for forcing them to build on the Green belt when the Secretary of State for Housing has written to the Council stating that the housing target (produced by the standard methodology) is NOT mandatory and a housing minister has stated “Any (Local Plan) inspector will accept a properly evidenced and assessed variation from that target”. “If, for example, you have constraints like Green Belt then an inspector should accept that”.
https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/776026/Local_Plan_intervention_-_Secretary_of_State_letter_to_Wirral_Council.pdf
https://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/greater-manchester-green-belt-development-15868902
Continues to progress the Hoylake Golf resort and luxury housing development on Green Belt and a flood plain, which includes spending up to £17million of public money for the resort roads and lending the Developer (who has a history of bankruptcy) £26 million.
Have sent an Action Plan to the Government ( 1 day before the required deadline) which shows that they do not intend to prepare a “properly evidenced variation from the target”and that only 5 out of the 65 documents which will be used as the “Evidence Base” for the Local Plan are up to date and require no further work.
https://www.wirral.gov.uk/sites/default/files/all/planning%20and%20building/Local%20plans%20and%20planning%20policy/Local%20plans/Core%20strategy%20local%20plan/Action%20Plan/Wirral%20Local%20Plan%20Action%20Plan%20-%20April%202019.pdf?fbclid=IwAR0ChANIfXSFRw7znK9k785PLITTINdYLMogDvYzuTj3toyjJ5xFROS_zDQ
Have refused to publish the Brief / Instructions given to a QC (employed at a cost of £135,000) and the University of Liverpool to review the Local Plan and Housing Need figures and have refused to publish any of the advice given by the QC and the University. Despite a Freedom of Information request asking for the Information in the spirit of “openness and transparency” the Council have deemed that publishing the information would “not be in the public interest”.
“Leaked documents” show that the current Cabinet have “accepted” the building of 6000 houses on Green Belt in Bebington, Clatterbridge, Eastham, Greasby /Frankby and Irby, Heswall, Hoylake and Meols, Moreton and Saughall Massie and Prenton, Pensby / Thingwall, Upton and West Kirby. These documents are “political preferences” only which would not stand up to scrutiny by the Local Plan Inspector, yet a member of the Cabinet in marginal Pensby and Thingwall has been distributing leaflets stating these “political preferences” prove that sites in his ward are “safe” throwing the whole public consultation process and local plan technical assessments into confusion. This forced the Chief Executive of the Council to write to all Councillors and the media insisting that NO Decision has been taken about any of the sites.
Do you think the Council’s performance with regards to the Green Belt review is acceptable or do you think they have had long enough, and it is time for change?
Remember that the Local elections can not directly influence any Central Government Policies, they can only decide who will represent us on Local Council issues. It will not make any difference to NHS Funding, Police numbers etc or even the amount of funding that Council’s receive. But it will decide who will represent us when it comes to the Local Plan and the Green Belt.
Please use your vote wisely on Thursday the 2nd May and vote for Change! Save our Green Belt, once it’s gone it’s gone forever!