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Chris Lofts Calls For Towcester To Vote In May 2011 Elections
| Author: Chris Lofts | Published: 23rd November 2010 09:02 |
Moat Lane and Bury Mount in Towcester from the air
South Northamptonshire Council’s Proposed Office Relocation and FAQs Published in SNC Review
Following widespread public concerns over SNC’s proposed office move from the existing site at Springfields to the Moat Lane Development in the centre of Towcester, the Council has recently devoted a four page centre spread in their own newspaper – SNC Review – to justify the move.
The publication openly admits that the move is primarily ‘driven by the need to save money’. The document sets out the advantages for South Northamptonshire as a whole but largely ignores the key issues that have caused concerns in Towcester namely:
- The Moat Lane Development has been championed as a regeneration project that will attract new employment into Towcester
- The proposed SNC office relocation adds no new jobs for Towcester.
- SNC relocated to the very heart of Towcester will add to already congested traffic and associated air and noise pollution.
- There was a total lack of public consultation over the proposed move and even now there is no attempt to ask the people of Towcester, or the rest of the district, if they agree.
- SNC is now seriously considering merging services with Cherwell District Council that will inevitably result in reductions in staff levels. Is now the time to be deciding on the headquarters location?
The coalition Government is, rightly, introducing and encouraging ‘localism’ and ‘big society’ which encourages local decision making and increases the involvement of local people in shaping and supporting their local community. SNC appears to be following a completely different agenda by implementing an unpopular headquarters move based on ‘the need to save money’.
Towcester will be blighted by a rash decision made in haste leaving the town to cope with a lost opportunity to attract new employment into the last major town centre site.
Many objectors have commented that the five elected councillors representing Towcester should do just what it says on the tin – represent the people of Towcester. Towcester does not support the office move so why are our councillors ignoring the views of Towcester residents?
What do the people of Towcester have to do to persuade our local councillors and SNC to listen to our concerns? Local elections are due in May 2011 perhaps that will be the only time Towcester will have an effective voice!
Chris Lofts
Towcester Town Councillor and Liberal Democrat
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Comments
Ray MillerDeveloping the centre of such a busy town like Towcester without building a bypass is utter madness. The residents of the town know this and have voiced their opposition to Towcester Town Council. The only people stubbornly refusing to accept this are the deluded managers and politicians of South Northamptonshire District Council and the reviled wreckers at the soon to be scrapped WNDC.
SNDC’s misuse of four pages in their civic publication to promote this ludicrous plan painfully illustrates how weak and ill thought out their position is. It was the perfect opportunity to be open and transparent and publish details of their business case, results of impact assessments, alternatives to Moat Lane and all of the financial information surrounding such a project. They could have been honest and let the people judge for themselves. But no! True to form we are presented with pages of emotive twaddle and clumsy propaganda. Mr Lofts correctly states, they completely fail to address the key issues surrounding this scheme and the concerns of the electorate.
In 2009 when he was Shadow Local Government Minister, Eric Pickles made a real song and dance about the abuse of taxpayer’s money to produce ‘town hall Pravdas’. This September he said he ‘will close off these inappropriate practices and make sure that councils focus taxpayers’ money on where it should be spent - protecting frontline services.’‘In these tougher times are councils really going to spend money shouting about how brilliant they are? Or are they going to get on with the job of serving residents and let their actions speak for themselves?’
Sadly SNDC have made it perfectly clear that cannot be trusted with taxpayer’s money in more ways than one. The size of councilor allowances, executive pay and consultancy fees are evidence of this. To produce such a magazine during such a time of fiscal hardship is nothing more condoning taxpayer funded propaganda. By creating the most expensive cat litter in the district they have demonstrated that there are no limits to their largesse. If this small council can blindly ignore the position of the minister in charge and their own political party, there is little hope that they will take any notice of the people of Towcester.
So at a moment in history when entire states are going bankrupt, SNDC continues to splash other peoples’ cash so they can get their swanky new multi million pound council chamber with councilor parking in the centre of Towcester. These people have no qualms in completely jamming up this part of the country’s road network for a vanity project. Their reckless actions will cause years of chaos and misery to Towcester, its residents, people who work there and people who have the misfortune to travel through it.
Taxpayers of Cherwell, these are the people you are about to jump into bed with. Heaven help you.
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