DEAR EDITOR - Councillors Ann Doyle, Nick Psirides and myself have been suspended from the Conservative group on Bromsgrove District Council for daring to propose that local people should have a referendum on proposed changes, which would alter the face of Bromsgrove.
Briefly, after months of speculation and rumour - the Cabinet decided to bring their proposals to the full council.
Present in the audience were over one hundred local residents and supporters of the Bromsgrove Rovers Football Club.
The night before the Conservative Group discussed the five points in the main proposal which run up to the eventual development of land which included the council-owned football ground. Included in the second point was the phrase - the council 'will have due regard to the views of the residents in the Bromsgrove district.' It was also intended that all points in the proposal would be voted on en bloc the following day at full council.
Several of us thought this was too vague and was lacking in clarity. Cllr Psirides proposed at the Conservative Group meeting, the addition of a sixth and separate point solely to stipulate the necessity for a thorough and wide ranging consultation - i.e. a referendum. This was agreed by all present.
A few minutes before the full council meeting, the following day, we were told separately by the council's deputy leader, that the sixth point which was agreed to the previous evening, could not stand for 'legal reasons' and would be incorporated into point two.
No further explanation was given. We were taken completely by surprise by this last minute change of plan.
Both Cllr Psirides and I reached the conclusion, separately, that this was not what was agreed the previous evening.
The Labour opposition added to the confusion by asking that each of the six points should be voted on separately. It was at this point, in order to ensure the originally agreed plan for the referendum was adhered to, a proposal was put by Cllr Psirides as an addendum. Both the deputy leader and I stood up to second the proposal simultaneously - it was passed unanimously.
For this crime in defending the right of local people to have a say in a development that could mar the whole of that area of Bromsgrove for good, three of us have been 'suspended' from the Conservative Group for six months.
Cllr Dr Elizabeth Lammie
Worcester Road
Bromsgrove
l Since this letter arrived Cllr Lammie has formed a breakaway Independent group together with the other Conservative councillors who have been suspended. A story carried exclusively in your Advertiser/Messenger last week.
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