In other words to give all residents of North Tyneside a proper opportunity have their say on whether or not the Core Strategy Proposals should be adopted. The motion was proposed and signed by Councillors Eddie Darke, David Corkey and Jim Allan
Despite the Mayor holding the stance that there had been a proper consultation, the Holystone Action Group have always maintained that, with only 3500 people attending the drop-in sessions and with no notes of conversations being taken, the consultation was weak and ineffective. The figures being given out suggest that as many as 5000 people may have either viewed the plans or made their thoughts known.
However, with a population of 196,000 this consultation involved only a half of one percent of the population. Thus 99.5% of the public of North Tyneside were not involved with the consultation.
The Council agreed at the meeting to (as amended by an amendment suggesting four referendums, one in each quarter of the borough) '…recommend to Cabinet to hold a poll of electors, in line with Section 116 of the Local Government Act 2003, to ascertain if they agree with North Tyneside's Council Cabinet Preferred Options contained in their Core Strategy published in June 2010.
This motion was decided in a 'named vote' where all Councillors had to state their individual voting decision. It should be noted, however, that, although the motion was passed, the Mayor and her party colleagues abstained
Thus, when this goes to Cabinet, will they ignore the wishes of the wider Council and vote against it? A cynic might suggest that, by abstaining from the vote, these Cabinet members will be able to claim in the future that they had not decided but wished to debate it further
Those voting for the referendum were:
J Allan, A Arkle, G Brett, B Burdis, D Charlton, K Conroy, D Corkey, A Cowie, S Cox, C Croft, E Darke, L Darke, S Day, M Finlay, C Gambling, R Glindon, I Grayson, M Green, S Hill, J Hunter, M Huscroft, M Huscroft , N Huscroft, F Lott, D McGarr, M Madden, T Mulvenna, D Ord, C Pickard, N Redfearn, L Spillard, J Stirling and J Walker
Those who did not vote for the referendum were:
L Arkley, A Austin, G Barrie, K Barrie, J Bell, L Birkenfield, N Clothier, J Goodfellow, L Goveas, E Hodson, D Lilly, M McIntyre, P McIntyre, D McLellan, K Mewett, L Miller, S Mortimer, G Partis, N Peggs, W Prendergast, D Sarin, B Stevens and J Wallace
The motion was approved by 33 votes to 0 votes, with 23 abstentions.
Watch this space...
Download the motion and minutes of the meeting
