A ‘secret’ bid to postpone the forthcoming Lincolnshire County Council elections shows ‘contempt for the voting public’, say independent councillors.
County council leader Martin Hill has come under fire from South Holland councillors Rob Gibson, Jane King and Manzur Hasan for making the request to the Government to postpone the May election.
Despite previous assurances that the 2025 elections will be going ahead, Coun Hill and the leaders of North and North East Lincolnshire Councils, Rob Waltham and Phillip Jackson, the upper-tier council leaders, said in an expression of interest sent to the Government on January 9, that they were “open to deferring the elections in 2025”.
Rob Gibson has highlighted drugs issues in Spalding town centre
They also expressed hope, in this letter, that their preferred proposal to create two unitary authorities for Greater Lincolnshire would gain support.
A statement from Couns Gibson, King and Hasan, who represent the area on the county council, said: “Councillor Hill has made this request without any formal approval from the county council, in fact he seems to have kept the request a secret until now.
“This behaviour isn’t new for our political leaders but does illustrate the contempt they hold for the voting public.
Jane King represents Donington, Quadring and Gosberton
“To pull the election at this point only goes to show they are afraid of losing their seats, and rightfully so in our opinion.
“The excuses we are hearing are to save money or because it won’t be for a full term, our answer to that is codswallop! The Mayoral election will still go ahead in the whole of Lincolnshire so that won’t save a penny, we then must sort Local Government Organisation before the next election, that means it will be a bare minimum of three years, probably four years, also known as a full-term.
“If Councillor Hill and his Conservative colleagues want to preserve any reputation they have left at this point, he will face the voting public and let them decide who they want for the next three or four years.”
Rob Gibson has highlighted drugs issues in Spalding town centre
The move has also not gone down well with independents on South Holland District Council.
Coun Mark Le Sage says this will ‘destroy our opportunity to have local voices fighting for local causes’.
He added: “This is purely an attempt to reduce the general public’s ability to discuss local policies with their locally elected representatives.”
Coun Martin Hill, leader of Lincolnshire County Council,
Spalding Monkshouse ward councillor Ingrid Sheard said: “This will only have a detrimental effect on this already forgotten part of Lincolnshire. Taking away people’s choice of who should give them a voice at county level is disgraceful. This is clearly not democratic.”
Coun James Le Sage, who represents St John’s ward, said: “I do not look forward to losing our district council. Having a large unitary authority will be like asking a plumber from London to come and fix a leaking tap in rural Lincolnshire. This is purely a power grab exercise disguised as cost saving. Cancelling the local election is just the first step in a line of bad decisions.”