Councillor Dave Stewart, the conservative group leader on the Isle of Wight Council has encouraged the Council’s Executive to respect the outcome of last week’s Full Council and not progress with the Solent Deal in its current form at this time.
As previously reported by Island Echo, local councillors voted against a plan for the Isle of Wight to become part of a new Solent Mayoral Combined Authority on Wednesday evening. Executive Members of the Isle of Wight Council will meet tonight (Monday) to make a final decision on the matter.
Cllr Stewart has said:
“The current administration does not have overall control of the council, as the democratic process showed last Wednesday evening. In my view the council executive do not have a mandate from the electorate to reject this outcome and accept the current Solent Deal governance proposals – instead they should respect our democratic process and not push ahead with this deal.
“We already know that there are other options emerging to be considered at this time. We currently retain a unique Island status which in itself presents good grounds to continue our dialogue with government. So in all the circumstances I would encourage the leader and executive to now step back and take time to consider a better way forward which is in the best interests of the Island.”
