Joe Robertson, MP for East Wight, has written to all Isle of Wight Councillors ahead of a crunch vote this evening (Wednesday) urging them to vote down the Government’s proposals for a Mayor covering Hampshire and the Isle of Wight.
The MP says that the proposal will shift the balance of powers and decision-making to the mainland for a generation, with the Island standing to lose rather than gain.
Just 2 days after Red Funnel was sold to another foreign private equity group, the MP’s letter focuses on the lack of ferry powers. It says that Councillors should send the proposal back to Government and tell them to improve on it by giving any new mayor powers to license and regulate ferries crossing the Solent. If Councillors do not draw a line in the sand now, then the Government will conclude they are not serious, Mr Robertson warns.
Joe has said:
“Tonight we face a crunch vote which will set the future direction of our Island for a generation.
“We will be asked to vote for a Mayor whose mandate will overwhelmingly come from the mainland (93 per cent) to have sweeping powers over life on the Island including post 16 education and training, transport but not ferries, and planning together with the power to increase our household council tax bills without the Isle of Wight Council being able to block it.
“We know the Government are developing plans to transfer further powers over time including for Island schooling and health care.”
The letter goes on to say that councillors need to send a united message about ferries:
“Even for those of us who believe in the merits of a mayor, I am urging them to vote no this evening in order to send a clear message back to Government: until you put ferry powers in the hands of the mayor (or create powers for Government directly), we are not prepared to agree to your mayor deal.
“This will also help give me the strongest bargaining hand in Westminster to negotiate the precise nature of those powers to tackle high prices and improve reliability and timetabling. After all, the Department of Transport have sat back and watched two private equity groups trade Red Funnel this week.
“If we do not take a collective stand when given the opportunity to this evening, the Government will not take us seriously in the future.”
Any vote should require that the Island population have the final say via a referendum.
Baring in mind that the councillors voting on this don’t actually have a mandate from the public, our vote was stolen remember, the only right thing to do is to leave the final decision to Islanders!
No – the democratically elected National Government in the interests of saving you money extend the term of the local council by 12 months.
The only ‘Stolen votes’ were the ones Reform stole in Lake North when they stood up a paper candidate who then won and exposed their problems. If the Candidate was Island based and passionate for the Island and it’s people, a family death would not have caused the impact it did.
Tomorrow Lake ‘might’ be able to reclaim those votes from freeloading political immigrants from over the Solent.
MAKE WIGHT GURT AGAIN!!!!!
In a situation as complex as this, with the level of scrutiny and understanding needed, is it wise to offer a referendum to a populous who struggle to even spell correctly or still maintain that deferment equals theft?
That would only happen in an honest world.
When it comes to voting for a mayor (which is not needed just a waist of taxpayer’s money) the isle’s vote won’t make a difference with only a population of 140,000 when Southampton has 270,000 and Portsmouth has 208,000 to start with and total Hampshire population at 1.4m that makes the isle of wight vote at about10% so when it comes to voting the isle has no voice and we just have put up with what Hampshire want just like when Donna Jones won the Police and Crime Commissioner vote she wasn’t the isle’s choice.
Not least because the turnout for Donna Jones was just 28%. Those who voted for her were Tories, who always vote.
She’s now going for regional Mayor….best not to let that happen again, eh? So regardless of whether YOU think as mayor is a good idea or not, make sure you vote for someone else. It will be a COMBINED vote from everyone in the region for the post itself.
Devolution will actually save us money by centralising the decision making process and streamlining it, also reducing delays, and opening up gov’t funding which in the past was passed from ministerial department to department, each trying to find a way to say no and avoid the lobbyists (local MPs) in the Commons.
When it comes to the new mayor making decisions, the IOW has EQUAL vote for our area. Most other decisions which would affect only us will be voted on by IOW Council.
Bring it on, time for change.