A Conservative Isle of Wight councillor has resigned from the political party over a planning disagreement.
In the last week requests have been made for the voting history of the Isle of Wight’s Council planning committee to be disclosed, after it was questioned whether some members were making a valid contribution.
County Hall Conservative leader Councillor Joe Robertson said Councillor Spink took exception to some of the comments made about motivations behind voting patterns, and scrutinising the records of members.
Cllr Robertson said he was asked to intervene by Cllr Spink but declined to do so, which led Cllr Spink to decide to leave the Conservative group.
The pair remain on good terms, said Cllr Robertson, and he wished Cllr Spink well.
Cllr Spink said on Friday he would still remain as part of the national Conservative party.
He has so far given no reason for his resignation but felt he could better represent the residents of his ward (Freshwater North and Yarmouth) as an ‘Independent Conservative’ member of the authority.
At last week’s planning committee meeting, Councillor Matt Price said he felt he had been put in a position many times where he had to direct the committee, keeping it on the straight and narrow.
Councillor Geoff Brodie joined the calls for the voting records to be shared saying it was easy to be populist but that is not what planning was about. He suggested having the wrong people on the committee could put the council in a “very serious financial and reputational situation”.
Cllr Spink said he did not think looking into the voting history was a good idea as it appeared to be a check to undermine the integrity of those who voted a certain way, to which Cllr Price argued that was not the point.
Cllr Spink’s resignation from the Tory group now changes the make-up of the Isle of Wight Council.
Currently, no one party holds overall control of the authority but the Conservatives had held the same amount of seats as the ruling Alliance Administration.
Now, with 1 fewer seat, the Conservatives have 16 members, compared to the Alliance’s 17.
Other seats on the authority are in the hands of the Liberal Democrats (2), Labour (1), Independent Labour (1) and 1 independent member.
If representing the residents of their respective wards includes trying to prevent unsustainable housing development across the island then all power to them. Just because Cllr Brodie thinks it might be ‘populist’ does not make him right! He’s a well documented casting voter for mass housing so could do well to reflect on some of the sanctimonious and contentious noise that falls out of his own transom.
Oh goody,the council shoots itself in the foot yet again, what will releasing the voting records show other than what most people aleady think, stealing a quote from shakespeare, ” there is something rotten in the state of denmark”, you keep things under wraps for what ever reason and it fuels mistrust in an organisation that already suffers badly on the popularity ratings, is it personal gain that councillors seek to hide, or that the public will discover connections between councillors and developers, or that they had prior knowledge on land ownership and were able to making a killing. As they say publish and be damned.
Transparency is a good thing (obviously), but accusations about having the ‘wrong’ people on the committee is another thing entirely. Who do these people making these accusations think they are? The committee are not supposed to be clones all thinking the same way.
IWC they don’t like scrutiny so they ..
No great loss! There’s no shortage of jumped up self important people to take his place
Why would you retire if you are innocent????
Surely if you have voted honestly, why resign????
More to this than meets the eye !!
!!…
Still connected 2 the council,!!! Fat pension pot on it’s way …
“Cllr Spink said he did not think looking into the voting history was a good idea “
Because he has something to hide, maybe because we could then work out who has been giving him brown envelopes or free holidays in Spain.