Tories up to no good in Kirkburton

Election time is here again and so Kirkburton Conservatives have produced a leaflet. You can tell its election time because it is full of half truths and untruths in pursuit of votes.

They refer to a motion on the siting of wind turbines they put to the Council in January where they state that my colleagues Councillors Derek Hardcastle and Julie Stewart-Turner abstained on the motion.They did in fact vote for the motion. They correctly state that my other colleague Councillor Graham Simpson voted against. In the Green Group we are comfortable with people having differing views unlike the other political groups. They then go on to make great play of my non attendance during their motion. The fact is that there was a large public meeting in Newsome that evening regarding the possibility of greenfield land below Castle Hill being allocated for building under the Local Development Framework and at least one local councillor needed to attend, which I did. They went on to imply that because I work for a company that promotes energy efficiency that I have some sort of interest in the promotion of wind turbines. The company I work for does not sell or install wind turbines and never has.

Also in their leaflet is a very dodgy montage of a wind turbine on Ben Booth Lane near Grange Moor with the implication that the Green Party would support incorrectly sited wind turbines. What the Conservatives fail to mention in their leaflet is that Derek Hardcastle represented the views of residents opposing the siting of the wind turbine when it came to the Planning Committee earlier in the year.

Another misleading statement is about Councillor Derek Hardcastle’s attendance at Neighbourhood Management meetings.  Leaving aside the fact that these are not actual meetings of the Council, Derek has asked if these can be moved to a time when he can attend but the 2 Conservative Councillors are quite happy with the times as they are. Much of the information from the police at these meetings is repeated, anyway, at Parish Council meetings of which Derek is a regular attender at, as he is for Area Committee, Licensing Panel, Standards Committee and Full Council meetings. There is no mention of Kirkburton Parish Council in the Conservative leaflet. Perhaps this is because of the 8 Conservative Parish Councillors elected 4 years ago only 2 remain, many of whom resigned or lost their seats due to non attendance. It is also noticeable that the Conservatives have been unable to find people to stand for them in all the Parish seats in the Kirkburton Ward unlike the Green Party.