This is what happens when councils and developers ride roughshod over historic communities.
More power to the campaigners who are just trying to save some of the character and history of Wellingborough amid an onslaught of development led increasing traffic levels.
Three cheers for campaigners and all they have achieved. So many people in Wellingborough feel strongly about this, surely it’s time for NNC to admit their mistake and change the plans.
Sheffield Council was finally forced to halt their disastrous tree felling, and later they offered their residents an open apology. I shall look forward to the same from NNC.
Very well written and clear summary of quite a complex set of legal issues. This is the sort of quality journalism we desperately need at local and national levels.
Reminds me of the Cecil Parkinson scandal. If you have the power and the money you can ride roughshod over anybody because that is what the legal system is designed to do, being as it is "drafted" badly in Parliament to give the paracites further down their food chain a ready scrap in years to come.
I can think of two occasions in the past, when Jason Smithers has used a legal argument to stifle debate on a matter of public interest and importance. These were
The Monks affair, when he said the council meeting in which it was discussed had to be held in closed session due to a court order;
The Hooke Close, Corby, affair, when he asserted that the council's actions, though incompetent, were legally correct.
On both occasions, these arguments turned out to be incorrect. On both occasions also, it seems likely that he knew what he was saying was either incorrect or likely to be incorrect at the time of saying it.
The Wellingborough Trees affair seems likely, when the judicial review results come through, to be a third occasion when he has argued in the same way, and he was wrong. To be certain, of course, we will have to compare the judge's conclusion with the following
My question is, at what point will Conservative councillors recognise that Smithers, as leader, is more of a liability to them than a benefit, and dispense with his services?
This is what happens when councils and developers ride roughshod over historic communities.
More power to the campaigners who are just trying to save some of the character and history of Wellingborough amid an onslaught of development led increasing traffic levels.
Three cheers for campaigners and all they have achieved. So many people in Wellingborough feel strongly about this, surely it’s time for NNC to admit their mistake and change the plans.
Sheffield Council was finally forced to halt their disastrous tree felling, and later they offered their residents an open apology. I shall look forward to the same from NNC.
Very well written and clear summary of quite a complex set of legal issues. This is the sort of quality journalism we desperately need at local and national levels.
Reminds me of the Cecil Parkinson scandal. If you have the power and the money you can ride roughshod over anybody because that is what the legal system is designed to do, being as it is "drafted" badly in Parliament to give the paracites further down their food chain a ready scrap in years to come.
I can think of two occasions in the past, when Jason Smithers has used a legal argument to stifle debate on a matter of public interest and importance. These were
The Monks affair, when he said the council meeting in which it was discussed had to be held in closed session due to a court order;
The Hooke Close, Corby, affair, when he asserted that the council's actions, though incompetent, were legally correct.
On both occasions, these arguments turned out to be incorrect. On both occasions also, it seems likely that he knew what he was saying was either incorrect or likely to be incorrect at the time of saying it.
The Wellingborough Trees affair seems likely, when the judicial review results come through, to be a third occasion when he has argued in the same way, and he was wrong. To be certain, of course, we will have to compare the judge's conclusion with the following
https://www.northnorthants.gov.uk/news/statement-and-clarification-councils-position-tree-felling-wellingborough-walks
My question is, at what point will Conservative councillors recognise that Smithers, as leader, is more of a liability to them than a benefit, and dispense with his services?