At the recent grand opening of Christchurch Foodbank+, a BCP Ward Councillor who is not a Lib Dem said in conversation,

“One of the things I really notice about the Lib Dems is that they don’t operate the whip like the Conservatives or the Labour Party. I get fed up with a politics where everyone is supposed to think and speak the same. It destroys independent thought. I have noticed that there are issues where some Lib Dems on BCP Council vote differently from other Lib Dems.”

The 2014 Dorset Plan which guides development in the County, permitted the building of up to 150 homes on the Western side of New Road (South). The Planners originally wanted to give consent for 200 homes but the Planning Inspector reduced to a 150 after representations from English Heritage who felt the development would affect the landscape surrounding the Iron Age Fort.

At a meeting of the West Parley Parish Council Planning Committee on 6th April, a briefing was given by way of update by a representative from the applicants Enviromena.

Controversy surrounds a decision by Christchurch, Bournemouth and Poole (BCP) to approve 2 loans totally £11.4 million to an urban regeneration company, set up by the council.

BCP FuturePlaces Directors include council leader Drew Mellor and deputy Philip Broadhead.

Therefore, BCP Councillors have set up a private organization to pay themselves to advise themselves on building developments. 

Stuart Roberts joined the Liberal Democrats having been a conservative Councillor in Hertfordshire and deputy president of the Farmers Union.

The post-Brexit Trade deals have adversely affected farmers across the country with farming incoming dropping by £60 million year on year in the South of England alone.