Tory in meeting row breaks silence

A politician who controversially replaced a colleague at a crunch planning meeting in Bath has broken his silence.

The replacement of Tory Cllr Malcolm Lees with his party colleague Cllr Brian Simmons at a meeting to discuss the contentious Bath Transportation Package sparked a strongly-worded letter of complaint to the Government Office of the South West.

Two other Conservatives joined three opposition Liberal Democrats in signing the letter, which claimed politicians on Bath and North East Somerset Council’s development control committee had been coerced ahead of the meeting last month.

But Cllr Simmons says the letter - which accuses the ruling Conservative administration at the Guildhall of abandoning transparency - contained “wild inaccuracies.”

Cllr Simmons (Con, Keynsham North) issued a statement which failed to explain why he had replaced Cllr Lees (Con, Weston), who is a full member of the committee.

But he said he was fully trained to sit as a committee member and had ample experience of planning matters both with B&NES and as chairman of Keynsham Town Council’s own development control committee for several years.

The letter of complaint suggested that he had been brought in at the last minute and had not been properly briefed on the four planning applications - including the Bathampton Meadows park and ride scheme.

But he said: “It is utterly false to claim that I was not properly conversant with the issues surrounding the Bath Transportation Package proposals.  Indeed, not only had I read the extensive briefing papers prior to the meeting, but I had also received a two-hour long briefing on the planning applications from the planning department beforehand.  It is in fact personally offensive to suggest that I would not have been this diligent when sitting on a development control committee meeting.”

He pointed out that he voted in favour of the park and ride scheme but abstained in the vote to defer a decision on the equally hotly-debated Bus Rapid Transit scheme through Newbridge.

One of the politicians who signed the letter, Cllr Gerry Curran (Lib Dem, Twerton), said he disputed the claim that the letter was “wildly inaccurate.”

He said he was in the process of seeking information from council chief executive John Everitt about what had been said to Cllr Lees during the meeting.