Local Plan Update

Paul Bicknell (Lib Dems) summarised it as follows

"In summary no new sites needed but a housing shortfall towards the end of the plan in the last few years. This does take One Horton Heath into account. "

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I won’t believe it till it’s adopted! :slight_smile:

… and… how many times does this council want to breach purdah and use its power to make local elections unfair for other candidates?

The first question to ask is ‘could a reasonable person conclude that you are spending public money to influence the outcome of the election?’ In other words it must pass the ‘is it reasonable’ test. When making your decision, you should consider the following:

You should not:

  • produce publicity on matters which are politically controversial
  • make references to individual candidates or parties in press releases
  • arrange proactive media or events involving candidates
  • issue photographs which include candidates
  • supply council photographs or other materials to political group staff unless you have verified that they will not be used for campaigning purposes
  • continue hosting third party blogs or e-communications
  • help with national political visits (as this would involve using public money to support a particular candidate or party). These should be organised by political parties with no cost or resource implications for the council.
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I’m wondering why it has taken a year to write that update? The manuscript states “following the Local Plan hearings in November 2019 - January 2020 the Inspector wrote to the Council in April 2020 …”.
We’re now in April 2021, aren’t we?
A whole 12 months after the inspector wrote to the local council…
…but just about a week before the local elections… :thinking:

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The comments on the facey thread that this was scraped from got a bit… fiery, to say the least.

But don’t worry, Mr House didn’t break purdah, or did he? @PaulHolmes88 isn’t convinced…

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I am almost certain he did. If he didn’t, then I don’t get what the point of purdah is as it seems pretty much business as usual.

I actually complained to EBC about Lib Dem’s breaching Purdah recently, but I was essentially told by EBC legal it wasn’t.

I’m considering publishing the whole morale question with the evidence here as I’m stuck on where to take it next - but I certainly don’t think elections are being run fairly in Eastleigh.

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Spot on! Because it’s an election and posting it now from the council will win them more votes than if they posted it as “The Lib Dem’s”. Unfair!

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It’s an election gimmick.

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It does seem like a suspiciously timed update at first glance, especially given the topic. Having said that, the guidance does say that you are allowed to…

publish factual information to counteract misleading, controversial or extreme (for example, racist/sexist) information

That doesn’t seem completely unreasonable given the recent speculation about Allington. It certainly seems worth asking the question about whether the statement stepped over the line though.

Unfortunately, it’s not the only incident which might be in breach of election rules: