Liberal Democrat councillors have been challenging government proposals on planning and local government reorganisation at their virtual annual conference.
Just before lockdown in March, we were planning a busy local government presence at the Liberal Democrats’ spring conference in York. That event was quite rightly cancelled, while our autumn party conference, held late last month, was a ‘virtual’ one.
A key theme of the LGA Liberal Democrat Group’s work ahead of and during this ‘online’ conference season has been ‘stop the power grab’. On both forced local government reorganisation and planning changes, we, as a party, see a common theme emerging: it is a power grab by central government.
Ahead of conference, we worked with our partners in the Association of Liberal Democrat Councillors to table an emergency motion making clear our opposition to the Government’s ‘Planning for the future’ White Paper. We are defending the right of local communities to have a say in planning matters.
I was delighted to speak to Sir Ed Davey MP just after he won the Liberal Democrat leadership election. Ed reinforced the importance of the local government family to the party, and how next May’s local and regional elections were top of his agenda.
So we invited him to one of our fringe meetings to discuss the Government’s power grab. The meeting looked at how to oppose the Government’s meddling in our planning system while delivering the homes we need. As first was going to press, other speakers expected at the session included Cllr Tumi Hawkins, Lead Cabinet Member for Planning Policy and Delivery at South Cambridgeshire District Council, and Baroness Olly Grender, Liberal Democrat Housing Spokesperson in the Lords.
“We looked at how to oppose the Government’s meddling in our planning system while delivering the homes we need”
We also ran (virtual) conference meetings on other issues – starting with ‘How can we revive our town centres and what are the challenges?’ Cllr Emily Smith, Leader of Vale of White Horse District Council, and Dave Hodgson, Bedford’s Elected Mayor, were joined by Tim Farron MP and Kirsten Henly, from Kingston First, a business improvement district in Liberal Democrat Kingston.
A number of our Liberal Democrat groups work in partnership with other parties to lead councils across the country, and we used conference to start showcasing more of their work. Leading Liberal Democrat councillors from City of York Council and Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole Council spoke about the challenges and successes in working with other parties to run our councils.
Now that a large number of our councils have declared a climate emergency, what should they be doing next? At another conference meeting, we heard from Wera Hobhouse MP, the party’s former Energy and Climate Change Spokesperson, and Victoria Marsom, from Friends of the Earth.
We also heard about the practical steps that some of our councils are taking from Cllr Pippa Heylings, Chair of South Cambridgeshire District Council’s Climate and Environment Advisory Committee, Cllr Giles Archibald, Leader of South Lakeland District Council, and Cllr Adele Morris, the LGA Liberal Democrat Group’s Lead Member on these issues.
Finally, Cllr Gerald Vernon Jackson, Leader of Portsmouth City Council, led a debate about ‘How can the arts and heritage sector recover from COVID-19? And what can local councils do to help?’ He was joined by Stephen Crocker, Chief Executive of Norwich Theatre Royal and Playhouse, Cllr Chris White, Leader of St Albans City & District Council, and Baroness Jane Bonham Carter, our culture lead in the House of Lords.
It was a packed agenda and we look forward to continuing our work around these issues in the coming months.