Amongst the new books to appear in Waterstones’ Canterbury branch this week is the latest offering from Yanis Varoufakis, the Greek finance minister who opposed the imposition of harsh austerity measures on his country, much to the annoyance of the international financial elite. Eventually in Washington Varoufakis was asked point blank by Larry Summers, one of the high priests of the global economy; do you want to be on the inside or the outside? Summers said that outsiders prioritise their right to speak freely, but doing so loses support from the ‘insiders’. The insiders will shut out those who do not subscribe to the pre-existing consensus, defending their right (as they see it) to make the important decisions. “The key to such power networks is exclusivity and opacity”, writes Varoufakis in his book Adults in the Room: My Battle with Europe’s Deep Establishment (Bodley Head Publishing, £20.00).
We will return to Varoufakis below; but first here is an overview of the main outcomes from this week’s Parish Council meeting (Thursday. 11 May).
Chairmanship: The incumbent Chair, Alan Atkinson, was re-elected. He continues to enjoy the confidence of a sizable majority of the council, with 7 of 9 councillors voting for him. However, he no longer enjoys unanimous support, with Councillor Paul Ferguson, standing as a “stalking horse” candidate, attracting two votes. It remains to be seen what, if anything, this small shift in the barometer of support will signify.
Green Gap: The Chair announced that he had written to the Housing Inspector regarding his unauthorised letter of 20 March requesting an amendment of the Green Gap between Bridge and Canterbury. He made an assurance to make public his latest letter which, he said, dealt with ‘the facts’ (although it is not clear at this stage what this means).
Neighbourhood Plan: The current draft contains plans to build in the two areas confirmed by the Inspector as conservation areas: the Brickfields and the Green Gap. The Council debated the motion passed at the Annual Parish Meeting of 27 April: that the Neighbourhood Plan be suspended pending adoption of the Canterbury District Local Plan. Councillors Paul Davies, Paldeep Dhillon and Paul Ferguson voted to respect this publicly-approved motion. With four votes against and two abstentions the result was a decision to overturn the APM motion. The Chair stated that the intention was for the Neighbourhood Plan to be completed around about September.
Cantley: Two matters of interest arose. First, it is now apparent that on 30 June 2015 Cantley proposed two possible sites for house building in the village: in the Green Gap; and land to the east of Conyngham Lane. Yet only the Green Gap site, favoured by some councillors, was presented to the village during the consultations of autumn 2015. Why was this? Second, Cantley wrote to the Parish Council on 20 April 2017 stating it wishes to sell land between the recreation ground and the A2 with planning permission for housing. Should this proposal not go ahead, Cantley wishes to build near Great Pett Farm.
Mountfield: The Council made the welcome decision to donate £1000 to the fund for a judicial review of the proposed Mountfield development.
Neighbourhood Plan Group Membership: With half the members of the NPG having resigned in recent weeks the suggestion was made to expand the membership. Councillor Paul Ferguson volunteered to serve on the group, noting his wide experience as a lawyer in dealing with planning regulation and his commitment to Bridge as a village. With the Parish Council evenly divided on his offer (4 votes for, 4 against, 1 abstention) the rules gave the casting vote to the Chair, who blocked the offer. It was pointed out that Councillor Ferguson could attend the Neighbourhood Plan Group meetings, but not participate in discussions. Adults in the room?
This was Mr Ferguson’s second meeting as a parish councillor, and he will have felt welcome by many of his colleagues. But on two or three occasions he faced hostility, with heckling and some openly disrespectful comments. Councillor Ferguson was treated in a similar way to Mr Varoufakis in Washington: as an interloper. His is a voice that some clearly wish to silence. Is there room for insider-outsider distinctions on a council of nine? All councillors should have the right to speak without fear or favour, and offers of help should be welcomed.
As things stand, it seems likely that the Neighbourhood Plan will be completed as soon as possible (with the draft commitments to build on the Brickfields and on the Green Gap remaining) before consideration can be given to the Cantley proposals made public this week.
ConserveBridge notes again that the city is not looking to Bridge for new housing allocations and we reiterate our opposition to all new housing in our Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. We thank all those who serve the village, and call upon all members of the Parish Council to find a way to collaborative productively for the common good of the community and to preserve the integrity of Bridge as a rural village.