At last night’s extraordinary full council meeting a motion to pause works at St Mary’s roundabout was effectively hijacked by the Conservative council leader, Dave Stewart.
Opposition councillors and one Conservative councillor (Cllr Matthew Price, the ward councillor for Newport North) were permitted to have their say, but as the Island Conservatives have the majority at the council, any motion put forward by the opposition that is not aligned with their plans always has the potential to be voted down.
Leader’s amendment
The meeting began with the Leader proposing an amendment to the motion by Cllr Jones Evans (ward councillor for Newport Central) to pause the major and controversial road works at St Mary’s roundabout.
The motion Cllr Jones Evans put forward on behalf of Cllr Brodie who could not attend last night, called for the works to be paused until improvements works have been completed at Coppins Bridge – somewhere many believe the congestion problems in Newport lie.
Removing the pause on works
However, Cllr Dave Stewart‘s ‘amendment’ removed the pause on works at St Mary’s roundabout and put the attention on works at Coppins Bridge, a scheme, it was revealed last night, has not even been fully designed yet. His amendment read:
This council requests cabinet to urgently review the timing of works and traffic light operations at Coppins Bridge to ensure that any traffic disruption caused by those works and the associated works at St Mary’s roundabout are reduced to the minimum possible.
Cllr Jones Evans argued the Leader’s amendment totally changed the thrust of her motion and should not be allowed to be accepted. You can read the full transcript of Cllr Stewart’s speech and the debate over on our live coverage of the meeting.
Named vote
After an hour of debate, with many opposition councillors highlighting what they believed to be flaws in the proposed scheme at St Mary’s roundabout, including a funneling of traffic down to Coppins Bridge, dangers for cyclists and pedestrians, and an increased pressure on side roads, the Leader’s amendment was voted through by 16 Conservative councillors, whilst 12 opposition (including Cllr Price) voted against.
The councillors who voted for the amendment, which will see the works at St Mary’s start in just a few days were
- Cllr Barry Abraham
- Cllr Michael Beston
- Cllr Paul Brading
- Cllr Vanessa Churchman
- Cllr Steve Hastings
- Cllr Stephen Hendry
- Cllr John Hobart
- Cllr Stuart Hutchinson
- Cllr Kilpatrick
- Cllr John Nicholson
- Cllr Gary Peace
- Cllr Chris Quirk
- Cllr Brian Tyndall
- Cllr Ian Ward
- Cllr George Cameron (Chairman)
- Cllr Dave Stewart
Those who voted against the Leader’s amendment were
- Cllr Matthew Price (Con)
- Cllr Debbie Andre (Island Ind)
- Cllr Paul Fuller (Island Ind)
- Cllr John Howe (Island Ind)
- Cllr John Medland (Island Ind)
- Cllr Lora Peacey Wilcox (Island Ind)
- Cllr Shirley Smart
- Cllr Julie Jones Evans (Ind)
- Cllr Karl Love (Ind)
- Cllr Graham Perks (UKIP)
- Cllr Reg Barry (LibDem)
- Cllr Andrew Garratt (LibDem)
