An Isle of Wight councillor voted against her own motion on Wednesday night after it was changed to something she could not agree with.
Asking the Isle of Wight Council to ‘put the wellbeing of residents at the heart of placemaking in our towns and villages’, Cllr Julie Jones-Evans was looking for support on her motion.
Told to ‘shut up’
During the September full council meeting, time ran out to discuss her motion after someone told her to ‘shut up’ while she was presenting it.
At Wednesday’s meeting (catch up here) Cllr Jones-Evans said she would not go over what she had previously said as ‘clearly some members found it boring’ .
Stewart changed the motion
Cllr Dave Stewart, leader, proposed to change the motion to say the council would ‘continue’ to put the wellbeing of residents at the heart of placemaking.
He said while he agreed with Cllr Jones-Evans over the importance of wellbeing, the administration had already been doing taking the issue into account.
Jones-Evans: “We will continue to do it poorly”
Cllr Jones-Evans said she could not accept the motion as she did not believe that was the case.
She said,
“There is no point in putting a motion forward to say we are doing very well, I don’t believe we are.
“If you add ‘continue to’, well then we will continue to do it poorly.”
Fuller: Local businesses are going to lose their livelihoods
Cllr Paul Fuller gave an example of the council ‘not thinking about people’s wellbeing’ with the proposed car parking charges along Gurnard Esplanade which could affect elderly residents who park on the seafront and go along for a flat walk
He said:
“Local businesses are going to lose their livelihoods. They have already been kicked down by Covid-19 and we are now giving them a kick as well.
“The Isle of Wight Council does not seem to demonstrate to my community what they are trying to do locally to protect other people’s wellbeing by the decisions that they are [taking].”
The vote
Councillors voted in favour of the amendment (24 to 15) and then passed the motion, with 31 votes in favour with eight against.
Those against included Cllrs Jones-Evans, John Howe, Karl Love, Geoff Brodie, Ian Stephens, Reg Barry, Andrew Garratt and Graham Perks.
This article is from the BBC’s LDRS (Local Democracy Reporter Service) scheme, which OnTheWight is taking part in. Some alterations and additions may be been made by OnTheWight. Ed
