Geoff Brodie shares this report from last night’s full council meeting. Ed
Despite there being an extraordinary meeting of the IW Council to fully discuss the controversial St Mary’s junction works next week, last night (Wednesday) the ordinary Full Council endorsed an amendment to a Motion by Conservative Cllr Chris Whitehouse (Newport West) that claimed the benefits of the scheme will outweigh any disruption.
Seemingly-unrelated motion
The amendment, without notice, was made to a Motion purportedly about the 2000 Local Government Act.
The opposition argued the amendment was unrelated to the Motion, but the Monitoring Officer left the decision to Council Chairman, Cllr George Chapman (Con), who allowed it for debate.
Short debate
After a relatively short debate on being put to a named vote the Motion was approved by 18 votes to 14.
The 18 votes in favour were all the members of the ruling Conservative group present, except for Cllr Matthew Price (Newport North) and Cllr Brian Tyndall (who abstained).
The 14 against were Cllr Price and all 13 opposition members present.
Next debate
An Opposition call to abandon the St Mary’s works until Coppins Bridge has had improvement works is still to be debated next week.
