Following recent political developments at North East Lincolnshire Council, Coun Philip Jackson, Leader of the Conservative Group, has issued a detailed response addressing the change in control of the authority:
“It needs to be emphasised that Reform UK has only 14 seats out of 42 on the council – only a third of the seats. I think some of the public think they have an overall majority. It was a public disgrace that Labour and the Liberal Democrats decided to abstain in the leadership vote. The electorate expect the councillors they elect to have a view and vote on key issues, and which party runs the council is certainly such an issue. It was cowardly for these two parties to abstain, and Reform UK is only running the council because of their abstention. The message is clear – vote Labour or Liberal Democrat and get Reform!
“Coun Freeston, the newly-elected leader of the council, has said he wants ‘common sense and value for money’ – exactly what the Conservatives have been delivering since we took control of the council in 2019. He also said he wants to ‘take North East Lincolnshire in a new, brighter direction,’ yet gave no indication what this direction might be, not even when I challenged him on it.
“Reform UK does not have a plan for North East Lincolnshire. This was very clear when most of the Reform leaflets that dropped through people’s letterboxes during the run-up to the election featured Nigel Farage and were about getting rid of Keir Starmer and immigration, neither of which local councils have any power to change. Many people subsequently voted on these national issues on May 7.
“In contrast, we went into the local elections with a full, published manifesto and a plan to continue improving North East Lincolnshire. During the campaign, Reform UK repeatedly alleged that ‘our council is broken,’ which it is not, but offered no plan to mend it.
“Coun Freeston also said he wants to focus on growth. Again, the Conservatives had been delivering this since 2019, with record amounts of investment and grant funding coming into the borough and the most extensive regeneration programme in the history of North East Lincolnshire currently underway. Furthermore, Office of National Statistics data shows that the average wage in the borough is, for the first time, the highest in the region and now very close to the national average. Some of this is on the back of new, well-paid jobs in the renewables and clean energy sectors, which are becoming increasingly important to our local economy. Reform UK’s anti-renewable and anti-green energy rhetoric is putting this growth at risk.
“Turning now to one regeneration project in particular – Cleethorpes Market Place. Reform wants to stop this project, but the contract has been signed and work has already commenced. The business case for this project was based on a public consultation that was part of the Cleethorpes Masterplan, where the public made clear they wanted improved connectivity between the seafront and St Peter’s Ave via a pedestrianised Market Place. It was on this basis that the previous Conservative government gave us Levelling Up Funding (LUF) to deliver the scheme.
“There has also been considerable public and local business consultation in drawing up the scheme, with continued support from most of the public and most local businesses. If the project was to be scrapped now, the council would be sued for breach of contract, and we would have to return the LUF funding to Government. This would entail vast cost to the people of North East Lincolnshire for absolutely no benefit. I have written to NELC’s chief executive seeking assurance that the work on the Market Place project is continuing as planned and will continue until any decision to the contrary has been agreed via the council’s proper constitutional and democratic processes, giving all councillors the opportunity to express their views and vote.”
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