More Blue on Blue action
This time it's local!
If the self-destructive tendencies of the Conservative party in Westminster were not enough, it seems the desire to criticise fellow party members is alive and well and living in Derbyshire Dales.
In a Facebook Post our MP, Sarah Dines, has launched an excoriating attack on a Council that was, at the time of the incident – you’ve guessed it – under the control of Conservatives!
The event that caused such righteous indignation on the part of Ms Dines is the (ultimately unsuccessful) attempt from May 2022 to February 2023 by the Conservative-controlled Derbyshire Dales District Council to secure a site for Travellers.
Bearing in mind that Ms Dines had opposed previous possible sites in the Dales, at Clifton and Tansley, it is perhaps understandable that the then Conservative Leader, Garry Purdy and his Deputy Sue Hobson felt the need to progress the search for a suitable site as quickly as possible. This pressure was made greater when Cllr Purdy made a promise about when a traveller family could be expected to move on from a council car park. This was an issue over which he resigned.
That corners were cut in the attempt to secure a site is not in doubt, but the call for officer resignations by Ms Dines is absurd.
Back in July 2021, the Conservative majority passed a resolution that limited council officers’ options for managing Traveller families; families for whom the Council has a duty of care. This effectively tied officers’ hands. To pour such vitriol on those officers tasked to solve a problem created by the Conservative group seems positively vindictive.
Since May 2023 the Council has been run by a Progressive Alliance, led by the Lib Dems. They have established a new approach to finding traveller sites that was supported by all parties. Let us hope that our MP is not seeking to undermine this.
A full statement from the District Council can be found here;