Jeff Hailes for Egremont South

On Thursday 24th April there will be a by-election for a vacant seat on Egremont Town Council.

Polling Stations will be open from 7am to 10pm

If you are an Egremont South resident and normally vote at the Methodist Church in Main Street that will be your polling station for this election. If you normally vote at Bookwell Masonic Centre, your polling station for this election will be there.

As I have already posted, the Town Council decided not to send out polling cards for this election. The council was split down the middle with three of the six councillors at the meeting voting to send out polling cards and three against. I was one of the three councillors who voted that the council should pay the £1,400 cost of sending out polling cards. 

Local democracy is in grave danger of being overwhelmed by apathy, but how can councillors and politicians like me expect the voters to take democracy seriously if we ourselves don't take it seriously enough to vote the money to run elections properly? 

The councillors who voted not to send out polling cards wanted to save the money and argued that the election could be publicised by other means, and they gave Facebook as an example.

Following the 3:3 tied vote, the chair of the Town council then used her second or casting vote against the proposal to send out polling cards.













The Conservative candidate in the by-election is Jeff Hailes and I believe he will be an excellent councillor if elected. Jeff was previously a hard-working and effective Copeland councillor for St Bees and he is very involved in local activities and organisations in Egremont and the area, including the Rugby club and the Credit Union.

Jeff is very concerned by the proposals for a huge Solar farm at Dent Fell. The original proposal on which Belltown Power consulted the public was to cover 120 acres of a 200 acre site with solar panels, dominating the countryside to the East of Egremont.

When the planning application eventually comes in - it has not yet been submitted and may change as a result of public response to the consultation - councillors will have to look carefully at what exactly ends up actually being proposed. The decision on whether to grant it will be made by Cumberland Council's planning panel.

But Egremont Town Council is a "statutory consultee" which means Cumberland has to ask the Town Council what their view is. Jeff has noted the very strong opinions and concerns expressed by local residents and wants the Town council to convey those concerns to Cumberland planners.

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