New Telford nature reserve amid bitter councillor row

Opposition parties attend cabinet as non-voting observers – but ruling Labour leader Shaun Davies objected to Conservative Andrew Eade’s interruptions and suggested he send his deputy in the future.

Councillor Davies also accused Councillor Eade of hypocrisy. He replied by accusing Councillor Davies of “telling porkies”.

Following the heated exchange, which was streamed live on YouTube, Telford & Wrekin’s nine-member cabinet agreed to adopt 24 hectares of land in Lightmoor as a nature reserve.

Councillor Eade told Councillor Davies: “I welcome nature reserves. I think they’re very good and it’s the right thing for the local authority to do.

“I’m going to give you a challenge: Why don’t you include Station Road, Newport, in that?

“The local community fought tooth and nail to keep that as a green space, which of course this authority wants to build houses on which are no longer needed there.

“If you want to do something meaningful, protect that green space for the people of Newport as an amenity in perpetuity.”

Councillor Davies replied: “Is that the Station Road development you were going to sell as a supermarket development when you were leader of the council?

“I think we’ve all seen the email about when you wanted to sell that piece of land for a supermarket.”

Councillor Eade said: “That’s not the truth. There was never mention of a supermarket on that site. That was your idea.

“You have to tell the truth. You’re the leader of the council. You have to stop telling porkies.

“Your motto should be ‘Why tell the truth when a lie will do?'”

Councillor Davies replied: “Andrew, if you continue to interrupt, don’t come again and send your deputy.”

In June 2015, outline planning permission was granted for 350 homes off Station Road. Outline permission for 120 more was granted in August 2017.

In February 2018, the planning committee heard a report from the Shropshire Wildlife Trust that the land was home to wax cap mushrooms – making it a potential candidate as a local wildlife site.

Councillor John Minor, the cabinet member for green spaces, is a former planning chairman.

He said: “I just don’t understand the hypocrisy of what people want. Put the ‘planning hat’ on, and the biggest complaint in the rural areas from when I was chairman was that they had to leave their village and travel across the borough to see their children and their grandchildren.

“I used to reply to them: ‘What do you expect? You protest against a brick being laid in your village to provide the housing.’

“And now we have an initiative that is going to ensure the guarantees of keeping the borough green. That’s wrong as well!

“They’ve got to make their minds up.”

Before Councillor Davies and Councillor Eade’s exchange, ecology specialist Mark Lathan told the meeting the Lightmoor nature reserve “has high conservation value” and is home to wildlife including woodland amphibians, bats and reptiles.

He added Lightmoor had a “high level of community involvement”, and Liberal Democrat leader Bill Tomlinson agreed that nature reserves were a beacon for community action.

“I’m fortunate to have a portion of Dothill nature reserve in my ward, Shawbirch,” he said.

“A number of things spring from that, one is the number of people who suddenly volunteer to support those reserves.

“They have got such imagination and work with the authority on things we perhaps wouldn’t have thought of. It’s been a revelation to me how much people will freely give their time for such things as this.”

By Emily Lloyd, local democracy reporter