Hucknall Councillor who chairs Standards Committee to address petition debate time in full Council meetings

A Hucknall Councillor who chairs the Standards and Personnel Committee has confirmed that it will be addressing the council's constitution in relation to the debating of petitions.

Councillor Lee Waters, who represents Hucknall North at District level for the Ashfield independents, has made this declaration in light of the controversy caused by the Full Council only being allowed to debate a petition on the local housing plan for 15 minutes.

After the meeting there was a lot of anger from Hucknall residents and opposition Councillors that a fuller debate about the petition to save Whyburn Farm, which had amassed over 7500 signatures, hadn't been allowed to happen.

This led to Labour Councillor for Hucknall South, Lauren Mitchell, accusing the Ashfield Independents of ''squashing democracy.'

Councillor Waters said: "I was as surprised as anybody that the debate over the Government-enforced Local Housing Plan was restricted to 15 minutes. To be honest – I could have spoken for an hour about my opposition to arbitrary housing targets set out by the Conservative Government.

"This was the first time a petition such as this was discussed at Full Council since my time as an Ashfield District Councillor. Bearing in mind, the strength of feeling in towns like Hucknall – the debate did feel somewhat curtailed.

"Every year, my committee look at the Council's constitution and I am pleased to say that we'll be looking at petitions and the debate surrounding them as part of this review."