Campaign to Oust Local Councillor

A local Haddenham resident has launched a campaign that seeks to reduce the likelihood of Michael Edmonds being re-elected as a District Councillor in the forthcoming elections on 7th May 2015.

David Impey is keen that Haddenham residents should consider voting for any of the other 11 candidates standing in the election for District Councillors, but not to vote for Mr Edmonds.

David alleges that, as Chairman of AVDC's Strategic Development Management Committee, Michael Edmonds was a key figure in AVDC's approval of the Aston Road / Glebe Land planning application that was subsequently called in by Eric Pickles, the then Secretary of State.

According to Mr Impey, "Michael Edmonds demonstrated a style of Chairmanship during the meeting that did not permit inaccuracies from the developers and misunderstandings among committee members from being adequately challenged by representatives of the local Haddenham community."

"I spoke at the meeting myself, and felt a level of hostility towards my presentation from the Chairman" said David Impey. "And when I offered to provide a video clip* on a usb stick showing how busy and dangerous Aston Road can be at school drop off time, the chairman snapped 'no, you've had your chance' even before I had finished asking."

"The committee came to a decision that totally ignored Haddenham's draft Neighbourhood Plan, and this was an affront to local democracy. Michael Edmonds' chairing of that meeting was unacceptable."

In an effort to persuade his fellow residents, David has been distributing posters around Haddenham with the headline: "SHOVE — Save Haddenham, Out-Vote Edmonds". An initial set of posters was taken down by Brian Foster, (Conservative Party candidate) who pointed out that, without a clearly named publisher on the document, such political posters were illegal.

Not to be deterred, Mr Impey has now begun re-distributing his SHOVE posters around the village with his name and contact details clearly included.

If you have a view, please feel free to express that opinion in our Share & Chat forum (or perhaps via the ballot box, if you agree with Mr Impey?)

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* video clip available here