Council candidate Andrew Renshaw slams Hart newsletter article

Andrew Renshaw, who will stand as Conservative candidate for the Hartley Wintney ward, said the article in the latest edition of Hart District Council’s Hart News, was an “insult” to ratepayers.

The article records that Councillor Stephen Parker was elected as the new leader for the district council in December last year, after the resignation of Cllr Ken Crookes. But the article does not mention why Cllr Crookes resigned.

Instead, Cllr Parker praises his predecessor’s record as leader.

As reported in The Gazette, Cllr Crookes resigned in November over the decision to test Winchfield as a site to build thousands of new homes.

He handed in his resignation after failing to get support at a full council meeting to remove Winchfield from a preferred housing strategy plan.

The plan to test the village as a site for a new town is opposed by many villagers but supported by some members of the district council, who claim it could bring infrastructure improvements, such as a new secondary school.

Mr Renshaw, a former newspaper editor and opponent of the Winchfield development, said: “I really do think it is a disgrace.

“It’s an insult to Ken, but it’s also an insult to readers and residents if they are not told the truth about something.

“He resigned on a point of principle. I think it’s a disgraceful thing to do to Ken, and a disgraceful bit of propaganda to put out, and it does no-one any good.”

Fellow Conservative Cllr Parker told The Gazette that such criticism was “an overreaction at best”.

He said: “Hart News exists to give information about what it is up to, to the people who are paying the council’s way.

“It is not there to promote an individual councillor’s views against another individual councillor’s views.

“I am sure it would be important to some people, but I’m not sure it was something that was at the top of most people’s minds. It’s not a secret and was well publicised at the time.”