A COUNCILLOR who represented Whitchurch, Overton and Laverstoke in Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council has resigned.

Ian Tilbury become a councillor in 2002 and has now resigned from his position 20 years on and claims he 'no longer had any power' over the borough.

He said “I have done it for 20 years and you reach a point now when the council has got so little influence over anything it is just a waste of time."

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He continued: “We lost control over the council houses; we still had some influence over the housing plan but that’s gone. I used to work well with the local police round here, but the community of police officers has gone so we don’t really have any involvement with them and we can’t really do much at all.”

He said the local plan update is like “watching a film you have already seen” and he has been through three of them.

He added: “You just see a council in my eyes who have just lost the plot with no ambition for the borough and when I started Festival Place had just been finished and you could see the council working for the residents and I just don’t see that anymore.”

He said he has recently been expected to cover the whole of Whitchurch as well as Overton, which is “bigger than Overton” which “doubled his workload” and he “can’t achieve anything anymore”.

Despite this leader of the council, Cllr Simon Bound said communication with the "local police is still there".

Cllr Bound said the local plan update is always a 'difficult thing to do'.

He added: "There is something that people often forget with Basingstoke and Deane that we are a district council so what we are responsible for is limited whether that's planning or collecting the waste and there are lots of other things we try and influence.

"What we have influence on has changed a lot since Ian was originally a councillor."

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Mr Tilbury recalled several career highlights including helping with getting Bombay Sapphire set up, which was originally going to be a housing development.

He added: “Instead we got a really big tourist attraction and one that employs people providing work.

"I also managed to get the Ukraine flag flying over the council officers, which was about the only thing I managed to achieve this year.”

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