Cllr Phil Bullivant, writes:

Your report in the MDA last week, Ousted from role – before he takes it up!, was far from the mark and factually incorrect,

Prior to being appointed to the TDC executive and being made portfolio holder for the leisure and recreation activities of TDC I was leading the review group on behalf of the oversight and scrutiny (O&S) committee providing feedback on off-street car parking issues.

Being made an executive member requires me give up this O&S role although I retain executive responsibility for off-street car parking.

With the knowledge gained chairing the O&S committee, I recognised that the group focused on the longer term issues. We operated very effectively as a non-partisan group representing all on the council.

However, there are short-term issues that arise that require a much more focused and urgent attention, a subsequent example being the one we saw last week with travellers invading one of our car parks where it would have been helpful to involve and use the group to test ideas and communicate to all councillors and the public.

The only political decision taken in the last seven years for car parks has been the delivery of free Sunday parking across the district, a decision made by the Conservative group.

It was therefore on a non-partisan basis that I wanted to invite the O&S group to work with me on addressing the day-to-day issues as well as the longer-term ones so that everyone was kept in the decision making loop. I had agreed that any decisions made by the group would be scrutinised by O&S in exactly the same way that the group has done up to now. It made little sense to have two identical groups working on the same issues.

My suggestion was discussed and endorsed by the group and no one from this group opposed or voted against my proposal during the meeting.

Unfortunately, the senior members of the Lib Dems sought to make political capital out of the plans despite the negative impact it might have on the electorate as they have done a number of times in the recent past.

I will continue to ensure that, on behalf of residents, Teignbridge delivers low-cost parking across the district and delivers solutions that we need in our towns and I will work with the new group to do this even though the Lib Dem senior team are happy not to have involvement with the urgent short-term issues.