William Mumford to represent Ivybridge residents on the incinerator?

Really interesting development in the incinerator saga. At Friday’s Incinerator Taskforce meeting it was announced that the Cllr William Mumford, Conservative Councillor for Yealmpton (bottom picture), has taken over responsibility for representing Ivybridge residents’ views on the proposed incinerator.  This is the latest attempt to deflect attention from the debacle surrounding local Tories’ insensitive handling of the issue and means that voters in Ivybridge will be represented by a councillor they did not elect.

Ivybridge residents elected Cllr Roger Croad (top picture) to represent their interests in 2009 but he has refused to publicly attack Viridor’s plans for an incinerator at New England Quarry.  As regular readers of my blog will know, Cllr Croad heads the Devon County Council body which is charged with locating an incinerator locally and denies there’s any conflict of interest between this and his role representing local people.

In the six months since it came to light that Cllr Croad was conflicted over the issue of the incinerator, Ivybridge Labour party repeatedly asked him to clarify his conflict of interest. To date, I have not had a response although I did see him driving through Ivybridge yesterday where he said the new arrangements would sort out the problem of him not being able to talk. Yes, that’s because he chooses not to. Resign from the incinerator job and represent Ivybridge’s residents first and foremost and he could can speak out about the incinerator all he likes. He chooses to keep his well-paid Council job. That’s his choice and it is my choice to hold him to account for it.

Ivybridge voters just want the person they elected to fight for them and oppose the incinerator. No one in Ivybridge elected William Mumford to represent them. They elected Roger Croad. He should be the one leading the fight against the incinerator, not passing on his duty to represent Ivybridge residents to his Tory chum. So, who represents Ivybridge now?

Tory policy on the incinerator is now dangerously confused. In public they’re opposed to the incinerator but it is their party policy to consider New England Quarry as a site for burning rubbish. They say they’ll represent local people yet their councillor refuses to publicly fight the incinerator despite overwhelming opposition to it locally. Now they’re handing round responsibility for representing local residents like it’s a game of pass the parcel. It is a shambles – the only people who are winning from this confusion is the people who want to build the incinerator – Viridor.

I’m sure Cllr Mumford is a good man but he’s got responsibility for Yealmpton not Ivybridge. His appointment (if that’s what it is, have you seen a Tory press released on this subject? No, I haven’t either) highlights just how conflicted the Tories know they are about the incinerator and what damage it is doing to their reputation. Yet again it is Labour who are breaking the news about the incinerator and not the Tories whose job it should be.

Now I suspect the Tories will try to claim this is normal procedure for conflicted councillors to pass responsibilities to their colleagues. If they had done this six months ago this excuse might work but they didn’t and coming only after they’ve been shamed by our campaign it is now too little, too late – and it shows our campaign is working and that they’re worried.

How can Cllr Croad give away his duty of representing local people? It is a disgrace that the Tories are carving up local democracy to suit themselves. Cllr Croad needs to quit his incinerator job and start fighting the incinerator properly before it is too late. I hope the local press ask some very difficult questions on this matter.

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