Campaigners have struck back at MP Sir Geoffrey Cox's unwarranted criticism of Torridge District Council in relation to a controversial housing development in Winkleigh. The former Attorney General blamed the Council for failing to have a 5-year supply of land for housing. In November 2019, Torridge published a joint report with North Devon at which identified land supply for 6.4 years.^[1] However, since March 2020, when a decision went through on appeal in relation to a development of 181 homes in Torrington, the Council has been forced to look more favourably on proposals outside the area designated by the Local Plan. Ken James, leader of Torridge District Council has explained that, although Torridge has sufficient land allocated for housing, if for whatever reason the number of houses delivered is below target, developers are able to challenge the Local Plan and bring forward sites that do not fully conform with it.^[2] In the case of the Winkleigh development, this is what happened.

It is outrageous that whilst millions of people suffer and crops are lost, water company execs reward themselves with these bonuses despite not even bothering to fix leaks.

Serving on a committee is one of many great ways you can support the Party, and we are always keen to encourage new talent. The Party website has lots of information in the internal-elections hub.

We have upcoming Federal elections for:

• The Federal President
• The Federal Vice President responsible for working with ethnic minority Communities
• 3 members of the Federal Board (note the reforms to the structure of the Board summarised here)
• 21 members of Federal Council
• 15 members of Federal Policy Committee
• 12 members of Federal Conference Committee
• 6 members of the Federal International relations Committee
• 10 Delegates to the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe

With our Brighton conference approaching (agenda and registration here), I've recently written the latest report back to conference on the Board's work. Here is a slightly expanded and updated version of that report.

The next general election

With a new Conservative Party leader nearly upon us, the range of plausible dates for the general election is wide open. As it now may well be much sooner than seemed likely at the time of our last conference, the Federal Board has been reviewing our general election plans.