Warwickshire’s Reform-led council, with its teenage leader, is back in the news again. This time it’s about its transport policy.
The meeting concerned was called in order to try and encourage Reform councillor Nigel Golby, who holds the portfolio for transport and planning, to provide some detail as to how he intends to spend the £66 million local transport grant.
In the event, Golby apparently sat in near-perfect silence throughout the whole meeting, moving Lib Dem councillor RIchard Dickson to note that:
His silence is deafening and he should be under no illusion that the clock is ticking
But plenty of other folk spoke up during the debate.
Leader of the council, George Finch, made it known that he believes cycle lanes are a waste of money
I do want to note my major concern with these cycle lanes. I believe they are a waste of taxpayers’ money, people don’t really use them so what is the point?
Others disagree, with Councillor Boad asking him the fair question “What on earth makes you think that?”. Either no reason was forthcoming, or Warwickshire World didn’t report it).
Finch also is, of course, against anything associated with that bogey-man phase all the Reformers are so scared of – “net zero” – saying there and then that he was going to cut net zero initiatives “to the bone”.
Luckily for the rest of us, despite Reform’s professed hatred of all things net zero and cycle related, it turns out that Finch and his Reform colleagues all joined their fellow councillors in reaffirming their commitment to both the cycle lane and net zero adjacent policies – whether through incompetence or hypocrisy who knows, but let’s take the win where we can.