Tuesday, 19 July 2011

Stony Stratford defers vote after 200 demonstrate


(i) Stony Stratford Town Council does not condone smoking and the health risks associated with it. This Council seeks to reduce the amount of litter in our streets and to protect our historic town from germs, general nuisance and the possibility of young people in particular being burnt by cigarettes.
(ii) Stony Stratford Town Council wishes to encourage all businesses in the town and, in doing so, to recognize the leading role they and residents can play in preventing the spread of disease, injury, litter, smoke, illnesses such as asthma, lung cancer and the narrowing of arteries, heart disease and its unpleasant other side effects and including the impact discarded cigarettes have on residents of Market Sq and High St in particular and children who have to put up with this 24hrs a day.
(iii) Stony Stratford Town Council seeks the implementation of a full street smoking ban within the Town Council area of Stony Stratford, Milton Keynes.

Until 20 September ... don't let them push it under the carpet!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Only the 3rd item above has been postponed until September. The other 2 will still be voted on tonight

Eddie D said...

Councillor Paul Bartlett's smoking ban proposals were the main item on the agenda last night at the Stony Stratford Town Council meeting.

Members of the public were invited to speak on the matter before the proposals were voted on by the Town Council.

Councillor Paul Bartlett's motions were later rejected by the Town Council. Nobody present was prepared to second either of the two motions that were on the agenda for the meeting. As a result, the proposals were discarded and did not need to be debated on further by the Town Council.

Here are the two proposals that were on the agenda for last night;

i) Stony Stratford Town Council does not condone smoking and the health risks associated with it. This Council seeks to reduce the amount of litter in our streets and to protect our historic town from germs, general nuisance and the possibility of young people in particular being burnt by cigarettes.
ii) Stony Stratford Town Council wishes to encourage all businesses in the town and, in doing so, to recognize the leading role they and residents can play in preventing the spread of disease, injury, litter, smoke, illnesses such as asthma, lung cancer and the narrowing of arteries, heart disease and its unpleasant other side effects and including the impact discarded cigarettes have on residents of Market Sq and High St in particular and children who have to put up with this 24hrs a day.
A third proposal, detailed below, was withdrawn from the agenda prior to the meeting last night at Councillor Bartlett's request. Councillor Bartlett would now like this motion to be discussed and voted on at the Town Council Meeting on 20th September, 2011

iii) Stony Stratford Town Council seeks the implementation of a full street smoking ban within the Town Council area of Stony Stratford, Milton Keynes.
Members of the public were invited to speak before the proposals were voted on by the Town Council. Several people took the opportunity including Ross Ellens (from the Stony Stratford Business Association), Stuart Moore (who was instrumental in organising the protest in the town on Saturday) and Father Ross Northing (from the St Mary & St Giles Church) were joined by a number of local resident. All the speakers raised objections to the proposed smoking ban. None of them were in favour of it.
One speaker asked for a show of hands to see how many people in the room supported Councillor Bartlett's proposals. There were around 150 people in attendance and only 2 people raised their hands - one of those was Councillor Bartlett himself.

When it became apparent that nobody was prepared to second Councillor Bartlett's proposals, there were calls from some members of the public for him to also withdraw the proposal that had been moved to the 20th September. Other people were calling on Councillor Bartlett to resign from his position on the Town Council.

As it stands, Councillor Bartlett's third proposal, the one calling for a smoking ban in Stony Stratford, is still on the agenda for the meeting on the 20th September. However after his first two motions were dismissed, it appears highly unlikely that the third motion will receive any support from the Town Council.

The Chairman, Councillor Robert Gifford and the rest of the Town Council should be applauded for the way that they handled last night's meeting. Cllr Gifford kept order in the meeting even when tensions were running high. The Town Council listened to the people and the businesses of Stony Stratford and then dealt with Councillor Bartlett's proposals accordingly.



http://www.aboutmyarea.co.uk/Buckinghamshire/Milton-Keynes/MK11/News/Local-News/201746-Stony-Stratford-Town-Council-Rejects-Bartletts-Proposals