Conservatives have criticised the Green and Labour Parties for refusing to back a proposal that would have required officials to rethink the location of the March for England and associated counter-protest on April 27.
At last weeks (March 27) Full Council meeting the Conservative Group Leader, Geoffrey Theobald, and Deputy Leader, Dee Simson, tabled a Notice of Motion asking the authorities to reconsider allowing the march and counter-protest to take place on the seafront and city centre, where it does so much damage to local businesses.
Both Green and Labour Groups failed to support the motion and so the march and counter-protest will proceed as originally planned on the seafront causing chaos and damage to many businesses.
Cllr. Theobald said: “I am completely baffled as to why the Green and Labour Parties are not even prepared to ask the authorities to consider a less damaging location for this event. I had an e-mail yesterday from a seafront hotel owner who was in despair about the prospect of once again losing thousands of pounds in takings, as he did last year, as a result of having to close due to the march. There will be thousands of visitors in the city that weekend for the Jaguar Car Rally and the Homes and Gardens Exhibition at the Brighton Centre. What an embarrassment for this city that they will undoubtedly have to witness the ugly scenes that have marred this event in previous years. Frankly I wouldn’t blame them if they decided to go elsewhere.”
Cllr. Simson added: “We tried to get a cross-party consensus on this extremely sensitive issue so it is very unfortunate that the Green and Labour Groups don’t feel it is worth trying to go that extra mile to get this dreadful event moved from our shop window. We have simply been pointing out that the counter-demonstrations just exacerbate the situation and encourage the nationalist marchers to keep coming back every year. If the march were moved to a less high profile location it would take away a lot of the attraction for them and I’m sure they would soon find somewhere else to go.”
Labour claim there was supposed to be a cross-party motion on this but the Greens and Tories couldn’t agree on the wording.
Cllr Gill Mitchell, Chair of the Overview & Scrutiny Committee, said: “We were disappointed that instead of uniting with the other two political parties on the council to send a strong message that this march is not wanted in the city, the Tories have chosen instead to get political capital from it.
“We are clear that the EDL is not welcome in our city and deplore the disruption to businesses, residents and visitors that their march always brings.”
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