Councillor Urges Shepway Council to Call for EU Referendum
Cllr Rory Love (Conservative, Harvey West ward) is to propose a motion at next week’s full Council meeting which calls upon the Government to give Shepway residents a voice over the proposed EU Reform Treaty by holding a nationwide referendum.
In the debate, Cllr Love will argue that residents of Shepway have a unique relationship with Europe. As well as being the only District in the UK connected to Europe by dry land, its residents have benefited from the sports, tourism and regeneration initiatives of the Boulogne and Shepway Co-operation Association which Rory Love co-founded in 2002. Yet he will also argue that building and sustaining a positive relationship with Europe requires people to have a say over what powers Europe should have, and over the nature of the relationship.
Rory Love will ask:
“How on the one hand can Shepway District Council empower people to have a greater voice over their own community, as we have done with our support for residents of Greatstone to have their own parish council, yet on the other hand sit idly by while Gordon Brown denies our residents a say over the transfer of more powers to Brussels? People have a right to have their voice heard, and I believe their local council should champion their call for a referendum. And after all, Labour did promise us one before the last general election.”
The text of Cllr Rory Love’s motion to the Full Council meeting on Wednesday 31st October 2007 is:
“This Council calls on Prime Minister Gordon Brown to honour the commitment given in the Labour Party’s 2005 general election manifesto and give Shepway’s residents a voice on the EU Reform Treaty by holding a national referendum.”
23rd October 2007
“ People have a right to have their voice heard, and their local council should champion their call for a referendum ”