Lib Dems Force KCC U-Turn on Brogdale

9.00.00am GMT Wed 13th Feb 2008

Local Lib Dems have welcomed the announcement that the national fruit collection at Brogdale Farm will remain in Swale. However without the intervention of the KCC Lib Dem Leader Cllr Trudy Dean, they would have been lost. When Trudy was approached by members of the Friends of the Brogdale Fruit Collection, she forced the issue onto KCC's Scrutiny Committee who agreed to write to Government as a matter of urgency in support of keeping the internationally known collection on its current site at Brogdale.

The Committee decided to take the view of Trudy Dean and reject the position taken earlier by Conservative Cabinet Member, Cllr Roger Gough, who had advised DEFRA that KCC supported removing the collection from Brogdale to East Malling.

Under questioning from Trudy, Cllr Gough admitted that he had found the decision 'difficult'. He accepted that he ignored the objections of Swale Borough Council and the local members and agreed he should have consulted more widely. Members of all parties also agreed to ask the Leader of the Council Paul Carter, who is understood to have been aware of Cllr Gough's letter, to reconsider his position and asked Roger Gough to withdraw his letter.

Trudy Dean said,

"It is a damning criticism of KCC's Cabinet system that Cllr Gough wrote his letter on behalf of Kent County Council without his decision becoming known to the rest of us until now. Given the international reputation of Brogdale and its importance to the economy of Kent, it is even more outrageous that he took a decision without proper advice."