At today's full council South Cambridgeshire district councillors voted overwhelmingly to support the Save Milton Country Park campaign but only after voting to remove a section from the motion which condemned their own cabinet for deciding to close it on 31st August 2007 if no one could be found to take it off their hands.

The motion originally proposed by Hazel Smith and Richard Summerfield read:

This Council congratulates the volunteers behind the Save Milton Country Park campaign on raising the issue of the future of the Park to front page news in the local paper. This Council supports the Save Milton Country Park campaign and deplores the decision taken by Cabinet to instruct officers to close the park if no suitable partnership to take on the management of the park could be arranged or appeared likely by 31st August.

It was amended by cabinet members Vicky Ford and Simon Edwards so that it read:

This Council congratulates the volunteers behind the Save Milton Country Park campaign on raising the issue of the future of the Park to front page news in the local paper. This Council supports the aims of the Save Milton Country Park campaign to keep MCP open and encourages all parties to work together to find a long term partnership for the management of the park.

And that amendment was passed by 29 votes to 17. The new second sentence made the motion hard to vote against and the amended motion was then carried by an overwhelming majority with only two councillors voting against.

Speaking after watching the debate Paul Oldham for the campaign said "we're very disappointed, many councillors had told our supporters they would support the motion but when it came to it they participated in ripping it to shreds. The motion they finally voted on was so watered down I'm surprised it wasn't passed unanimously".

Written: 25/01/07

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