Two Derbyshire Conservative councillors quitting the party to start their own group
Two Derbyshire Conservative councillors are quitting the party to start their own group, claiming some of their former colleagues have “forgotten where they come from”.
Cllrs Gareth Gee and Nigel Edwards-Walker, Conservative members of Derbyshire Dales District Council, are quitting the party to start their own new group – Derbyshire First.
The councillors, who represent Bakewell and the Dovedale, Parwich & Brassington wards respectively, have made the move following a stark local election campaign for the Conservatives.
This move leaves the Conservative group on the district council, which was Tory-led for most of the past 50 years until May 2023 – when a progressive alliance led by the Lib Dems took control – down to nine councillors.
Cllr Gee stood in last week’s Derbyshire County Council elections as Conservative candidate in Matlock but was unsuccessful, with Liberal Democrat Sue Burfoot winning the seat.
He told the Local Democracy Reporting Service that he had considered leaving the Conservatives prior to the election and running under the new Derbyshire First banner but held out.
Cllr Gee lives in Crich and was formerly a member of Amber Valley Borough Council, at one point the Conservative group’s deputy leader, but said he could not continue being a member of a party which would support issues that did not match Tory values.
He said the core aim of the new Derbyshire First party, which he hopes will expand with membership across the county over the next two years, is to fight against the new housing targets and to ensure districts and boroughs are not divided through local government reorganisation.
In the Derbyshire Dales, the council has had its housing targets increased from 216 per year to 580 – one of the largest increases in the country – but it must meet this through around half the land mass within its borders, due to the Peak District National Park accounting for the rest.
Cllr Gee said: “Derbyshire is going to be over-developed with the new Labour housing targets and already in the Derbyshire Dales they are looking at a new spatial strategy that involves 14,000 new homes and potentially a new settlement of 10,000 homes.
“People have stopped listening to the Conservatives. I have been a Conservative councillor since 2011 and have supported the party since Thatcher times.
“The party has lost its Conservative values in certain areas. I have had the situation in the Derbyshire Dales where Conservatives have voted for things that are not Conservative.
“I am trying to attract a broad spectrum of people and hopefully we will grow over the next two years.”
He said a key theme would be local government reorganisation and said that forming one council for all of Derbyshire – re-absorbing Derby – would be the best approach that has not been considered.
Cllr Gee said any smaller unitary council that includes Derby – such as a north/south divide of two councils – would see Derby issues take precedent and see it act as an expansion of the city.
He said the potential new reorganisation of two north and south councils could have major implications for Matlock, which has “long been a civic centre” including headquarters for the county council and district council.
Cllr Gee said a northern council would likely be led from Chesterfield and would see other areas, including Ripley in Amber Valley, lose out, with large public buildings left for reuse.
He said: “This is not a decision I have made lightly but it is the right time for me at this part of my career. Politics needs to change and be more local.”
Cllr Gee said: “I quite like Kemi Badenoch (Conservative leader), I voted for her, but she is on a hiding to nothing, it is a poisoned chalice she inherited. This not about her leadership but about the party altogether.
“Some of my Conservative colleagues need to get their act together and remember where they come from.”
Cllr Edmunds-Walker was approached for comment but has not responded as of this article’s publication.
Cllr Sue Hobson, former group leader and now deputy leader of the Dales Conservative group, said: “We will continue to hold the Lib Dem alliance to account on issues such as their inability to secure a permanent Traveller site and the planning development objection withdrawal at the Wolds.
“It is a shame that individuals who have been voted in by residents just two years ago have broken that trust and changed their political allegiance.
“Rest assured that Derbyshire Dales Conservatives will continue to work hard for their residents.”