Central Hove Liberal Democrat candidate, Jeremy Gale, is demanding a full and public apology from Green Party Councillor, Christopher Hawtree, following his “distasteful” remarks towards local Port Newhaven.
Cllr Hawtree is a councillor for the Central Hove Ward on Brighton & Hove City Council and is the Greens Prospective Parliamentary Candidate at the General Election in 2015.
Cllr Hawtree labelled Newhaven as being ‘grim’ on his social network Twitter account and, in so doing, has caused key partners in the City Deal to fall out, jeopardising tens of millions of pounds worth of investment for Brighton and Hove and the surrounding areas.
Liberal Democrat, Jeremy Gale, said:
“Cllr Hawtree needs to make a full and public apology, not only out of respect to those people living in Newhaven, but for the sake of the City Deal.
“Up until now he has decided to hide behind the remarks made by Cllr Kitkat which is simply not good enough.
“He should take ownership for his remarks, apologise and hope that the bridges between Lewes and Brighton Councils can be rebuilt for the good of the City Deal”.
Norman Baker, Minster of State at the Home Office who represents Newhaven at Westminster said:
“This councillor is clearly completely ill informed. He should spend more time concentrating on his own patch.
Mayor of Newhaven, Cllr Julie Carr, continued:
“I think Brighton has problems of its own at the moment and this councillor should concentrate on those rather than sticking his noise where it isn’t wanted.
“He clearly knows nothing about Newhaven and should mind his own business.
Cllr Hawtree has been contacted by email and asked to respond to the Lib Dem demand.
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