Reform are campaigning heavily against new housing in Essex, where they are hopeful of making gains when postponed local elections are held there next year.
Last weekend Nigel Farage’s party staged a march through the streets of Southend in protest at plans to build up to 10,000 new homes on green belt land between neighbouring Shoeburyness and Rochford after two local councils joined forces with developers Bellway and called for government approval.
Leader of Reform on Southend Council, Tony Cox has called the move an “utter disgrace” and the decision “morally wrong”, pointing out that the council passed a motion last December not to build on the land.
It’s not like the plans came completely out of the blue, however, having been submitted to the government as far back as 2018. And if Mr Cox wanted to check, perhaps he could ask the councillor who held the housing portfolio at the time – one, er, Tony Cox!
Cox quit the Tories last year, saying his colleagues had “behaved like savages” – he was said to be facing a leadership challenge – and briefly sat as an independent before joining Reform. Still, it was a full seven years ago, so he can be forgiven for forgetting!
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