Huge cycle lane dilemma for Southport Councillors.Cycle lane argy-bargy

Southport journalist Martin Hovden writes: The escalating war of words between opponents of Sefton Council's plan for more cycle lanes in the town took an extraordinary turn today (Friday) when a senior local authority councillor suggested the consultation process had been rigged by its opponents.

It's extremely unusual for a politician to be critical of the public (ie voters), but this what Sefton's John Fairclough, referring to the consultation results, said this morning: “There were some unusual outcomes including multiple, and in one case 19, submissions from a single IP address and people responding to every single question with 'strongly disagree'.

“My concern is that the genuine views of the people of Southport might have been hijacked in a co-ordinated response by people who don't want to see these walking and cycling schemes go ahead.”

And throwing more oil on the fire, he added: “Those who took part in the consultation seem to have been mainly people who fit a certain profile.”

Certain profile? Hijacked? Whichever way you look at it, Cllr Fairclough is accusing the public of trying to fix the survey results.

Understandably, the plan's opponents have deluged social media with their outrage at the councillor's accusations. And it's a fierce debate that's likely to run until the survey results are discussed by the council next month.

But let's take a closer look at the politics involved.

Sefton Council is run by Labour. Cllr Fairclough is a Labour cabinet member – from Linacre in south Sefton (don't rush to have a go at me for mentioning his ward location - bear with me.)

The idea and money for the cycle lanes have come from the government – run by Boris Johnson and the Tories.

And one of the Facebook pages set up to oppose the plan is run by Sinclair Hesketh d'Albuquerque and Thomas de Freitas. Fine. But nowhere on their campaign Facebook page does it say they are attached to any political party. Until you start digging and discover that Sinclair is a Southport Tory councillor and Thomas is a former Tory candidate and works full-time for Southport Tory MP Damien Moore.

So local Tories, including Tory MP Damien Moore, oppose a scheme thought up and developed by the Tories?

One of the accusations made against Labour is that they spend all the council money in south Sefton. Cllr Fairclough (representing a south Sefton ward, as I said) can now justifiably say: I want to give Southport thousands of pounds to make the town safer and more green, but you keep throwing it back in my face.

Now let's look at Labour. They have made great strides in Southport local elections in recent years and came a very respectable second in the last general election.

So we have a controversial plan being pushed by the council's controlling Labour Group. The big question is: will Southport's Labour councillors follow party lines and support the plan and will they be rebels and vote against it?

And the Liberal Democrats in the town? The most positive comment I've seen today comes from Lib Dem leader and former MP John Pugh. He predicts there will have to be compromises and changes, which hopefully will be agreed with common sense. He's right.

And the plans to turn parts of the town centre into a “liveable area”?

That's another controversy for another day.

Who said local politics are boring?