Steven Broomfield: Taking on the Lib Dems in Eastleigh

Cllr Steven Broomfield is a councillor on Eastleigh Borough Council and Hampshire County Council.

Eastleigh Borough Council sits on the outskirts of Southampton; largely urban to the north, with scattered villages and farmland to the south, and running to the Solent. The Borough has a population of over 135,000 with the town providing 24,000. Population density (1,712/square mile) is nearly four times that of England or the South East as a whole – reflecting the huge amount of development the Lib Dem-dominated council has overseen.

The Council has 39 members, 34 Lib Dems, three Independents and me as the sole Conservative (that does make Group Meetings brief and argument-free). The Leader has been in post for over a quarter of a century. He is also the Opposition Leader on Hampshire County Council.

Eastleigh operates Local Area Committees (LAC); the 14 Wards are divided into five Local Areas acting as planning committees as well as dealing with allocation of S106 money, deployment of speed indicators etc. Meetings are frequently cancelled due to lack of business. There are two Scrutiny Panels: Audit and Resource, and Policy and Performance. I am a member of the latter. Scrutiny isn’t always rigorous.

Eastleigh’s LinkedIn account describes Eastleigh as ‘medium-sized with a net Revenue Budget of £10 million’ and ‘big ambitions’. These ambitions are manifested in two ways: property speculation and One Horton Heath (OHH).

Property speculation has led to debts of around £600 million, with several recent high-profile failures. A site at Bournemouth Airport became vacant in February when the tenants, a Chinese aviation business, moved out. Purchased in 2017 (£18 million) it is now estimated to be costing £250,000 a month in charges. Taxpayers may recoup between 13 and 16 pence in the pound. A business centre adjoining the council offices, bought for £5 million ten years ago, has been vacant since January and is up for disposal at a knockdown price.

Even more spectacularly, OHH – a project to build 2,500 homes, a village centre and Primary School – has been underway since 2018 with not a home occupied. A new road, crossing the site, was opened last month, 15 months late. Offsite infrastructure, originally due to come to committee for approval in late 2021, will not begin work until before 2027. Release of the first housing for sale was recently delayed for an undisclosed time. They should have been occupied a year ago.

OHH displays the ‘big ambitions’ as hubris. Initially intended to be built by private developers as a 900-home estate with Secondary and Primary schools, the private developers walked away in 2018. Eastleigh then bought the land and set off on their own. The site is heavy clay on a flood plain and the confluence of three streams feeding the River Itchen.

Understandably, local residents are appalled. That works to my advantage as OHH is firmly in my Ward (and County Division). I took the seats in the 2021 election, running up a 600 majority on the Borough and turning an 800 Lib Dem majority into my 350 County win. In 2024 my Borough seat saw a slight increase in my vote share.

Being the only Tory isn’t huge fun. I get some support from the Independents, and between us we control our LAC (there are two Lib Dems in my Ward so the LAC is Ind 3, Lib Dem 2, Con 1) which allows us to cause some mischief. Across the Borough, the Lib Dems are not popular; turnouts are low (around 20% in the Eastleigh Town Wards) but the vote is regularly split. Greens take votes without coming close, Reform (UKIP, Referendum Party etc) take votes and keep Lib Dems in office. Labour is an irrelevance outside the Town (and little better there).

However, the Lib Dems are well-drilled, work hard and know pretty well every Lib Dem voter personally. Their vote seldom changes by more than a handful. The problem is getting a message across. I seldom deliver leaflets – all my work is done by Facebook or in person. I maintain a very active FB profile, sharing heavily to local groups, which are very supportive.

I’ve lived in my Ward for 25 years. I walk my dog two or three times a day, rarely getting round without someone stopping to speak. I use the local shops and pub. I feel safe in saying everyone knows me. For me, being part of the local community isn’t a phrase: it’s a fact of life. I even had fellow fans bending my ear when watching Eastleigh FC at Truro on a Tuesday night!

The future? Local Government Reform, obviously. Various plans have been submitted; now we wait. With the exception of Southampton (also owing millions) no-one wanted to merge with Eastleigh. Eastleigh’s preferred plan would link with Southampton and Wards taken from surrounding authorities to make more room for Eastleigh to build.

Reform? In Eastleigh they are active, but disorganised, and too busy fighting one another. That might change by next May, and my major fear is a good Reform vote allowing my County seat to revert to the Lib Dem candidate. My Borough seat isn’t up until 2028, by which time Eastleigh Borough Council will (hopefully) disappear. If I have to fight it, I’d have the same concern with Reform.

Will we win a Borough seat in 2026? No. We struggle to find candidates, and to campaign. While the Lib Dems are unpopular, they are organised and hard working and adept at driving down the turnout mostly by persuading everyone that no-one can beat them..

Unfortunately, for as long as EBC exists I see it as a Lib Dem hegemony. The Independents are secure, so long as they can find candidates to replace current members who might tire. Reform is too disorganised and Labour virtually non-existent.

Eastleigh – an ambitious council better described as a development company with a small District Council attached. The thought of being in an Eastleigh/Southampton conurbation is pretty ghastly!