Parish says yes to EU referendum

7:18am Friday 21st September 2007

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RESIDENTS of a Purbeck village voted for a referendum on a new EU treaty, posing a possible headache to Gordon Brown.

East Stoke parish was among the first parishes in the country to exercise its right to vote over the referendum treaty on Thursday night, through the 1972 Local Government Act.

This obliges a council to hold a poll if 10 members of the parish council vote on any subject.

The referendum, entitled Do you want a referendum on the proposed new EU treaty?', was orchestrated by the Campaign Alliance for Referendums in Parishes, which is affiliated to Ukip and a number of members supported the poll.

The result was 90 per cent voted in favour and 10 per cent were against a referendum.

East Stoke resident and Ukip member John Barnes predicted a yes' vote before the polls were opened and residents began registering their decisions at the Dorset River Centre.

He said: "We are the first parish in the country to become involved but I imagine it will now be rolled out across the country.

"I think it is imperative that the public utilises its democratic vote.

"This is the 11th hour of the 11th day because if the government signs this treaty there will be no escaping from Europe.

"We would be losing our 1,000-year-old legal system and we would simply become a region of Europe instead of a country.

"This is why the French, the Dutch and the North East of England have said yes'.

"There would no longer be a Purbeck District Council or Dorset Council and the south west would be run by an unelected assembly based in Exeter."

He added that some of the parish's 330-plus residents may have opposed the poll because of the cost involved.

South Dorset Parliamentary candidate for the Conservatives Richard Drax is hoping it will have a knock-on effect across the region.

He said: "Whatever the turnout, the residents of East Stoke are sending out a clear message to the government to stand by their word over the referendum."

The EU treaty has been proposed to secure maximum agreement from its 27 member states to meet the demands posed by enlargement.

• The Daily Echo posed the same question in an online poll on Thursday. As we went to press 78 per cent saying yes' they wanted a referendum on the proposed new EU treaty and 22 per cent said no'. Add your voice in the poll above