Christopher Newbury (born 1956) is a British Conservative politician. He was a member of the Congress of the Council of Europe from 1998 to 2010 and since 2009 has been a member of the new Wiltshire Council, created that year.

Early life

Newbury was educated at Gresham's School and Keble College, Oxford.[1] In 1976, he represented the Oxford Union in the Observer Mace debating competition with Benazir Bhutto. In a Ravenscroft production of Macbeth, he played Macbeth opposite Guy Hands as Lady Macbeth.[2]

Council of Europe

Newbury was appointed to the UK Delegation to the Congress of the Council of Europe in 1998 to represent English and Welsh Independents. From 1999 he specialised in monitoring local democracy and observing elections,[3] preparing Congress reports on local democracy in Bosnia and Herzegovina (2001 and 2006),[4][5] Armenia (2003),[6] Luxembourg (2004),[7][8] Liechtenstein (2005),[9][10] Serbia (2010)[11] and Russia (2010).[12]

His report on local and regional democracy in Russia (2010) recommended the reintroduction of direct elections for regional governors, making it possible to register new political parties "without the need to demonstrate an impractically large number of members", ending the use of closed lists in elections, and measures to deal with corruption.[13]

In a report on Liechtenstein (2006), Newbury said the situation in Liechtenstein was "remarkable and indeed enviable".[14]

He also headed election observations in Kosovo (2001),[15] the Ukraine (2002),[16] Armenia (2002),[17] Gagauzia, Moldova (2003),[18] and Palestine (2005).[19] He was rapporteur for the observation of the presidential election in Serbia of 2004,[20] and for elections in Bosnia and Herzegovina in 2004,[21] and took part in other election observations.[22]

In 2000 and 2008 he represented the Congress at meetings of the Venice Commission[23][24] and in 2003 was the rapporteur of the Congress on Public Ethics at the Local Level.[25] He also served as rapporteur on the revision of the European Charter of Local Self-Government.[3][26][27] In 2007 he was against the Kyoto Protocol.[28]

He retired from the Congress in 2010.[1]

Wiltshire

The Westbury White Horse

Newbury became a member of Wiltshire County Council in 1997. He chaired the Wiltshire Victoria County History Committee from 2002[29] until its winding up in 2014.[30]

Since the 2009 election, his Wylye Valley electoral division covers the river valley south off Warminster, and parts of Salisbury Plain.[31][32] He was elected in 2013 as a Conservative, but before that stood as an Independent.[1] In 2016 he was Vote Leave Coordinator for South West Wiltshire.[1]

He has complained about the concreting of the Westbury White Horse: "Chalk is a lovely white substance. Concrete starts out pale grey and gets less and less pale grey."[33]

See also

Wiltshire Council's banner

References

  1. ^ a b c d Christopher Newbury CV at westwilts-communityweb.com
  2. ^ Kennedy, Siobhan, Business big shot: Guy Hands dated 30 July 2007, online at timesonline.co.uk
  3. ^ a b Halvdan Skard et al., 50 Years of Local Democracy in Europe (Council of Europe, 2007) (ISBN 92-871-6385-5) Page 67, books.google.com
  4. ^ CoE Recommendation 103 (2001) on local democracy in Bosnia and Herzegovina at coe.int
  5. ^ Recommendation 202 (2006) on local and regional democracy in Bosnia and Herzegovina at coe.int
  6. ^ CoE Recommendation 140 (2003) on local democracy in Armenia at coe.int
  7. ^ CoE Recommendation 172 (2005) on local democracy in Luxembourg at coe.int
  8. ^ Official report of debates: 12th session (31 May-2 June 2005) (Strasbourg, Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of Europe, Council of Europe, 2006), p. 91: "Christopher NEWBURY (United Kingdom, EPP/CD), Rapporteur, said that Luxembourg was an adult democracy that generally respected the provisions of the Charter..."
  9. ^ CoE Recommendation 196 (2006) on local democracy in Liechtenstein, at coe.int
  10. ^ Chamber of Local Authorities 14th PLENARY SESSION at coe.int
  11. ^ Monitoring of local and regional democracy in Serbia from 29 June to 1 July 2010 25 June 2010 at coe.int
  12. ^ Monitoring of local and regional democracy in Russia (Strasbourg, 15 December 2009) at coe.int
  13. ^ Local and regional democracy in the Russian Federation at coe.int
  14. ^ Official Report of Debates, 13th Session (30 May – 1 June 2006), p. 85 at books.google.com
  15. ^ CoE Report on Kosovo elections 2001 at coe.int
  16. ^ Report on Ukrainian elections 2002 at coe.int
  17. ^ Report on Armenian elections 2002 at coe.int
  18. ^ Report on Moldova elections 2003 at coe.int
  19. ^ Report on Palestinian elections 2005 at coe.int
  20. ^ Report on the observation of the presidential election in the Republic of Serbia and Montenegro (13 and 27 June 2004) at coe.int
  21. ^ Report on the Municipal Elections in Bosnia and Herzegovina (2 October 2004) at coe.int
  22. ^ Kosovo in 2000, Municipal elections in Kosovo – 28 October 2000 dated 15 December 2000 at coe.int; Montenegro in 2002, Report on the local elections in Montenegro (15 May 2002) at coe.int; Moldova in May and June 2003, Report on the local elections observation mission to MOLDOVA (25 May and 8 June 2003) at coe.int; Albania in October 2003, Report on the observation of the local elections in Albania held on 12 October 2003 at coe.int; Azerbaijan in 2004, Press release- 640 (2004) Council of Europe Congress to observe local elections in Azerbaijan (dated 16 December 2004) at coe.int, and again in 2009,Elections in Azerbaijan – 23 December 2009 Archived 26 March 2010 at the Wayback Machine at coe.int; Armenia Congress delegation declares local elections in Armenia generally satisfactory and calm dated 17 October 2005 at coe.int, and Macedonia in 2005, "Observation mission of the Congress in "the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia"]". Council of Europe. 10 March 2005. Archived from the original on 4 April 2005.; and Adjara in 2008, The elections to the Supreme Council of Adjara show sporadic progress dated Tbilisi, 4 November 2008, at coe.int
  23. ^ PLENARY MEETING Venice, 15–16 December 2000 Meeting Report Archived 14 February 2009 at the Wayback Machine at venice.coe.int
  24. ^ rapport de réunion, Venise, le 12 juin 2008 à 14 h Archived 16 February 2009 at the Wayback Machine at venice.coe.int
  25. ^ Agenda of the Chamber of Local Authorities, May 2003 at coe.int
  26. ^ Recommendation 218 (2007) on the Opening of the European Charter of Local Self-Government to the accession of the European Community and of non-member states of the Council of Europe at coe.int
  27. ^ European Committee on Local and Regional Democracy (CDLR), Meeting Report 10 June 2008 (agenda item 4.4) at coe.int
  28. ^ Official Report of Debates 14th Session. Council of Europe. 2007. 129, 131.
  29. ^ A History of the County of Wiltshire: Volume 17 (2002), pp. 14–15, Wiltshire Victoria County History Committee as at 28 February 2002, from british-history.ac.uk
  30. ^ "The Trust". Wiltshire Victoria County History. Retrieved 8 February 2022.
  31. ^ Wiltshire Boundary Review at Electoral Commission website
  32. ^ Warminster Copheap and Wylye election Archived 8 May 2013 at the Wayback Machine, wiltshire.gov.uk, May 2013
  33. ^ Savill, Richard (5 January 2001). "White horse fades to old grey mare". The Telegraph. ISSN 0307-1235. Retrieved 20 January 2019.

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