Residents Groups Marginalised By Political Participation

Letter To the Evening Advertiser: Groups’ vital role (Published 2nd Sept 2011)

In a recent Swindon Advertiser article members of the Eastcott Community Council, with the support of local councillors, have suggested that it may cease if the community does not show support.

Unfortunately, residents’ associations across Swindon have been marginalised by political participation that can only serve to alienate a large section of the community from participating.

Of the four Eastcott residents’ associations, two are chaired by councillors, one is regularly promoted in conjunction with the local councillors and the fourth has managed to remain neutral.

Unless Swindon residents’ associations can detach themselves from the local councillors, or any political body for that matter, they will not be taken seriously by those disillusioned by the political process or by those who are not supporters of that particular Party.

A resident’s association must have, and be seen to have, unfettered universal public access in order to gain the trust of the local community.

It is right that councillors and council officers should attend residents’ association meetings, but they should not be setting the agenda, hold positions on the committee or attempt to hijack the meeting for their own ends.

Furthermore, these meetings should not be seen as an opportunity for political self-promotion, information gathering for political leaflet drops or a substitute for councillor surgeries, as seems to be the case.

It must be a priority for all residents associations to evolve constitutionally in order to ensure that they throw off political ties in order to gain broader acceptance and support.

Residents’ associations should not measure their success against attendance numbers.

Lower numbers may suggest that the local residents are relatively content or are able to resolve issues through other channels.

It is more important for the residents’ associations to be accessible and ready to act should a local issue arise.

A prime example would be the Croft Area Residents’ Association, whose attendance at their last meeting exceeded 150 due to the issue of the proposed new school.

I wish the Eastcott Community Council well and hope it continues to represent the local community.

Chris Watts Dunsford Close Eastcott Labour Party

Magpie Lib Dems Steal Credit For First Kingshill Crossing

In 1984 Margaret Thatcher survived an assassination attempt when the Provisional IRA bombed the Grand Hotel in Brighton, Band Aid  was founded  by Bob Geldof and Midge Ure to raise money for famine relief in Ethiopia and the late and much respected Eastcott Councillor Keith Small (Lab) delivered the Great Kingshill Crossing (later to be known as the first Kingshill Crossing) in the backdrop of a Conservative controlled Wiltshire County Council (WCC).

Nearly 27 years later, prior to the May 2011 local elections, it came as a shock to senior members of the Labour Group that the local Liberal Democrats would shamelessly claim credit for the installation of the Kingshill crossing in 1984 and attempt to rewrite history in a way that would have made Stalin proud. Those who worked with Labour Cllr Keith Small recounted his tireless efforts to deliver the crossing on behalf of a group of mothers who had come together with this aim.

A 2011 pre-election Lib Dem leaflet had a named picture of a mother with her Children, attributing to her this statement:

“The Lib Dems got the first Crossing on Kinghill and are working hard to get the second.”

Also, in a 2011 pre-election letter to residents the Lib Dems stated that:

“In the 80s the Liberals were in control of the County and we got the First Crossing.”

The claims are demonstrably untrue as the installation of the crossing, as confirmed by an FOI, happened on 9th Aug 1984. On this date the WCC was under the control of the Conservatives and the Eastcott Councillor was Cllr Keith Small (Labour).

I find it deeply disturbing that the Lib Dems would attribute their untruths to an unsuspecting member of the public (along with a picture) who was unaware of the facts when I challenged her on the claim.

I am not suggesting that the fresh faced political activist Stan Pajak was not involved in the campaign back in the 80s, as was Frank Richards (Con) and Mike Bawden (Con) as demonstrated in this 1983 leaflet, but for the Lib Dems to make the above claim is nothing short of misleading to the electorate of Eastcott.

Backgound information:

Freedom of Information Request FOI 101000275336

Question 5. On what date was the Kingshill Road Pelican Crossing installed.

Answer – The Pelican crossing was installed 9th August 1984. It was upgraded to a Puffin crossing on 22nd Mar 2004.

Stan Pajak term of office start date: 02/05/1985

Wiltshire County Council Under Conservative Control: May 1981 to May 1985:

Dixon Street: A Curious Lib Dem Motion for Eastcott

The Eastcott Labour team’s success in helping residents of Dixon Street to reclaim their alleyway seems to have awoken the local Liberal Democrat Councillors to a problem that has existed in Eastcott Ward, under their watch, for many years. The Eastcott Labour Team successful actions in Dixon Street have spurred the Liberal Democrats to put forward the following motion to the July 2011 Full Council.

Councillor Dave Wood will move:“Following the precedent set to clear the un-adopted alleyway behind Dixon Street, this Council resolves to: Ask Cabinet to consider clearing the two similar long-term problem sites behind Dover Street and behind Shelley Street and to work with residents on all three sites to encourage and facilitate placement of a gate to stop such problems being repeated in the future.

Unfortunately the Liberal Democrats have completely missed the point. They have not engaged with the Eastcott Labour Team or indeed the residents of Dixon Street as to how we achieved our goal. A precedent was not set as suggested by the Liberal Democrats in the above motion. Residents, in cooperation with a member of the Eastcott Labour Team, removed and bagged the materials from the alleyway for the council to collect at an agreed place and time. This Liberal Democrats misconception has resulted in a ill conceived Council motion that is based on the incorrect assumption that the council cleared rubbish from private land. This sends out completely the wrong message to the residents of Eastcott who wish to reclaim their alleyways.

Eastcott Labour are concerned with this “bull in a china shop” approach by the Lib Dem councillors. By raising this motion they have politicised an exemplary example of co-operation between residents, the council, SCS and Eastcott Labour that achieved a positive outcome. This approach is likely to cause the Council and SCS to rethink its current working practises. This would be to the detriment of all the groups who currently benefit from similar partnerships in other wards, such as Central and Western Labour wards.

The Labour Group will forward an amendment to the rash Lib Dem motion in order to limit damage that may be caused, stating:

“The Council congratulates SCS for its cooperation with concerned citizens when they wish to take direct action to remove spoil from public and private land that endangers health and blights the environment.”

We hope that the Lib Dems will see sense and support the amendment or withdraw the motion outright.

UPDATE:

The motion was amended by the Labour Group and seconded  by the Conservative lead member for StreetSmart. Councillors advised the Lib Dems councillors of Eastcott that a precedent had not been set. When challenged as to why Lib Dem Councillors had not been active in clearing rubbish in partnership with residents in this way in the past, Cllr Stan Pajak shouted that they had. This begs the question as to why the Lib Dems thought a precedent had been set in Dixon Street.

It was also question as to why the Lib Dems thought it necessary to bring this to Full Council as a motion, with one councillor suggesting it was for the purpose of having something to put in their leaflets.

A BIG THANK YOU TO EASTCOTT

Best Result in 21 Years

I would like to extend my thanks to all the residents of Eastcott. We have been overwhelmed by the support and extremely pleased with the result that saw Labour’s best performance in Eastcott for 21 years. With a swing of +17% since 2008 and a 35% share of the vote, this give us great heart as we continue to serve the community.

Graph supplied by Bogomil

Ed Miliband Helps Out in Eastcott

Many thanks to Ed Miliband and his team for helping out with a bit of door knocking in Eastcott. The residents of Kent Road and Ashford Road were very welcoming and many issues were covered. This topped off an excellent day after a question and answer session with Ed at the New College in the morning.

Swindon WiFi found Wanting (Letter To Swindon Advertiser)

Published Fri 11th Feb 2011

I AM perplexed as to why the council and directors of Digital City continually state that the Wifi project has been over scrutinised. Public scrutiny has found the Wifi initiative to be wanting in many respects.

In its inception Digital City was incorporated with the wrong directors. Shares were allocated to the wrong companies; including a company in the tax haven of the Isle of Man. Digital City had no tangible track record in this marketplace or viable credit ratings to secure a £450,000 loan. The business plan was beyond over-ambitious and the process that the council used to proceed lacked transparency.

These fundamental errors demonstrate a complete failure to apply basic due diligence by the council.

I am concerned to hear that the deputy leader of the council would like to see similar projects excluded from the scrutiny process in future.

All these errors and more were discovered through public scrutiny. If it was not for the combative and evasive siege mentality of the council in answering relatively simple questions, then scrutiny would not have taken so long. To suggest that the failure of the project was due to excessive public scrutiny is a distraction. The project has failed to achieve, or get close to, any milestone on its own merits.

I sincerely hope that the council can successfully conclude Rod Bluh’s Wifi rescue bid and that the company that will take over wifi has the relevant experience and adequate financial backing to move the project forward without political interference.

FairFares4Swindon.com launched

www.fairfares4swindon.com

In this time of austerity, it will be imperative for the economic wellbeing of Swindon that we attract new business to offset the loss of jobs in the public sector. The West country will be hit hard in 2011 and many local organisations such as the FSB (Federation of Small Businesses), Swindon Chamber of Commerce and SSEP (Swindon Strategic Economic Partnership) will be working hard to ensure that we can attract the private sector companies to pick up the slack.

When I attended the Council Scrutiny meeting in November 2010, I was shocked to hear the Council state that companies that had refused to relocate to Swindon had cited the high cost of rail travel as a primary reason. First Great Western officials present at the meeting were unmoved by this claim and suggested that we receive good value for money in our train service.

Swindon is in a unique position of being the gateway to the south west  and Wales and should be a viable commuter town for those working in London. These links are ideally suited for companies that would relocate outside London in order to reduce costs in these times of austerity whilst maintaining good links with the Capital.

If excessive rail fares are a barrier to the future economic growth of Swindon, then we must challenge this head-on. We have the full support of the Local Labour group, the MP for South Swindon, Lord Will and the FSB. We hope to join the FSB in lobbying Parliament in the near future.

This is not a campaign that seeks to simply reduce the cost of rail travel for a handful of commuters. We seek to attain fair ticket pricing that will benefit the socio-economic wellbeing of all who live and work in Swindon with additional employment and inward investment.