Living life on the edge

ON a windy but warm and sunny evening, I discovered more yesterday about living life on the edge.
The edge of Taunton Deane, that is.
With former Blackdown ward Conservative councillor Chris Robinson as my chauffeur, I continued with my recent visits to homes along the very boundaries of the ward.
I have already met and spoken with residents who have one foot almost in Mid Devon or East Devon districts, and last night it was the turn of those around Bishopswood who have South Somerset district outside their back doors.
It makes for some strange orienteering when we drive along a road to knock at the door of one house where the occupants have an opportunity to vote for me, yet their next door neighbour lives in a completely different local government world.
People up here on top of the Blackdowns are probably as far away from Taunton as they could be and yet pay their Council Tax to the Deane council – 90p in every £1 of which, of course, is snatched by the Lib Dems at County Hall, which is why the bills are so high.
Council Tax was a major issue for one gentleman I met, who was in business and who probably was not a Conservative sympathiser.
It is perhaps understandable that because the Deane council has the job in law of collecting all of the Council Tax bills - and has to pursue those who do not pay - that he should blame the Deane.
The allegation was that ‘none of you lot can ever have been in business the way you put the Council Tax up every year’.
Being self-employed and running a business with my wife, I was able to reassure him that I, at least, understood the issues and that I was as sensitive as anybody else to the challenges of meeting ever-rising bills.
I’m not sure whether he took the point that under the Conservatives the Deane council’s share of Council Tax has risen an average of only four per cent in the years since they took charge in 2003, whereas in the 10 years of Lib Dem rule previously the Council Tax had gone up an average 800 per cent.
At the same time, the Lib Dems were raiding the council’s bank savings in order to spend money on their ineffective pet projects without increasing the bills even more, leaving the council in a very precarious financial state by the time the Conservatives came into office.
The Conservatives through prudent financial planning and controls have since managed to restore the bank balances and keep down Council Tax rises.
All the public opinion polls show that this is the right course to follow, as people time and again say they want to see low Council Tax and that people should instead pay for those services they use, such as a motorist paying for car parking.
Not far away from this gentleman, I met another who was a strong Lib Dem voter. He politely declined to take my leaflets on the basis that there was no way he would vote for me.
That was fine, but I did make the point that if I was going to be his councillor anyway, one of the leaflets contained my contact details in case he should need anything taken up on his behalf, because I will be a councillor for everybody regardless of how they actually vote.
It made no difference. Some people, it seems, cannot be helped.
Elsewhere, in fact nearly everywhere else, I was warmly welcomed by residents who not only want to see me elected as a Conservative councillor but also want to see a Conservative MP and a Conservative Government.
‘We have to get this lot out and have a change’ was a frequent theme on the doorsteps.
But at the same time, some people are not sure if they will even bother to vote.
I perhaps should not say it, but I do tell them that even if they do not vote for me, I would like to see them vote for somebody.
Everybody should have their say at local elections. If they do not, then they are effectively leaving it to their neighbours to decide how much Council Tax they will have to pay and whether their refuse will be collected this week or not, and so on.
The issue of recycling was raised on more than one occasion, with one resident in particular explaining how the Deane council has no idea of the problems people such as he face living out on the edge of the borough in a rural setting.
I tended to agree with him, having seen over many years the difficulties faced in even more remote parts of Exmoor.
How do you wheel a wheelie bin around the back of your house when there is a deep layer of gravel? How do you position a wheelie bin at the roadside when the road is not wide enough for a vehicle to pass by before it is emptied? How do you leave out biodegradable bags when foxes, badgers, even neighbouring dogs, rip them open?
Another frequently-raised topic is the speed of traffic, especially as many of the minor roads on the hills are relatively quiet and straight in places, which seems to encourage motorists to put their foot down.
For one lady, the traffic whizzing past her home at around 70 mph towards a bend with an advisory limit of 40 mph is a particular problem when she and her children try to go horse riding.
I have already met elsewhere families who no longer allow their children to ride along the road near their homes for fear of - and through actual experience of - being hit by a car.
It has been one of the surprises of getting to know the ward better, that I have found there are not more measures in place to alert motorists to the fact they are driving through an area where there are many, many horse riders.
In this particular instance, it was Chris Robinson in his time as a Conservative councillor for the ward, who persuaded the highways people to install the 40 mph advisory signs and chevrons.
I will be taking up the issue with Otterford Parish Council when it next meets on April 12 to see if we can look at further warning measures for motorists at this spot, with signs to alert them to the riders who may be crossing the road ahead of them.
Watch this space!