On the home straight as polling day approaches

WELL, we are on the home straight with a matter of only a few days before polling day is here and I have been canvassing the ‘urban’ areas of the Blackdown ward.
It is strange to think of Blagdon Hill in ‘urban’ terms, but compared to much of the rest of the area I have been covering, this is how it becomes.
It is heartening to see the ‘Conservative’ posters that have appeared in people’s gardens alongside the road.
They remind me that although for much of the time it has been myself and Chris Robinson on a lonely trek, there are in fact a large team of supporters behind me/us.
Without the support of everybody else, we would not be able to achieve success at the polls and return a Conservative councillor.
It has also been heartening to find so much support on the doorsteps, although Blagdon provided another ‘first’ experience for me on the campaign trail with a door being shut on me rather impolitely before I had even had an opportunity to introduce myself.
I wonder if one day the householder will be in a position where he needs to come and ask for his local councillor’s support on an issue troubling him.
I am not daft enough to expect everybody to support me, but when I am elected I know everybody will expect me to support them!
There are no prizes for guessing the number one concern on the doorsteps of Blagdon Hill.
Yes, it is traffic. Interestingly, though, the more one looks at the issue, the more you appreciate it is not a single issue but a multiple one which varies according to where a person lives in the village.
Just the speed of vehicles is the problem in some parts, elsewhere it is a dangerous bend and junction, and elsewhere again it is the size of the lorries which make whole houses tremble, while other residents are worried about both the speed and size of vehicles.
I know that even going back some years to Chris Robinson’s days as the councillor for the ward he has been trying to implement a village gateway scheme to help ease the problems, but the county council refuses to help.
So, it is not a subject that is going to be easily or quickly resolved, and in my view it is going to need more than one solution.
However, I will give it my best shot and I hope that I can work closely with our county councillor – even though he is with the Lib Dems – to resolve it.
After all, we are all supposed to be doing our bit to help the local community and playing party politics should not come into a matter like this, even though it ism apparent to many that the Lib Dems on the county council like to spend their money in Lib Dem territory in South Somerset rather than in areas which vote Conservative.
But that’s another subject and one which will have to rest until the next county council elections – or will it be unitary elections?
Between the Conservative team on the Blackdowns we have now covered almost every single property in the ward at least twice during the past nine months or so and I have personally met many hundreds of electors.
We will find out on Thursday what those electors think about me.
There may not be time again before the polls to pen another blog report, and if not, then I would like to go on record now as saying a big thank you to everybody who has supported me thus far.