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!

Campaigning is underway in earnest

WELL, the local elections for Taunton Deane Borough Council to be held on May 3 have been officially called, and campaigning for most candidates starts in earnest today.
For me (this is me, pictured here, for anybody who does not know me), it is a case of continuing with the work I have been putting in for quite a long time now.
I have actually been out and about on the Blackdown Hills meeting local voters and hearing about their concerns since last October.
I have already attended and spoken at meetings of Pitminster and Churchstanton Parish Councils and have been raising issues of concern to the people I have been meeting on the doorsteps, and I will shortly be attending Otterford Parish Council as well.
I am indebted to the many people in the ward who have been kind enough to deliver leaflets on behalf of the Conservative Party and myself in recent months and weeks.
As a busy person myself, I know how difficult it can be to find the time to help with even small things, but no matter how large or small the contribution, I am very grateful to everybody who has and who continues to help our campaign.
I do not especially like to pick out individuals for fear of offending those who are not mentioned by name, but I have to make a special mention of Chris Robinson.
Chris served the Blackdown Ward well as a councillor for many years and he has been absolutely invaluable in helping me and showing me around areas of the ward which I did not already know so well.
I have been amazed at how he seems to personally know anybody and everybody in the area, and he continues with a passion to hold a grasp of the day-to-day issues which are close to everybody who lives and works in the ward.
With the help of Chris and others, I have been building on my own familiarity with the Blackdowns and I have travelled the length and breadth of the ward meeting people from all walks of life.
I have already tackled issues such as a roadside hedge in Churchinford which the Deane council had been neglecting to cut back for some years and which was really causing a nuisance to one neighbour in particular.
Speeding cars in Angersleigh and in other locations; flooding in Lowton; roadside litter at Fulwood; anti-social behaviour near Shoreditch and in other areas; planning issues in Fosgrove and in Duddlestone; the debate over the future location of Churchstanton Primary School and whether there should be more housing in the village; the project to create a village hall at Sellicks Green; these are all issues which I have been following or have been involved with.
There are many, many other issues which have been coming up as I talk to people in the ward.
Many of them are actually the responsibility of Somerset County Council and I will do my best to try to make them do something to help.
However, it has to be appreciated that the county council is run by the Liberal Democrats, whose idea of helping people tends to be just to say the things they think you want to hear so you will vote for them.
The Lib Dems will promise you the earth if they thought it would make you support them - but, as many people in the ward have already discovered, they rarely, if ever, deliver.
They seem to like to play on people’s fears: ‘Be afraid, be very afraid – and vote for us’ seems to be a Lib Dem motto.
While at the same time they stoop to downright deceit. I have heard of a case nearby in Wellington where a Lib Dem councillor has been telling people she lives in Wellington, when she actually lives miles away in Devon and is more qualified to be a Culmstock parish councillor or a Mid Devon district councillor, than a councillor in Wellington and Taunton Deane.
If you cannot even trust the Lib Dems to be honest about where they live, then I do not believe you can really trust them on anything.
We will discover at noon on Wednesday who else is standing for election in the Blackdown Ward, as the nominations officially close at that time.
I will look forward with interest to finding out with whom I will be ‘sparring’.