John Thorne out and about on the Blackdown Hills and in Wellington

Why I will never vote UKIP again

2009-06-08T09:21:00.003+01:00

WELL, that’s that for another four years. I’ve already been told ‘don’t worry, you’ll obviously win in 2013’.
It has taken a couple of days to reflect on the disappointment of not being elected as a Somerset county councillor by just nine votes.
However, I am certainly not looking four years’ ahead, so those sorts of comments, well meaning, I know, do not do anything to lessen the disappointment.
What does help is to see that elsewhere in Somerset, one of my Conservative colleagues defeated a Liberal Democrat by only six votes, even closer than in my division.
I can understand how the beaten candidate must feel, and in some ways it helps to know that others are probably sharing the same emotions.
The only thing is, I cannot feel too sorry for him, because he was actively engaged in closing small schools such as those in Blagdon Hill and in Nynehead.
I recall attending a Lib Dem executive meeting where he justified the closure of Blagdon Hill School on the basis of the higher costs of educating pupils there, when compared to educating them in a bigger school.
He, along with the others on the executive at the time, showed a total disregard for the social value of rural small schools, so in the end he got what was coming to him.
I suppose up and down the county there will now be defeated candidates who will be thinking to themselves, if only I had done this or that ….
Yes, I’ve been thinking the same.
But when the election results are analysed, you can see that in fact more Conservatives voted than Lib Dems - it was just that they voted for the wrong party.
UKIP’s county council candidate took 332 votes and it was these votes - mostly, I believe, from Conservatives angry about the European Union increasingly dictating how we live our lives in Britain – which cost me victory.
So, there was not really much more I could have done, as to make a difference to the result it needed UKIP to concentrate on what they were created to do, which is to work to take the UK out of the European Union (note, not out of ‘Europe’).
Which leaves me feeling very bitter and twisted about UKIP.
UKIP were never going to get close to gaining even one seat on the county council, let alone taking it over. And even if they did, the county council would never be in a position to take Somerset out of the EU, let alone take the UK out.
It struck me as pure opportunistic politics, putting up county candidates because the elections were moved to be on the same day as the European Parliament elections and it would help to raise their profile.
I could understand it perhaps if they targeted divisions where they saw candidates who were pro-EU, but no, they were selfishly indiscriminate and through their actions individual UKIP candidates showed that they really do not care a jot about local politics.
As somebody who has often voted UKIP in the past because of my strong anti-EU beliefs, I can now state I will never vote UKIP again.
Many Conservatives (and quite a few Labour voters) I met on the doorstep during the campaign expressed their dislike of the EU and how they wanted David Cameron to take a tougher line on it rather than just promising a referendum on the Lisbon Treaty which we all know will be too late because Gordon Brown will have sealed our fate before he is finally kicked out of No 10.
I pointed out that I was passionately anti-EU, that I am a member of the cross-party Democracy Movement and have been for more than 10 years and that I have financially contributed to the DM and even marched through London with them and stood next to the widow and children of the late Sir James Goldsmith while listening to the late Peter Shore.
I suspect I’ve done more to promote the anti-EU cause than the majority of those who voted UKIP in the county elections last week.
The irony is that those Conservative voters are now represented at County Hall by a councillor from the most pro-European Union party.
Still, enough of the self-indulgent pity.
I really am extremely grateful to everybody who voted for me in the county council elections and to the many people who actively helped in the campaign, however small or large the assistance.
We really do have a great team working within the Conservative Party locally, and looking at the bigger picture, it is confirmation that my present sorrow will turn to joy next spring when Mark Formosa is elected as Conservative MP for Taunton Deane.
In the meantime, I wish Councillor Henley well in the coming four years as our county councillor and now that he won’t always have to do what he is told by his former Lib Dem executive bosses, I hope he will do his best for the people of the Blackdown and Wellington East division.
As to 2013, I’ll continue to work hard locally as the Taunton Deane councillor for the Blackdown ward and I’ll make my mind up about a county council campaign probably in 2012, if I can drag myself away from watching the London Olympics on the television.

Village gateway pledge to tackle Blagdon Hill traffic

2009-05-16T09:25:00.004+01:00

A VILLAGE gateway scheme is urgently needed to help tackle the danger from speeding traffic in Blagdon Hill.
Despite the traffic problems which have existed for years in Blagdon Hill and Pitminster and which have gradually worsened, the County Council has ignored the situation.
With the ban on lorries using Corfe Hill, more heavy vehicles have been using Pitminster and Blagdon instead, while commuter traffic has increased dramatically.
I am therefore promising to ensure a village gateway can be built for Blagdon Hill to ease the problems and improve safety for pedestrians, cyclists, and horse riders.
A gateway scheme would slow down approaching traffic and make drivers more aware that they are entering a sensitive stretch of road where there will be hazards such as people walking alongside.
It is a comparatively low-cost idea and could have been done a long time ago but the County Council has not had the political will to do it, something which I want to change if elected as County Councillor on June 4.
Each county councillor presently has allowances totalling £20,000 to spend on local projects - so the gateway could easily have been built by now just by using such funds.
Once elected, I will use this budget to ensure Blagdon Hill’s gateway can be constructed.
Do not be fooled by claims that the Conservatives want to abolish these funds, as that is not true.
What we want to do is end the system where councillors can simply use the money to curry favour with voters by giving out grants as if it was their own money and not taxpayers’ money.
The funding would still be available to support such causes, but corporately, so people can see it is County Council money - their money, in fact - which is being spent in a particular way.
Blagdon Hill should have had its gateway scheme years ago to help protect people.
It is a disgrace that the County Council has turned its back on the parish for all these years, even refusing to do anything about the heavy lorries which use the roads since Corfe Hill was closed to them.

The photograph shows John Thorne (centre), with Blagdon Hill resident and former Deane councillor Chris Robinson (left), who first came up with the village gateway idea years ago, and Ken Maddock, the County Council Conservative group leader, who is supporting the project.

What future for Churchstanton School - your views count

2009-05-12T23:13:00.003+01:00

I AM carrying out a public opinion survey in Churchinford and the surrounding area to ask what people think about the future siting of the village school.
I hope nobody misunderstands this message and that they do not think I am suggesting the school is under any threat at the moment.
It is an excellent small, rural school serving a wide catchment area from its idyllic location and engendering passionate support from parents and other local people.
Yet, we stand at a crossroads regarding its future.
Somerset County Council has started closing small schools such as in Blagdon Hill and in Nynehead to save money, and we know that other schools are under threat.
We currently face a situation where the county will not commit the funding Churchstanton needs in the long-term for permanent facilities because it does not believe the site is sustainable in the long-term future.
At the same time, an opportunity to develop a state-of-the-art new school in Churchinford village centre has been on offer, but this could soon be lost.
Developers who have planning permission to build some new homes on the Newberry Farm land could facilitate such a new school at comparatively low cost.
The wider benefits would be greater footfall in the village, bringing new vitality and financial support for facilities such as the shop, Post Office, and pub.
But there is a strong feeling the school’s magnificent rural site offers extra-curricular benefits to children and should not be given up until it really does have to happen - although by then the parish could lose its school completely if funding for a new one was not available.
There has never been a proper public consultation on what people really think about this subject.
It has divided opinions among the parish councillors and it has already generated heated discussion at a public meeting.
As the Conservative candidate for Blackdown and Wellington East in the Somerset County Council elections, I want to hear your views in a calm and collected manner.
I will then be best-placed to represent the wishes of the community once elected to County Hall, as opposed to allowing the wishes of finance-driven officials to decide the issue.
Some survey forms are being delivered door to door, and some have been placed in the village shop. A straw poll is also being held here on my website.
I strongly believe in the value of rural facilities and services, rather than looking only at their cost.
I have a track record of supporting rural schools, as I was the only local councillor to actually stand up against the closure of Blagdon Hill School, support the staff and governors, and attend the County Executive meetings where the Lib Dems made their decisions.
In Churchinford, I opposed the Post Office closure and also served on the voluntary committee which set up the Community Interest Company to create a new community shop.
Whether or not I am elected to the County Council on June 4, I will make sure that the views which come out of this survey are made known to the powers that be.
After reading my survey form, the school’s headmaster, Simon Mills, has voiced his concern to me that some parents may misread it as suggesting that the school is at risk of being closed, and he is naturally anxious to allay any such concerns.
That is why I am also separately writing letters to parents at the school to reassure them that I am not suggesting there is any immediate concern which should alarm them.

The photograph above shows John Thorne outside Churchstanton School.

A tribute to my dad

2009-05-07T16:27:00.003+01:00

I HAVE been neglecting the campaign trail for a few days now, the reason being that my dad died yesterday.
My dad, Bryan Thorne, had been in St Margaret’s Somerset Hospice, Taunton, after falling badly at home and suffering a knock on his head.
The fall triggered the end of his battle with cancer, which began in February, 2007, and seemed to have been won after undergoing emergency surgery to remove a large tumour from his bowel.
However, about 12 months ago, it became a battle with liver cancer and we were told it was inoperable and the end result was inevitable.
After the fall last week, my mother could no longer continue to care for him at home and it was agreed the only course open was to admit him to the hospice.
We were told he might last no more than a few days, but he held on for six days in total and passed away shortly before 9 am yesterday. He was 79 years old.
As the eldest of his five children, I was with him holding his hand at the end.
It is the most distressing and emotionally disturbing thing I have ever, ever, ever had to do.
Many of you reading this will probably have already gone through something similar in losing a loved one.
I now know how you felt and how you may still feel today.
I write this not for sympathy, rather just to try to clear my mind and try to refocus on the next few weeks.
My dad would have been upset if he knew he had disrupted my campaign. He always only ever wanted me to succeed in anything I did, and was always willing to help if he could.
I know my dad was very proud of me being a councillor although he was never a Conservative.
My dad was a lifelong Labour supporter, even defending Gordon Brown because he thought he was a Labour Prime Minister.
He said he would never vote Tory because of what happened in Suez in 1956. I could never understand the logic of his attitude.
My family have a tradition of helping others, a tradition steeped in trade unionism and I have been told accounts of my great-grandfather handing out union money to workers to help them through the hardship of strike action while they fought for a better quality of life.
In my younger working days I was also a trade union officer, albeit a right-wing one and often I found myself voting in a minority of one.
It therefore surprised my dad when, in the autumn of 2006, I told him I was standing as a Conservative candidate in the Taunton Deane Borough Council elections of May, 2007.
But he knew that in my own way I would be doing my best to help people, like generations of my family before me, and he supported me fully, despite the arguments we would have when talking politics between ourselves.
He often used to really annoy me with his attitude and it would require my mum to intervene and get us talking about something else.
Football was my dad’s passion, and he was a lifelong Arsenal fan.
Being a Liverpool fan myself, there were again many heated discussions - much more so than when talking about politics. One thing we had in common, however, was that we both disliked Man Utd.
He served in Navy and was stationed in Malta for some years, and my younger brother was born there.
In his latter years, my dad would take my mum back to Malta for holidays, staying several weeks at a time. He loved the country and I think if he could have afforded to do so, he would have moved there to live.

The photograph shows my dad, Bryan Thorne, on holiday in Malta in 2005.

A visit from Shadow Chancellor George Osborne

2009-05-05T14:44:00.007+01:00

GEORGE Osborne, the Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer, was in Taunton Deane today, and briefly chatted with me.
I think I had about 20 seconds with him during a reception at The Castle Hotel to launch the Conservative manifesto to which I have signed up as a candidate for the County Council elections on June 4.
Brief though it was, George Osborne made a lasting impression on me - I was still thinking about him while driving home afterwards!
Seriously, though, he was an impressive politician.
Actually getting to meet him and to be in the same room and hear him speak brought home just how good he is going to be when he sits at the Despatch Box next year as this country’s next Chancellor.
I think it was probably George’s first visit to Taunton Deane, but he had been well briefed by Councillor Ken Maddock, who is the leader of the Conservative group at County Hall and who will be council leader if we win the elections on June 4.
George knew all about the fiscal mismanagement of the county council under the Lib Dems and how they have doubled our council tax and landed us with a mountain of debt.
As well as launching the manifesto, George Osborne highlighted how important Somerset is to the national political scene.
It is one of the few areas where Conservatives are principally up against Liberal Democrats rather than facing a contest with Labour.
This means the election battle will be very different from other areas.
Against Labour, it is possible to talk about how their Government has ruined the country, brought about the worst recession we have ever known, and created the fastest-growing unemployment queue ever seen.
With the Lib Dems, this cannot be done as they are not, and never will be, in Government, which means they can - and frequently do - say anything they like about what should be done with the country, without any concerns about how it would actually be done if they were running the economy.
The drawback for Somerset electors is that this Lib Dem national ‘it doesn’t matter what we say because we’ll never be held accountable’ attitude rubs off on their Somerset councillors.
It results in Somerset Lib Dems telling the electorate many things which are not true by any stretch of the imagination in the desperate hope that they will not be kicked out of office for doubling our council tax, tripling our county debt, and making a mess of our roads and pavements.
A case in point is the £25 million of council taxpayers’ money which the Lib Dems have lost in Iceland.
The Lib Dems tell us that the money is not lost, because there is a slim chance some of it may be recovered.
They also say that even if it was lost, it won’t make any difference to council taxpayers.
They must think people like you and I are stupid.
If you lose your wallet in the street, then the money is lost, even if you hope that maybe you will be lucky enough that it will be found and handed in.
And to say that £25 million makes no difference to the county is plainly daft. The list of what services the council pay for with £25 million is huge.
The tragedy of the Lib Dems’ gamble on risky investments in Icelandic banks is compounded by the fact that not only did they make a bad investment, they also made a bad choice of bank.
For, the bank they gambled on is not even one of those which has since said it hopes to return substantial amounts to UK councils.
Another case in point is how Lib Dems tell us that they are committed to improving education in Somerset.
Yet, they have started a vicious round of closures of small rural schools and have ignored the protests of local communities.
They also say the school closures are not financially motivated.
Yet, they quote the higher cost per pupil of educating children in a small school and point to how the money will be better spent in a bigger school.

The photograph shows George Osborne holding a giant credit card to symbolise the high spending and high borrowing nature of the Lib Dems at County Hall, with Councillor Ken Maddock symbolically cutting it in half. They are watched by county council candidates, including John Thorne (second, left).

Manifesto pledges which just don't stack up

2009-05-04T09:00:00.002+01:00

MANIFESTO season is upon us, the time of year, or, rather the time of the quadrennial, when local politicians make all sorts of claims about what they have achieved for you during the past four years and what more they will do in the next four years.
All you have to do is give them your vote and everything will be okay.
I never cease to be amazed at how these manifestos and claims of achievements can twist the truth to a point where what is being said is unrecognisable when actually compared to what was done.
One local politician who comes to mind must be nothing less than a superhero if they have single-handedly done all that they claim.
In fact, you wouldn’t need any of the other councillors at all, as they are so wonderful.
In truth, though, a single councillor in the political system we have at the moment can only work as part of a team and should share collective responsibility for both achievements and failures.
That is one of the reasons why you won’t find me saying that I have single-handedly saved, for instance, a phone box or a Post Office, as it wouldn’t be possible to do it on my own.
What I will say, is that personally I have done what I can and that it is the Conservatives (plural) who have achieved it.
Take the much-trumpeted zero council tax increase at Taunton Deane Borough Council as an example.
The credit for this rests with the Conservative opposition group of councillors, although most of the work was done by our group leader Councillor John Williams.
It was his alternative budget which was cherry picked by the Lib Dem administration on the very day they were proposing a 2.7 per cent council tax rise – with the effect that they then agreed with the Conservative zero increase proposal and put that to us at the evening budget meeting.
I played my part as a Conservative councillor by inputting to the alternative budget, but I’m not claiming any superhero powers and saying I did it alone so therefore you should vote for me.
Looking at the manifestos which have been published, it is interesting to read the ‘key facts’ the Lib Dems want you to remember when you go to vote, and then to compare them with what the ‘real facts’ are.
Lib Dem ‘Key fact’ – they ‘will continue to keep council tax increases among the lowest of any county’.
True fact – they have already doubled your council tax during their reign of power and are now so worried about losing control that they are trying to appear to be matching the Conservative pledge to ‘freeze’ your council tax.
Lib Dem ‘Key fact’ – they ‘have plans currently being actioned to invest in jobs and businesses’.
True fact – they have just been forced to publicly admit their claim to be investing £5 million in the Somerset Economic Recovery Plan was a crude spin doctor deception because all but £280,000 is money from other organisations or was already in the budget.
Lib Dem ‘Key fact’ – they have achieved the highest recycling of any county.
True fact – they have broken their promise to give us plastics and cardboard recycling and it will be 2011 before most people actually get it, if at all.
Other examples of bending the truth can be found in the Lib Dem 2009- 2013 manifesto published on their website.
It claims, for instance, they will ‘protect village schools’.
Well, we are in the middle of a savage Lib Dem cost-cutting exercise which is closing village schools such as Blagdon Hill and Nynehead and others, and leaving many others under threat.
Only Conservative councillors, including myself, have fought against these closures.
The Lib Dems claim, for instance, not to have closed any special schools – but they don’t say it is not for want of trying and that if Mark Formosa, the Conservative Parliamentary candidate, had not battled them in Wiveliscombe, then Kingsmead School would have lost its special needs unit.
They claim credit for the successful 'Handyperson Service' – it is actually called the Handyman Service, which shows how politically correct they cannot help being – but they don’t give any credit to the Taunton Deane Conservative administration which actually started it some years ago.
They claim to have eased traffic congestion on the Silk Mills road by building a railway bridge.
But in truth they have ruined the good work of installing the bridge by creating a mess of traffic light-controlled junctions and different vehicle lanes which now cause as much, if not more, congestion than before.
They promised to roll out 120 new transport schemes and to improve road safety, but they have done nothing to progress a new railway station for Wellington, or a northern distributor road for the town, while we have seen those yellow signs on 'Red Routes' advising of safety amendments to come in 2008 amended to read '2009' - and we are still waiting.
I could go on, but I suspect few people have even read this far.

The great plastics and cardboard recycling con - yes you can have it, no you can't

2009-04-08T10:56:00.003+01:00

YOU may have heard that I recently seconded a call-in of a decision to continue with plastics and cardboard recycling trials.
A call-in is a process where a decision by the Executive or one of its members can be put on hold for a short time while it is challenged and looked at again to ensure the right decision has been made.
The call-in was proposed by Councillor Tony McMahon, who is the Conservative shadow executive member for environmental services and who is also standing for election to Somerset County Council.
However, we withdrew the call-in after receiving an explanation and more information from one of our most senior officers about what was actually intended.
It was disappointing to note that the Executive member himself did not respond – and interesting to note that it was the officer who wrote up the decision for him as he seemed unable to do it himself.
Despite what some may say, this was not a Conservative attempt to have the trials withdrawn.
Far from it.
In fact, we were anxious to ensure the Lib Dems kept to their word this time and actually delivered to the public what they promised during the election campaign.
We are now almost two years on from the 2007 elections and I clearly recall how the Lib Dems promised they would give people plastics and cardboard recycling – mind you, so did the Conservatives.
I recall speaking with one couple in Stapley who were already taking their plastics and cardboard to the recycling centre as they wanted to do their bit as good citizens and not wait until the council got around to it.
I told them that on this particular manifesto issue there was not a lot to separate the two parties, it was just that the Conservatives would do it quicker.
How right I have proven to be.
Two years on, and all that has happened is that the Lib Dems have started some trial collection rounds.
Even that decision took 12 months to reach and, the cynics will note, was finally taken when the Lib Dems faced a difficult by-election campaign in Comeytrowe - which, of course, just happened to be one of the first areas to be given the trial collections.
A lesson in ‘how to win votes and influence people’.
Fine for the residents of Comeytrowe, but not so good for everybody else, who, like myself, has to stack up the plastic bottles and cardboard in carrier bags in the garage until there is enough to lay down the back seats of the car and take it out to the Poole recycling centre.
Anyway, the point is that we are now in a situation where both the Executive and the Full Council have voted to ‘phase in’ the full roll-out of plastics and cardboard recycling across Taunton Deane this financial year.
Naturally, like me, you will no doubt be looking forward to receiving this service before 31st March next year.
So, when Councillor McMahon and I saw the Executive member’s decision to continue the trials this year until such time as the Executive takes a decision on the full roll-out to all properties, alarm bells started ringing.
It seemed they were only going to do the trials and nothing else this year - hence the call-in was triggered.
Now, I find that is not the case.
It was a badly-worded decision and one which lacked any explanation for councillors like myself who are battling to provide the best possible service to the people we represent.
It turns out the Lib Dems simply made a mess of the decision to introduce the trials, because they only approved them until 31st March this year and the trials would have been stopped, leaving people with nothing until the ‘phasing in’ began.
It also turns out that the talk of phasing in plastics and cardboard recycling is little better than a ‘con’.
All they are going to do is expand the collections this year to another 2,000 households on top of the 3,000 who already receive them.
By the end of the financial year, they hope - and the emphasis is on the word hope – to include a total of 20,000 households.
Now, given that there are 43,000 households in Taunton Deane, you can see that more than half of all households will not be getting the plastics and cardboard recycling service which they thought had been promised them.
The so-called promise made by the Lib Dems means the majority of households in the Deane - more than 50 per cent of them in total - could be waiting until 31st March 2011.
And, of course, in May, 2011, we will be having another round of Deane council elections which I am sure will focus the minds of the Lib Dems who will be desperate to ensure the service is delivered beforehand so they can tell you how good they are when they are asking for your votes.

Highway maintenance budgets cut despite roads getting worse

2009-04-07T21:03:00.005+01:00

IT is official - Somerset’s roads are getting worse under the Liberal Democrats.
County Council highways officials have stated in official reports that roads in the county are deteriorating fast.
Only months after the County Hall Lib Dems slashed their highways maintenance budgets, their own officers have admitted that the number of safety defects has increased significantly.
They also admit the condition of both major and minor roads across the county has been deteriorating.
Councillor Anthony Trollope-Bellew, who is the Conservative county council group spokesman on highways, said: “It gives me no pleasure to say I am not surprised to hear this news.
“I warned the Lib Dems that any cuts to these essential budgets would lead to a worsening in road condition and misery for road users, and this is exactly what has happened.”
Councillor Ken Maddock, the leader of the county council Conservative group, said: “Yet again, another Lib Dem cut hits a vital service and has a real impact on the lives of the people of Somerset.
“The Lib Dems have constantly denied that Somerset’s roads are getting worse, even though everybody else in Somerset knows how bad they have become.
“But now that their officers have painted such a bleak, honest picture of their condition, I hope that the Lib Dems will finally sit up and take action.
“Conservatives will rescue our roads and make Somerset a better place to live.”

The photographs show some examples of how bad Somerset’s roads are becoming.

Our pavements are officially the worst in the Westcountry

2009-03-12T17:17:00.004Z

PAVEMENTS in Somerset are the worst in the Westcountry - and that is official.
My Conservative colleagues at County Hall have reacted with shock after seeing the latest performance figures showing that Lib Dem Somerset’s pavements are the worst of any council in the South West.
A report from the Chartered Society of Physiotherapy (CSP) collated data from the Audit Commission which showed the condition of Somerset’s pavements is almost twice as bad as the national average.
Somerset was also placed bottom of the list for South West local authorities.
CSP figures show that 42 per cent of pavements in Somerset are in need of repair, almost twice the average for the whole country.
The situation nationally has only marginally improved since last year, when the CSP called on local authorities to urgently address the problem of broken pavements, which can increase the risk of falls, especially for older people.
No wonder my county Conservative colleagues were so dismayed by the news of Somerset’s failings.
The CSP report showed that almost half of all footways in the county are in need of repair.
The practical reality of the situation is that every day, thousands of Somerset residents have to take their lives into their own hands just by walking down the street.
This needs action before any more residents injure themselves.
We must take action as a matter of urgency to put this right.
If we leave it, then it will only end up costing the county council - that means us council taxpayers - more in the long-run.
There will be more injuries, more claims against the council, and more misery for local people.
We deserve better.
The CSP wants councils such as Somerset to make 2009 the year for carrying out repairs to broken and uneven pavements, which will improve safety and help to protect people from unnecessary falls.
Lynn Sutcliffe, a spokeswoman for CSP and vice-chairman of AGILE (Chartered Physiotherapists working with Older People), said: “Once an older person has fallen, it can seriously affect their physical and emotional wellbeing.
“It can make them anxious and limit their enjoyment of activities they previously enjoyed.
“Walking on uneven ground requires older people to be fit and strong, and able to withstand disturbances to their balance.
“If local authorities act sooner rather than later to fix the pavements that need repair, many unnecessary falls could be avoided.”
The subject of broken pavements was the theme of National Falls Awareness Day 2008, run by Help the Aged.
The charity carried out research showing that 2,300 older people fall on broken pavements every day and nearly 80,000 of those who have fallen each year are subsequently afraid to leave the house.
Pamela Holmes, Help the Aged healthy ageing manager, said: “These new figures released by the CSP show that broken and damaged pavements still represent a significant problem for older people with mobility problems.
“Our own research suggested that councils are caught in a vicious circle.
“On the one hand they are required to sit on large sums of money to cover legal fees and compensation, and on the other they are cash-strapped when it comes to repairing pavements that may cause falls in the first place.
“It is vital that councils invest more money in keeping public walkways safe, as falls are a leading cause of death for over-75s and at the very least, one fall can shatter an older person’s physical and mental well-being.”
Mark Formosa, who is the Conservative Parliamentary candidate for Taunton Deane, has already helped to collect a large petition in Taunton which complains about the state of some pavements in the county town.
Mark has presented the petition to the county council because it is responsible for maintaining the footways.

The photographs show the state of some pavements in Taunton, and also Mark Formosa with two residents with whom he worked to collect a petition protesting at how the county council was failing to properly maintain the pavements.

Conservatives freeze Taunton Deane council tax bills

2009-02-18T11:51:00.003Z

SOME good news at last for the Deane's council tax payers after the doom of gloom of the recession setting in.
Your council tax bill from the Deane council has been frozen this year and there will be no increase in it.
You can thank the Conservatives for this achievement, even though we are only the opposition group.
Our group leader, Councillor John Williams, together with our shadow executive members produced an alternative budget to the one which the Lib Dems put forward.
While the Lib Dems tried to claim they were going to have the lowest increase in Somerset at 2.9 per cent - later revised down to 2.7 per cent when they discovered it was not the lowest – the Conservatives produced a budget which showed no increase at all.
So, as we find happens quite often, the Lib Dems quickly plagiarised the Conservative budget and adopted the innovative measures we proposed for raising additional funds to pay for services.
Then, they agreed a budget which showed no increase in the Deane’s share of the council tax precept.
Unfortunately, you may not notice it as the County Council, which is also run by the Lib Dems, have continued to put up their council tax precept, and so have the Police.
In fact, the County Hall Lib Dems have more than DOUBLED your council tax on their watch, while you now pay more council tax to the Police than you do to the Deane council.
Despite the Deane’s Lib Dems taking all the best bits of the Conservative budget, we were not able in principal to support the budget as they presented it on two important areas of difference between us.
These were the so-called ‘free swimming’, where, as we know, the Government will only fund it for two years and after that time we are not going to have the money to continue and will be faced with taking away from people something that will undoubtedly be popular with them.
There are in any case already discounts in place for the elderly to be able to swim at little cost, and there will be a lot of restrictions on when youngsters under 16 years old are able to swim, so the real benefit for the Deane’s swimmers is only slight.
The other difference was on plastic and cardboard recycling, where Conservatives were setting out the real situation and biting the bullet for the greater good of the community.
While the Lib Dems were making very blurred promises to introduce it some time or other over the next two years, we were saying that given the bottom falling out of the market and given the fact the council has little money, it would be better to delay it until next year when the financial situation would hopefully be better.

Another achievement by the Conservatives at last night's budget meeting was to reduce the size of the council house rent increase which the Lib Dems tried to impose on tenants.

The rent increase was cut from the Lib Dems' near-seven per cent rise to 6.2 per cent.

It was still a large increase but at least we have managed to save tenants some money.

David Cameron comes to town

2009-02-17T22:47:00.007Z

YOU know how you see some people on television, and then, when you actually get to meet them in person, they seem very different?
Well, today I met David Cameron, the Conservative Party leader - and he turned out to be exactly the same person whom I have seen on television many times.
He was just as tall as I expected him to be, he had exactly the same skin complexion, he was just as smartly dressed, he smiled in the same manner, he spoke in the same tone of voice, and his message was exactly online.
It was a little bit like being on the set of a TV show and somehow not quite real.
Here was the man who is going to be the UK’s next elected Prime Minister - in about 15 months’ time unless Gordon Brown messes up even more than he has already - and here I was saying hello to him and shaking hands with him.
I wonder if he will remember me, should I attend the Party conference in the autumn and bump into him again.
Probably not.
It was an interesting and rewarding experience and one which raised the hairs on the back of my neck, even despite the fact that as a journalist I have been used to meeting leaders of the different political parties, as well as Ministers, celebrities, sporting stars, diplomats, and captains of industry, and have been up close with the Queen and members of her Royal family, including the late Princess Diana.
David Cameron’s visit to Taunton brought home how important to the future of this country is the need for Conservatives to form the next administration at County Hall.
If the electorate go out to vote in the Somerset County Council elections on June 4 and throw their support behind the Conservatives in large enough numbers, it will surely hasten the next General Election.
In turn, this will see David Cameron installed in No 10 as Prime Minister, and he will change the course which this country has been taking under Gordon Brown.
Labour have shown their ineptness at running the country and have plunged us headlong into economic chaos the like of which we have not seen since the war.
David Cameron now needs to get into Government as quickly as possible to appoint the Conservative Ministers who will turn things around and steer the economy back into calmer waters.
And Conservatives need to get into power at County Hall to freeze council tax bills, reduce the county’s debt mountain, save our small schools, mend our roads and pavements, and bring much-needed change to Somerset.

The photographs shows (TOP) John Thorne (left) with David Cameron and other county council candidates, and (BELOW) John Thorne (third, right) with David Cameron supporting the Conservatives' pledge to freeze council tax at the county council.

Roundabout is needed to improve Wellington relief road safety

2009-02-05T11:34:00.003Z

MARK Formosa, our Conservative Parliamentary candidate for Taunton Deane, has joined me in calling on the highways authority to create a roundabout on Wellington’s relief road to ease rush hour traffic congestion.
I showed Mark one morning how traffic builds up at the staggered crossroads with Pyles Thorne Road and Ford Street.
We saw how it results in some drivers becoming impatient and taking risks by pulling out in front of other vehicles.
Others crossing from one side to the other were pulling out and stopping in the middle of the road to indicate a right turn and causing oncoming vehicles to hit their brakes.
It can be a dangerous situation and we already see county highways signs at the side of the road quoting statistics about the number of casualties who have been injured in accidents at this crossroads.
Mind you, those signs promised road improvements would be carried out in 2008 and here we are well into 2009 and all the County Council have done is to stick a number ‘9’ over the ‘8’.
Mark is now asking the County Council to look at converting the junction into a roundabout which will ease the queues of traffic at peak times and greatly improve safety for motorists.
I do not think it requires a huge engineering project at great cost to improve this junction, as I am sure a fairly simply mini roundabout would be sufficient.
It would mean that drivers have to approach with a little more care than perhaps some do at the moment, and they would have to give way to vehicles coming from their right, so traffic flows should improve.
I have over the years witnessed a number of near-misses at this junction and it is clear that the traffic situation is gradually getting worse as more people seem to be driving over the Blackdowns to work in the Chard and Honiton areas or are coming from those areas to work around here.
That is why I went along to one the Tuesday morning surgeries Mark Formosa holds in Wellington Community Centre and raised the issue with him.
The surgery is held every Tuesday between 10.30 am and 12 noon and has become very popular with local people who need help with all sorts of issues.
Even though I am a Conservative councillor, I still had to wait my turn and queue to see Mark.
So I was pleased that Mark Formosa so quickly took up my offer to come and have a look for himself, and also delighted to see that he is now taking such prompt action in pressing for something to be done to improve this junction.
Mark Formosa has a terrific track record of taking up local issues which really matter to people and getting something done to help.
He regularly raises issues which other local politicians have either refused to look at or have not even considered.
He is going to make a brilliant MP for Taunton Deane when the General Election finally comes along next year.

The photograph shows Mark Formosa (left) with Councillor John Thorne at the Wellington relief road crossroads.

Ridealong gives first hand experience of front line policing on the Blackdowns

2009-01-11T08:29:00.006Z

I HAVE just spent a bitterly cold night shift on duty with the Blackdowns beat officer PC Maria Jennings.
It was part of a Ridealong scheme the police are operating for local councillors to experience front line policing at first hand, and I was pleased to be one of the first councillors to take part.
However, sub-zero temperatures straight after the New Year celebrations ensured it was an exceptionally quiet night as most people seemed to have stayed at home in the warm.
The ‘lack of action’, which I am assured is extremely unusual as Friday nights generally see a lot going on, means I will repeat the exercise later in the year when there is warmer weather.
It was still a very interesting experience and one which gave an insight into the workings of the police and how they tackle crime and the potential for crime.
I learned quite a bit about what to look out for in terms of suspicious behaviour, and how criminals tend to act.
The big lesson was the realisation that although I frequently hear people complain that they ‘never see a police officer’ any more, there are, in fact, always police on duty at any time of day or night somewhere close at hand.
Our patrol covered an area stretching from Bishopswood and Churchstanton to Burrowbridge and Stoke St Gregory, and going into central Taunton as well.
I also met the three PCSOs who work with PC Jennings to provide police cover in the area.
It quickly became apparent that while people may be asleep in their beds at home, there was always a police presence out and about somewhere nearby and ready to respond to any incident.
We started the evening by attending a reported ‘firearms incident’ which immediately brought to mind images of armed response police officers surrounding a hostage situation, but actually turned out to be a case where PC Jennings simply needed to talk to some neighbours about the law which covers the use of a shotgun.
Over the radio, we picked up reports of a missing teenager, and then, later, another missing person even younger, as well as the ‘usual’ incidents of fights and public disturbance.
But they were all being dealt with elsewhere and we were not required, again illustrating how many police must actually be on duty even though it was now late at night.
We checked on isolated properties where there had either been previous attempted break-ins or the owners were away and had notified the police that there should be nobody about.
A group of lads climbing out of a roadside hedge just outside one village raised suspicions, but it was quickly clear they were just out for a midnight walk for ‘something to do’.
The other big lesson I took from this Ridealong evening was how the people of the Blackdowns are in good hands with PC Jennings as their beat officer.
She has 20 years’ experience behind her, all of it in front line policing, including many years in the Metropolitan Police.
She has a wealth of experience and I think the residents of the Blackdowns are very fortunate to have such a high-quality officer looking after them.
All in all, the Ridealong was a tremendously interesting experience and one which I look forward to repeating some time in the summer.

The photograph shows Councillor John Thorne with PC Maria Jennings and her Land Rover police car.

Mystery of the Blackdowns phantom bus shelter 'artist'

2008-09-29T10:31:00.003+01:00

I HAVE been investigating the mystery of a phantom ‘artist’ who appears to be making some kind of statement about rubbish on the Blackdown Hills.
A couple of weeks ago, I received a report from Otterford Parish Council that rubbish was being fly-tipped in the bus shelter at Culmhead Crossroads, making it impossible for bus passengers to use the shelter when the weather was poor.
Naturally, I alerted the Deane council’s environmental health team to the problem and asked them to clear it up and also look for evidence of who might be responsible so that we could prosecute and/or recover the cost of the clean-up.
Then, I went to have a look at the bus shelter for myself and, strangely, I found that the rubbish had been cleared and the shelter was lined with silver foil.
A clothes rail had been put up - as you would find in a wardrobe - and a variety of items of clothing hung from it.
There was a sign on the outside reading ‘The Changing Room’, a roadside crossroads sign was stuck on the top of the entrance, and inside was a notice which read something like: “I am a million different people today and the next day...”
I am told since that I have not remembered the quote properly, as it seems to be a line from a song by The Verve which actually reads: “But I’m a million different people from one day to the next...”
The Deane council staff quickly cleared the bus shelter but could find no trace of who had put the clothing there.
I wondered if perhaps it was something to do with Somerset Arts Weeks - now renamed Somerset Art Works (SAW) - as it appeared to be some kind of artistic statement, although a little bizarre out in the middle of nowhere.
However, I spoke to somebody at SAW and they had absolutely no knowledge of it.
At this point, the bus shelter was clean and tidy and fit for use again, so I left it at that.
Then, a few days later, I discovered that the phantom ‘artist’ had returned – and so had the rubbish.
The bus shelter was strewn with black bin bags and carrier bags containing items such as empty cans of lager and cardboard and plastic bottles.
On the outside were posted three signs on white boards reading ‘rubbish….’, ‘art ….’, and ‘rubbish…’.
The signs are in exactly the same style as ‘The Changing Room’ signs, which makes me think that it is the same person.
I do not mind admitting that I am ‘culturally challenged’, and therefore whatever artistic statement they may be making goes over my head.
It is all rather bizarre, and I would like to know why this is happening.
I am sure that whoever the artist is, they were not responsible for the rubbish in the first place and it may be that they actually cleaned it up before embarking on ‘The Changing Room’ project.
To add to the mystery, somebody has also painted in big white letters on the road opposite the bus shelter “SAW No 42”.
I assume again that this is a reference to Somerset Art Weeks, and I was told that No 42 apparently refers to an artist who lives in Watchet.
I will continue to try to get to the bottom of this.

The photograph above shows me examining the rubbish which has reappeared in the Culmhead Crossroads bus shelter along with signs indicating it is some kind of artistic statement.

Exmouth - now in the foothills of the Blackdowns

2008-09-22T10:18:00.000+01:00

ON what seemed like a summer's day - almost unheard of this year - I attended the Celebrating the Blackdowns event held at Churchinford on Saturday.
The public attendance exceeded everybody's expectations with several hundred people visiting during the day.
It was an opportunity to see where some of the £1.9 million LEADER+ funding from Europe has gone during the past six years.
The Blackdowns AONB Partnership, on which I represent Taunton Deane Borough Council, has used the cash to support a wide range of activities and events during that time, and now the fund is coming to a close this year.
It is being replaced with a £2.4 million 'Make it Local' fund over the next three years, of which more details were promised at the Celebrating event.
I was a little disappointed, then, to find that we have not actually, definitely, been given the money.
Despite the recent public announcements of the success of the Partnership bid, it seems we still have to jump through some hoops before we know for sure that the money is ours.
From what I have seen so far of the way the Partnership is funded, we are going to need that money if we are to continue supporting the community of the Blackdowns.
One snag, though, is that in order to get the money, we are having to extend the 'Blackdowns' borders as far as the edges of Exmouth and Seaton so that we can say we have a large enough population base which will benefit from the fund.
Assuming we get the money, then the grant scheme will start next year.
Applications will especially be welcomed if they concern culture, tourism, recreation, using sustainable natural resources, or network building/bringing people together.
There was lots to see at the cricket ground just outside Churchinford, and everything there had received funding from the LEADER+ programme.
It was nice to see lots of children with their parents, and the kids seemed to like having a go at making punkie night lanterns or doing some wood carving, while inside the Camera Obscura they were able to 'spy' on what their parents were doing elsewhere in the field.
I discovered when I had a look at the Camera Obscura that they had been 'spying' on my son George, who had taken his bicycle along and was whizzing around the field on it.
I think George will soon be competent enough for the stabilisers to be taken off, and then he will be whizzing around even faster.
I was looking forward to having a burger from one of Nick Strange's barbecues, which always seem to be at these events, but instead the Partnership had laid on a hog roast, because the equipment was funded through the programme.
I would not have minded, except that by the time I arrived, the hog had all been eaten and there was nothing left.
Some of the other activities to see were hedgelaying skills and apple juicing, while I found Nick Strange inside the marquee with his meat produce stall, along with items such as alpaca wool socks, a BHaam (Blackdown Hills Artists and Makers) display, and much more.
Incidentally, I learned that the Camera Obscura is looking for a permanent site, which needs to be secure and enjoy good views. I believe Culmstock School has been suggested, but if anybody has any other ideas, they will be welcomed.

The photos above show (in descending order) me having a look at some of the punkie night lanterns; a display of alpaca wool socks, and the BHaam stand.

'Ring and book' bus service coming to the Blackdowns

2008-09-19T15:25:00.000+01:00

I AM delighted to learn that some of the gaps in bus services covering villages in Taunton Deane are going to be plugged thanks to an initiative led by my Conservative colleague Councillor John Meikle.
‘Demand responsive’ buses are being introduced and Blagdon Hill will be on one of the routes.
The route will also serve Staplehay and will link the two communities with Taunton.
The initiative has come out of a council task and finish group on sustainable transport which has been chaired by Councillor Meikle - whose, son, of course, is the Duncan Meikle who has helped to pioneer the new community hall plans for Pitminster parish.
A ‘demand responsive’ bus is one which runs on a regular route but which people can ring up and book a seat in advance if they live nearby and the bus will then detour and pick them up.
The proviso is that it will only be during certain times of the day, and also passengers have to be within a reasonable distance and the roads need to be wide enough for the bus to be able to reach them.
I am not quite sure how this is different from the Slinky Bus that Somerset County Council has been supporting, but I am sure it will be a welcome initiative.
At this stage, I am still waiting to be told just when the service will start, and who will be operating it.
The project is a partnership between Taunton Deane Borough Council and the county council.
The Deane council is putting £25,000 towards the set-up costs of scheme, which will run for three years.
Other communities which will benefit from the service include West Monkton, West Hatch, Hestercombe, and Curry Mallet.
Councillor Meikle told me: “We are beginning to infill the bus service gaps in Taunton Deane.
“This compliments a similar ‘ring and book’ magnificent voluntary community transport which Wiveliscombe have been running for some years covering 26 parish areas to the west of Taunton.
“All this positive thinking and action helps the quality of life for everybody.”
Councillor Ross Henley, who is the leader of the Deane council, told me: “I am very pleased to be able to implement the recommendation of this task and finish review.”

Free swimming 'con' attempt by the Lib Dems

2008-09-06T17:51:00.004+01:00

HERE we go again. More untruths from the Lib Dem SatWav pioneers.
This time, they are peddling untruths in an effort to con votes out of people in Ruishton and Creech St Michael.
You may know that there is going to be a by-election in the ward on October 2, due to the death of one of my Conservative colleagues, Councillor Gwyneth Leighton.
Obviously, the Lib Dems have made themselves very unpopular locally with their callous decisions to close sports centre crèches, axe discounts for pensioners using leisure services, and demolish the only two proper pay-as-play public squash courts in the county town.
Decisions which, I am sure I do not need to remind you, they took in secret and without any consultation with the public or those who use our leisure services.
So, in a blatant bid to try to redeem themselves in the eyes of the public, their leader, ‘Reckless’ Ross Henley, has told the voters of Ruishton and Creech St Michael that ‘his’ council is going to give free swimming for everybody under-16 and everybody over-60 as from next year.
This crass claim has been shown by the council’s chief executive to be an untruth.
So, ‘Reckless’ Ross has been humiliatingly forced to put a retraction in their next leaflet telling people that in fact all the Lib Dems want to do is take up Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s previously-announced policy of free swimming for young people and the elderly as part of the UK’ build up to the London 2012 Olympics.
The Lib Dems have not yet even got as far as putting a proposal on the subject to the Deane council, where it will be properly debated before any decisions can be taken.
Of course, Conservatives support the idea of free swimming in principle.
But, unlike ‘Reckless’ Ross, we are not prepared to sign a blank cheque drawn on council taxpayers money.
As yet, nobody has any idea of the costs of meeting the free swimming promise, as we do not know how much take-up their would be, nor the impact on other paid-for swimming sessions, nor how much Gordon Brown is actually going to give us to help pay for it.
These are all things which ‘Reckless’ Ross should have been looking into before rushing headlong into print with false promises.
I hear that he is apparently blaming his agent for getting it wrong in the leaflet – funny that, as he was previously quoted as saying virtually the same thing in the Somerset County Gazette and Wellington Weekly News, and I am pretty sure his agent does not edit either of those publications.
Incidentally, it will not be ‘free’ swimming, it will be swimming that is paid for by people aged between 16 and 59 years.

'Local veto' stops phone box closures - for now

2008-06-26T14:56:00.003+01:00

I AM pleased to hear that the Deane council is formally objecting to the proposed closure by BT of many public telephone boxes in the area.
BT wants to remove four call boxes from the Blackdown ward which I represent, and two more in Ford Street, Wellington, and Sampford Moor, an area in which I am campaigning to become the county councillor next year.
I am pleased the council has taken up my suggestion of using what is known as ‘The Local Veto’ to object to BT’s plans, although I was a little surprised the council did not know about this power until I pointed it out.
All six of the above proposed closures are being formally opposed, and this effectively means BT cannot remove these public call boxes.
There is a protracted appeals process which BT could pursue, but their only argument is that they are losing money on these phone boxes - and that is not actually any grounds for closure.
When the regulating body, Ofcom, last reviewed BT’s ‘universal service obligation’ under which BT has to maintain public call boxes, it decided that the cost of doing so was not overly onerous.
Therefore, for BT to argue it is not making money out of the call boxes on the Blackdown Hills and the rural area around Wellington is simply not a good reason for taking them away.
When I asked BT for the actual financial figures in relation to these particular phone boxes, they refused to provide them.
As many people will discover when they visit the Blackdowns, it is very difficult to obtain a mobile phone signal, and if there was an emergency they would have to rely on finding a call box.
I have also asked the council to go one step further and look at making formal requests for BT to instead begin replacing phone boxes which have previously been removed, or to introduce new ones.
Bishopswood, for instance, does not have a public phone box anywhere in the community nor nearby.
I think that every community should have at least one public call box available for people to use if there was any kind of emergency or breakdown in the residential phone network.

The photograph shows me at the public phone box in Stapley, which is on BT’s closure list.

Accident blackspot junction needs improving as matter of priority

2008-06-07T17:08:00.005+01:00

IMPROVEMENTS are needed to Culmhead Crossroads, which is considered to be one of the worst accident blackspots on the Blackdown Hills.
I have had a close look at the junction after concern was expressed by local resident Robin Morris, who has frequently experienced cars crashing into, and sometimes through, his garden hedge, and who has also narrowly avoided being knocked down.
Matters came to a head for Mr Morris with a recent crash at the junction between two Audi cars in which some of the occupants suffered serious injuries.
Now, I am asking highways officials to improve the warning signs and rumble strips on the approaches to the junction, and I also want to see changes to the white lining which would make it safer for vehicles crossing the junction.
I have looked into the accident statistics for this junction going back over 10 years and there have been 17 people injured in that time, not including the recent crash involving the Audis.
On top of these, there have been many more minor accidents where, fortunately, people have escaped injury.
So, it is quite clear that there is a problem which needs to be addressed at this junction and I have therefore made some suggestions which I hope will improve safety.
If this was a more major road, then I am sure its accident statistics would have seen something done about the situation long ago.
I think people living and working on the Blackdown Hills deserve to see the county council putting just as much effort into making their roads safer as they do in the urban areas.

The photograph shows me (left) at Culmhead crossroads with resident Robin Morris and some of the wreckage left from the recent double-Audi car crash at the junction.

Speak up now to help save Blagdon Hill School from closure

2008-06-03T11:23:00.001+01:00

THE governors of Blagdon Hill Primary School continue to have my full support in their fight to save the village school from closure under Somerset County Council spending cuts.
I visited the school again yesterday with Mark Formosa, who is the Conservative Parliamentary candidate for Taunton Deane and who is passionate about the need to maintain small schools.
We are urgently calling for everybody in the local community to send their comments to the county council before the public consultation process ends on Friday, June 6.
Interestingly, Mark discovered by coincidence that as a youngster he went to the same school in Cornwall as Blagdon’s chairman of governors, Jonathan Langdon.
The county council say they are talking about the quality of education in small rural schools - but we all know they are really interested in cutting money from a budget they have mismanaged despite doubling our Council Tax in 10 years.
Now, rural residents are being threatened with paying the price of the county’s blundering through the closure of village schools not just here on the Blackdowns, but across many areas of Somerset.
Blagdon Hill provides quality education for the children who attend it, and the small class sizes mean pupils can receive a high ratio of one-to-one attention from their teachers.
Pupils receive excellent sports tuition, every child goes swimming every week of every term, every child plays a musical instrument, there is a computer in class for every two pupils rather than a once-a-week session in an IT suite, and children with special needs are able to make huge progress in such an environment.
All this is reflected in Ofsted inspection reports which rate the school and its teaching environment as good, good, good.
Yet, the county council are contemplating closing Blagdon Hill School and they are already putting off potential pupils by not telling parents moving to the area that the school is there.
I was extremely impressed by the strength of local feelings which came out of the recent open meeting and drop-in sessions, which I think rather took the county council by surprise.
They were gravely mistaken if they thought Blagdon Hill residents would be a soft touch, and I hope that if enough people put sufficiently robust arguments to them before the close of consultation on Friday, then we may have a chance of stopping this closure.
It does not make sense to be closing any school at a time when schools in Taunton are already over-subscribed and we face thousands more homes being built in the town with a huge influx of new residents and their children.

The photograph outside Blagdon Hill Primary School shows (left to right) acting head teacher David Hawkins, chairman of governors Jonathan Langdon, Mark Formosa, parent-governor Jayne Simpson, and Blackdown ward Deane Councillor John Thorne.

Red phone boxes under threat from cost-cutting BT

2008-05-23T10:32:00.002+01:00

BT has just announced it wants to remove the last remaining red telephone boxes in many of the Blackdown Hills communities.
Four call boxes would be lost from the Blackdown ward which I represent on Taunton Deane Borough Council, and many more in the wider area around Wellington, where I am campaigning to become the county councillor next year.
As a businessman and a homeowner who gave BT the boot many months ago because of its appalling customer service and billing incompetence, I perhaps ought to declare an interest here.
That said, I am absolutely appalled that BT has suggested these phone boxes should be removed.
In nearly every case, it will leave whole communities without any access at all to a public telephone.
When I challenged BT, they were not even able to tell me how much use is made of these call boxes because they said they did not keep proper records.
They tell us they want to close them because they are losing money, but BT has a public service obligation and I am demanding they honour that obligation.
I do not just want to see this closure programme stopped, I want to see BT restoring many of the call boxes they have already removed.
I believe every community should have at least one public call box which people can use in the event of an emergency.
BT claim that most people have a mobile phone, but my phone does not have a signal in many parts of the Blackdowns, and if my car broke down, for example, I would have to find the nearest phone box to call the AA.
I have pointed out to our Deane council leader, Ross Henley, that we have the ability to make it very difficult for BT to close the phone boxes.
As a council, we can formally object and take BT through a pretty lengthy appeals process where every proposed phone box closure would be examined very carefully.
There is no question in my mind that we should do everything possible to resist these iniquitous phone box closures.
BT is presently consulting on the proposed closures and I shall be putting the case as strongly as possible against this move.

The photographs show (TOP) me outside the phone box in Ford Street, just outside Wellington, which is on BT’s closure list, (MIDDLE) the under-threat phone box in Blagdon Hill, and (BOTTOM) the cobwebs which show the Stapley phone box has not been used in a very long time.

SatWav - the new political term you heard here first

2007-10-21T13:50:00.000+01:00

A NEW political term is being introduced to the language by this blog today – it is SatWav.
It stands for Say Anything To Win A Vote.
The device has been developed by the Liberal Democrat Party, especially by their members in Taunton Deane, who used it when campaigning in this year’s local elections, resulting in them winning one more seat than the Conservatives on the Deane council.
Although perhaps not obvious to a lot of people at the time, it is now becoming noticed by anybody who drives on our roads.
Because, just six months after the Lib Dems formed their administration to run the council, they are already proposing to put up car parking charges in the Deane.
It a move of breathtaking hypocrisy, the Lib Dems have announced not just an increase in charges – but a staggering 20 per cent hike for many car park users.
In addition, they are ratcheting up the cost of parking permits by almost 11 per cent in some cases.
As recently as May, when the Lib Dems were electioneering, they were complaining that car park charges were already too high and were attacking Conservatives for previous increases.
To me, the Lib Dems’ car parking policy is a tax on people living on the Blackdown Hills who have little choice but to use their cars to travel into town for their shopping and services.
Taunton Deane Conservative Parliamentary candidate, Mark Formosa, told me: “The Lib Dems were elected on the manifesto of lower car park charges but now they are putting them up by 20 per cent.
“The way the Lib Dems have deceived the voting public over car parking charges is to be condemned.
“Even the smallest increase they have put forward in Taunton is still twice the rate of inflation.
“This is a slap in the face for the people who voted Lib Dem and shows the party’s disregard for the public they should be serving.
“Hypocrisy is probably the most polite way I can describe the Lib Dems’ disrespect of the voting public.
“They say one thing during an election and then do completely the opposite when in power in the hope people will have forgotten about it when the next election comes.”

ISiS vote - an historic occasion for the wrong reasons

2007-07-19T09:19:00.002+01:00

LAST night, I attended a specially-convened meeting of the full Deane council which I believe in time to come will be seen as an historic moment.
We were being asked formally to support the council signing up to the ISiS project – Improving Services in Somerset.
I spoke against it, and I voted against it.
I was the only councillor to do so, although one of my Conservative colleagues also voiced some concerns as well.
Needless to say, the vote was carried overwhelmingly and the Deane council is now on course to enter a partnership with the global IT giant IBM and with Somerset County Council as a third member of the deal.
It means the councils will pay IBM something like £400 million over the next 10 years to run a number of services better than we do at present.
Of course, by running the services better, IBM will be able to run them more cheaply, and will generate millions of pounds in savings which we councillors can then use to provide even better services to you, the public.
So, the public will benefit twice over. Once, because IBM will be coming up with all sorts of brilliant new ideas for giving people what they want where they want it and when they want it; twice, because it will cost less than it does now and will mean council tax does not need to keep going up like there’s no tomorrow.
Hundreds of staff from both councils will transfer to the private sector to work for IBM.
Their jobs and terms of employment will be guaranteed for 10 years, so they say.
You may well ask, then, why was I so stupid as to vote against it.
Well … all of the above is theory.
I’ve lost count over the past 30 years of the number of stories I’ve read, or even written myself as a journalist, about local authorities entering groundbreaking new partnerships which will revolutionise services for ratepayers and save money.
Those which have actually succeeded can probably be counted on the fingers of one hand.
I do not believe for a moment that IBM will deliver what they promise. I also do not believe for a moment that the Deane council will actually be able to hold them to their promises.
I would be surprised if we don’t see the departure of a lot of the staff who have moved over, as despite what may be promised, working for profit-driven private enterprise is far different than the world of public service.
To me, it appears more of a grandiose, empire building exercise designed to improve the job lot of senior officers who are most involved.
As a fairly new councillor, I’ve come to this at the eleventh hour, after political party leaders on all sides have swallowed the IBM line hook, rod, and sinker, and committed themselves to the deal.
They have been looking at it for something like two years already, so they ought to know a lot more about it than I do.
I do not profess to properly understand the business case behind the deal – we’ve hardly been told a lot about it, and what we have been told is by way of bombastic presentations where figures in the tens of millions of pounds are bandied around and anybody who queries anything is simply told: ‘Don’t worry, we’ll get it right on the night.”
Alarm bells started ringing for me when a presentation was entitled “Improving the social and economic well-being of Taunton Deane, Somerset, and the South West.”
I asked why the South West, why not the UK? The question was taken seriously and they started to explain that we should first concentrate on the area we knew best …
I am told about 30 other local authorities and public bodies of different sorts around the South West are keeping a watching brief on ISiS and could sign up to it later on to share in the glory and the savings.
Well, I am just a poor councillor elected by the good folk of the Blackdown Hills to make sure that their black bin bags are collected on time and that planning applications are processed properly, and that sort of thing.
They did not elect me to start running schools in Cornwall or libraries in Gloucestershire.
Yes, I believe history was made last night. But I think in 10 years’ time we will be looking back and seeing that it was for the wrong reasons.

Standing up for those who need affordable housing

2007-06-21T09:03:00.000+01:00

I DO not know whether many people will recall the three key pledges given by us Conservatives during the Deane council election campaign, even though it is still only a few weeks since going to the polls.
One of the pledges was to ‘build more affordable homes to meet the increasing need’.
Unfortunately, of course, we as a party have not been able to form the administration of the council and that role now rests with the Liberal Democrats.
I am, however, a member of the council’s housing review panel and in that capacity I have taken a keen interest in the subject of affordable housing and I recently publicly challenged the Housing Corporation when they tried to present a false picture of affairs in Taunton Deane at a meeting chaired by a Lib Dem councillor (I am not blaming the chairman, he happens to be a friend of mine and I know he is genuine in his desire to do his best for people in need).
I have also attended an affordable housing open day held in the Deane House, where hundreds and hundreds of local people in real need of a home of their own came along (the photograph is of me at the event).
The place was buzzing with interest and our housing enabling manager Lesley Webb and her staff did a brilliant job in organising it.
There was every housing association present that you could think of, and some which I would never have thought of, plus many of the support services which operate locally, such as banks, building societies, solicitors, and estate agents.
The occasion was seen as important enough for the Mayor, Councillor Ken Hayward, to officially open it.
Even the Lib Dem’s housing portfolio holder, Councillor Hazel Prior-Sankey, attended for a while.
It illustrated just how much demand there is for housing to be provided at prices and rents which local people can afford to pay in these days of spiralling property prices and static wages, where people often face having to borrow 10 times their annual salary for a mortgage, which, of course, they cannot do.
How terribly disappointing, therefore, that Mrs Prior-Sankey’s Lib Dem leader, Councillor Ross Henley, is already trying to stop some affordable housing being built nearby in Wellington.
These are desperately-needed homes for local people which were promised by the Conservatives to meet local demand, and which were on the point of being delivered with, I believe, the necessary land having already been transferred to the housing association which was to build them.
But then, along comes Councillor Henley looking to win a few personal votes from people in his Deane ward who, human nature being what it is, do not want houses built next door to them.
Councillor Henley, who, of course covers the Blackdown ward in his role as a county councillor, wants to cancel the development and is doing his best to persuade the Deane’s officers to find a way of doing so.
What a pity, therefore, that I did not see him at the affordable housing open day, when he could have talked to the nearly-500 people who attended in search of homes for themselves or their children.
On offer during the day in various locations in the Deane were 24 shared ownership apartments - for which more than 75 people applied on the day; 36 low cost outright purchase homes being sold at 40 per cent below market value - a discount which will remain in perpetuity - at £75,000 for a two-bedroom house and £99,000 for a three-bedroom house, where the developer was inundated with requests for applications to sign up in the hope of being able to step onto the housing ladder for the first time; and 10 shared ownership homes currently under construction; while details of many other homes in the pipeline were also available.
It was all designed to show local people that owning an affordable home could be just around the corner for them and was not out of their reach.
What a pity, therefore, that the Lib Dems are already dashing some of those hopes for them.
I have made a point of telling parish councillors since the elections in May that I want to work with Councillor Henley and anybody else, regardless of politics, to help improve the Blackdown communities and their environment.
I will not, though, allow Councillor Henley and his Lib Dem colleagues to get away without being challenged when they make disastrous decisions such as cancelling affordable housing projects for purely political reasons to win a few votes for themselves.

George goes herding ducks down on the farm

2007-06-11T15:23:00.000+01:00

NICK and Ruth Strange held a very successful open day at their Beech Hayes Farm yesterday, which allowed an opportunity for Julia and I to take our son George to see exactly where his bacon comes from.
Nick is Churchstanton's parish council chairman and Julia has been buying a meat box from the farm via the food co-operative which runs at the Rockwell Green Christian Centre.
So it was really interesting to have a look around and to show George the source of the meat he eats.
There was lots to see - and lots of other people went along as well, so I would guess Nick and Ruth must have been really pleased with the way it went.
George tried his hand at duck and geese herding - as you can see from the photo above - that is, until the geese started herding him instead!
We saw the Gloucester old spot pigs which they are well-known for, and the lambs, ducks, new-born chicks - some of which were hatching in front of George's eyes.
No, we didn't manage to do the quiz in full, despite cribbing one of the answers from another visitor.
I thought I knew my beech leaves from my ash leaves and so on, but when put to the test I failed miserably.
Ross Henley, our local county councillor, gave a nice speech to visitors about the importance of local produce and the need to support local producers.
Our only disappointment was not having more time to spend on the farm, as we were due to do a car boot sale in the afternoon as we continue to try to slim down the stack of bits and bobs in our attic.
As it turned out, the car boot sale did not do too well - or, at least, our bit of it didn't, as we only raised just about enough to put the Mazda through the car wash.

From Gay Pride to hippies to Pitminster straw boater all in one day

2007-06-04T11:38:00.008+01:00

IT was a day of contrasts on Saturday for myself and my wife Julia, as I attended the annual Pitminster and Angersleigh Playing Field Association fete.
While Julia was in Plymouth for the day helping one of our clients - they organise the South West's largest Gay Pride event - I started the day at the Sunrise Celebration festival over near Tintinhull, the organisers of which are also our clients.
Having spent a few hours surrounded by several thousand people from the travelling and festival-going communities, many of whom would be described as hippies, it was a quick change of clothing and a dash across to Blagdon Hill for the annual fete, complete with straw boater.
Yes, there are hippy-types on the Blackdown Hills as well, but the Sellicks Green playing field didn't have the organic loos or the yurts or the tipis or the windmill-powered generators or the horse-drawn transport of the Sunrise Celebration.
The only thing that all three events had in common was the sweltering heat and brilliant blue sky which prevailed all day.
The Blagdon fete was a brilliant event with just about everybody in the community near and far seeming to be there.
What impressed me most was learning afterwards that something like £5,000 was raised from the fete and will be used by the charity to help maintain the playing field for the benefit of everybody.
An amazing result for a small rural community, which demonstrates how there is such a strong sense of community spirit here.
It was good to see the plans on show for the proposed new community hall and I was pleased to able to introduce the committee chairman Duncan Meikle to our Conservative Parliamentary candidate Mark Formosa when he joined me at the fete.
We enjoyed seeing so many different stalls and events being held at the fete, with Mark showing a keen interest in the dog show because he is a dog owner - while I have two cats.

The images above show a group of Sunrise Celebration festival-goers taking part in a drumming session, and the Pitminster fete programme.

Voting no to unitary authority and trying to save our rural Post Offices

2007-05-24T09:20:00.000+01:00

IT has taken a lot longer than I expected, but I now know on which panels I will be serving at Taunton Deane Borough Council.
I have been appointed to the Housing Review Panel, and to the Health and Leisure Panel.
At the same time, I have the right as a councillor to attend and speak at any other panel or committee which is held, and I am told that is often difficult to tell at meetings who is actually on a panel and who is not.
So, while it looks like the two areas of housing and health and leisure will be my specialist subjects, I will also be able to personally raise any other topic on behalf of the people in the Blackdown ward.
In addition, there are a lot of outside organisations to which the council appoints representatives and I do not yet know on which I will serve.
It is a little like being a phoney councillor at the moment, as I have the title – yes, it is official now the annual meeting has been held (although again I missed it due to work commitments).
However, I am on the case and have already attended the parish council meetings in Churchinford and Pitminster and introduced myself to the parish councillors.
I have also attended the launch of the Keep Somerset Local referendum campaign. You will be receiving a postal ballot during June in order to vote to say whether or not you think it a good idea for the county council to abolish Taunton Deane council and the other councils in Somerset and create one huge authority which will decide everything across the county.
I shall be voting ‘No’ in the referendum, not just because I want to hang on to my seat at Taunton Deane, but because I don’t want to see my council tax bills continue to go up just to fund the tens of millions of pounds it will cost to reorganise.
I also fail to see what Minehead has in common with Frome, or Wellington with Burnham-on-Sea, or Otterford with Dulverton when it comes to deciding planning applications, building affordable housing, etc etc.
You will hear the line from the county councillors that it won’t be like that because they will set up area panels to decide local issues. My response is that we already have an area panel – it is called Taunton Deane Borough Council.
I have also asked our area county councillor for an early meeting to discuss the traffic concerns in Blagdon Hill.
I put it to him that it was up to the county council on which he serves to actually do something about the speed of traffic and weight of heavy lorries using the road through the village, as they are the highways authority. He agreed.
I also put it to him that, given this is a situation which has existed for some years, I was mystified as to why the county council continually refused to do anything about it. He also was mystified – so if he as a county councillor doesn’t know what’s going on, what hope do we have?
I will keep banging my head against the county council wall on this one, and, as some people will testify, I have a thick head, so eventually we should see some cracks appearing – in the wall I hope.
I think some parish councillors may have been a little surprised at my approach to parish affairs.
Now the election is over, I believe we should all be working together regardless of politics in order to achieve what is best for the community, or at least what the community desires, and no, the two things are not always the same.
One area which is topical at the moment where elected representatives believe they know best is the subject of Post Offices.
The Government is telling us that we don’t need 2,500 of the Post Offices we currently have.
In Taunton Deane, that means closure looms in the next 18 months for probably six more Post Offices.
Communities will say they need their Post Offices and on this one I totally agree. It is not a question of how much it costs to keep a Post Office open, it is a question of how much a Post Office is valued in a community.
We only have two Post Offices in the ward at the moment and I will be visiting both of them shortly to discuss with the Postmasters what measures the borough council can take to support them.
It was a subject which came up on the doorstep while I was campaigning and my feeling is that we need to approach it in the same way as we approach farming, where we encourage diversification.
Don’t ask me what POs can diversify into, as I don’t have a definitive idea, although I have one or two small suggestions which may help.
I have been listening to Mark Formosa, who is the Taunton Deane Parliamentary candidate for the Conservatives, and he has a lot of good ideas on this subject and has been campaigning on it for some time.
If anybody has some solid suggestions to put forward, I will certainly be interested to hear them.

History will remember my declaration day

2007-05-14T07:48:00.000+01:00

I HAVE finally signed my declaration of acceptance of office, and it is a day which will be remembered in history.
At the same time as I was starting my political career at the Deane House, Tony Blair was announcing he was quitting as Prime Minister.
Needless to say, my news was promptly buried under the weight of media coverage of the Prime Minister’s announcement.
Other than a couple of small lines of print in the Somerset County Gazette and the Wellington Weekly News, I suspect my election has so far gone unnoticed by the big wide world.
I notice the County Gazette’s latest attempt to be seen as trendy is to report the news on its website in Polish, and I can’t help wondering if they have covered my story in this section.
I’ve searched for ‘Typowy Anglik Cierń jest wybierany’ but not yet found it, so probably not.
Presumably, the Gazette will also soon have Portugese, Bulgarian, and Romanian sections in order to fully reflect the extent to which Tony Blair’s EU-loving Government has undermined the ability of English citizens to find work in their own country.
A day after signing my declaration, I attended what was called a ‘Welcome Day’ at the Deane House.
It could have been titled a ‘Serves You Right Day’, after we were deluged with presentations, paperwork, and statistics in a marathon session – all this on top of the numerous email reports I have been receiving.
My briefcase was so full of paperwork by the end of the day that I could hardly close it and carry it back to the car.
I have quickly decided that one of the important skills in being a successful councillor is not going to be deciding what to read, but deciding what not to read.
With a day job to do as well, it is not humanly possible to get through everything that is presented to you.
I am not the fastest of readers at the best of times, and have been known to take the best part of a year to read a paperback.
It is going to be a case of feeling my way gently, starting with my choices of the panels on which to serve.
I will be deliberately restricting my choices to two panels, and only stretching to a third if absolutely necessary.
And I am ruling out the planning committee as I appreciate how much time commitment is needed to do this role justice – more time than I have available.
I have already received notice of four planning applications which have been submitted in my ward in my first few days in office, on top of actively investigating the circumstances of a particularly controversial application for gipsy pitches.
Being a planning committee member could be a full-time job in its own right and I will be full of admiration for anybody who serves on it.

When a councillor is not a councillor - yet

2007-05-09T08:01:00.000+01:00

AFTER nearly a week of being the Taunton Deane councillor for the Blackdown ward, I have discovered that I am not your councillor even though I have been elected.
And, until I sign my declaration of acceptance office, I cannot become one.
Even after I sign my declaration, I still will not be a councillor for several more days.
This is because, technically, my predecessor remains the ward’s councillor until the council’s annual meeting on May 16.
I was supposed already to have signed my declaration, but the council suddenly cancelled the appointment while I was en route to Taunton.
It has now been rearranged for Thursday, May 10, exactly a week after you all went to the polls to show your support for me.
If I do not sign the declaration in time, I will not be allowed to attend the annual meeting.
I am not sure at present whether or not I can attend the meeting anyway, as I am working away and will find it difficult to return in time.
For those who are interested in these things, an analysis of the election results has been carried out and I am pleased to announce that all the hard work put in by the Conservative team on the Blackdowns over the past months and years resulted in us increasing our share of the vote to 63 per cent.
There was a 7.2 per cent swing in voting away from the Lib Dems toward the Conservatives in the Blackdown ward, which was the second highest swing in the whole of the Deane.
Although turnout in the ward overall was slightly lower - a fact which I attribute in large part to not having enough parish councillors in any of my three parishes to warrant an election and generate greater incentive for people to travel the sometimes several miles to a polling station - it should be heartening to us that we are continuing to build on the staunch Conservative support which exists on the hills.
Please note, if you previously read this posting and my comments about the Mayor-making ceremony, I have now deleted these references as I have since been informed that I was wrong. In essence, I was given to believe that the public could not attend unless they were a guest of a councillor. I am now told the public can turn up unannounced and attend, even though the ceremony is taking place in a Royal Marines base with all the attendant security. I apologise if, unintentionally, I have misled any readers.

What a start - late for my own declaration!

2007-05-04T20:58:00.000+01:00

BELIEVE it or not, I missed the declaration of the Blackdown ward result – in fact, I missed the whole day’s counting of the votes in hall at the Blackbrook Pavilion today.
By the time I was about to drive in there, I received a phone c all to say it was all over, the dust had settled, and the fat lady had changed and gone home.
Being self-employed, I have to earn a living for myself and my family and I had a work project which had to be finished today, which meant slaving over the computer all day until it was done.
Having had only three hours’ sleep the night before last, and one-and-a-half hours last night, I was also not in the best of shape for an election count.
I would like to say that it was my dedication to getting out and pounding the beat in my ward to canvass for support which meant I did not have time even for sleep – but that would not be true.
It was actually the same project which kept me away from the count.
However, that is now out of the way and I have had time to reflect on the election results.
For those who do not know, I won the Blackdown ward with 480 votes to the 280 which Sarah Wakefield received for the Lib Dems.
I hope that Sarah does not think I did not attend the count out of any cockiness or intended any slight toward her.
I would have spoken to her and offered commiserations and then looked forward to working with her as one of my three parish council chairmen - in Pitminster – to get things done together for the area.
Brian Simpson was remarkably quick off the mark today, very impressive. The Churchstanton Parish Council clerk had emailed me with congratulations barely moments after I had heard the news myself by phone.
He was not just congratulating me, of course, he was landing the parish’s annual meeting paperwork on my desktop for me to attend on Wednesday – it’s straight down to business now.
I’ve already had a call to sort out the formalities with the chief executive and secretary and solicitor, and there is an induction day coming up shortly after the Bank Holiday.
It’s all downhill now, as they say.
Although I missed the count myself, my ever-supportive and patient mentor, Chris Robinson, a former councillor for the ward himself, was there and flew the flag for us, as was our divisional chairman Ian Irvin.
I would like to say a big thank you to them both, and to Pamela Hankey, for each of them placing their trust and confidence in me to carry the Conservative torch – well, that little green squiggly tree thing as it now is – and to succeed in the election.
Thanks go also to all of my other supporters who have been out there delivering leaflets, putting up posters, raising funding, and generally encouraging others to vote for me, many of whom I have still to meet.
We will be organising a little ‘thank you’ reception for them all very shortly and invitations will be going out in the post soon.
My only sadness was that the Conservatives did not retain overall control of Taunton Deane Borough Council, as some of the seats slipped away from us.
Here is not the place to go into the reasons for what happened, no doubt they will be examined carefully in the coming months and any lessons will be learned.
For now, I look forward to four years of working to preserve and enhance the communities and environment which make up this beautiful and diverse Blackdown ward.

A last chance to talk before casting your vote

2007-05-03T01:02:00.000+01:00

POLLING Day has arrived and for anybody who still needs reassuring that I am the person to vote for, there will be opportunities throughout the day to come and meet me and have a chat.
The three polling stations in the Blackdown ward are located in the school at Blagdon Hill, the village hall in Churchinford, and the village hall in Bishopswood.
They will be open from 7 am to 10 pm, but the actual counting of the votes does not start until Friday, at 10.30 am in Taunton, so we will not know on the day who has won.
Please remember, that you can still vote even if you do not have your polling card with you.
All you have to do is give your name and address to the council officer on duty in the polling station.
I am going to be out and about for most of Thursday with Chris Robinson, a former councillor for the ward, and the person who has worked most closely with me to ensure I have visited all parts of the ward.
Supporters, and anybody else, will be welcome to come and meet me outside the polling stations at various times.
At present, the plan is to visit Pitminster school between 8 am and 8.30 am, and again from 12 noon to 12.30 pm, and from 5 pm to 5.30 pm.
I should also be outside Churchinford Village Hall at 8.45 am to 9.15 am, again from 12.45 am to 1.15 pm, and from 5.45 pm to 6.15 pm.
And I should be visiting Bishopswood between 9.30 am and 10 am, again between 1.30 pm and 2 pm, and finally from 6.30 pm to 7 pm.
Of course, you never know what might happen on the day, and the anticipated programme may well slip a little bit.

On the home straight as polling day approaches

2007-05-02T08:15:00.000+01:00

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.

Third time lucky for Stapley residents

2007-04-28T21:18:00.000+01:00

IT was third time lucky for Stapley as the weather improved and I finally managed to canvass the hamlet, where, hopefully, I have covered every home - if not, please let me know.
Even so, it took two visits to walk from top to bottom and up and down all those long private driveways where homes are tucked away out of sight.
On the first evening, the rain was still threatening and I had only been to three or four properties when heavy drops started falling.
Nevertheless, I pressed on and the rain lifted, but eventually, as dusk settled in, it became too gloomy to continue. You cannot expect people to answer their doors to a stranger in the dark.
The following evening was a complete contrast with bright sunshine, and on this occasion I was joined on the campaign trail by my two-year-old son, George.
Without transport and without a babysitter, I had to resort to a lift from my elder daughter, which meant putting a child seat in her car and taking George with us.
They waited patiently while I met residents and heard of the local issues which concern them.
Stapley proved as interesting and varied a community as any other I have visited during this campaign, with again the level of Council Tax being a common concern.
It is even more notable in such an isolated community that while residents may be paying as much as those in an urban community, they are not receiving the same services.
In effect, they pay a premium for living in the countryside and being surrounded by some of the finest local environment.
Which, I believe, makes it even more important for the council to provide the best possible service to residents when it is called upon to do so.
Refuse and recycling collections, and the attention of planning officers from time to time were about the only services one could put a finger on as being directly delivered in Stapley.
And each of these topics provided cause for concern on the doorsteps. I won’t go into the planning issue, as it seems this is something that is going to need to be handled after my election. Residents of Stapley, though, will know what I am talking about.
The recycling concerns were again around the recycling of plastic, where I was again able to reassure people that, along with cardboard recycling, the Conservatives are bringing this in soon after the elections.
The refuse concern was similar to comments I have heard previously but with a slightly different twist.
As I mentioned above, there are quite a few long driveways and lanes to reach people’s homes, and few - actually, I cannot think of any – have a flat, Tarmac surface.
This makes it very difficult for some residents to wheel their wheelie bins to the roadside on bin day.
The concern came from a family deeply committed to doing their bit for the environment and very supportive of the council’s recycling programme.
Although they were the first to raise this specific point about the wheelie bins, I am sure there must be quite a lot of others who share the problematic experience every week. The couple also came up with a suggested solution, something which I will look into after the poll on May 3.
Elsewhere, another planning issue has raised its head again, this time involving gipsies – and, no, it is not in North Curry.
One of the difficulties for planning officers in dealing with gipsy matters is that the current Labour Government has a different and less rigid set of rules for gipsy-related applications than it does for ‘ordinary’ planning applications.
Yes, one law for them and another law for the rest of us. I’m not familiar enough with the subject to know if this is another of those situations manufactured by the unelected and unaccountable faceless bureaucrats of Brussels, but I strongly suspect so.
This particular case raises an interesting question: When is a gipsy not a gipsy?
I shall be working with residents in the area to find the answer and to try to resolve the situation as sympathetically as possible for all concerned.

Heavy rain disrupts the campaign trail

2007-04-27T08:27:00.000+01:00

THE weather, which has been very kind to us on almost every occasion since last October, has finally broken with less than a fortnight to polling day.
Heavy, thundery-type rain set in just as I completed my circuit of Churchinford and its hinterland, forcing me to take a break.
I wanted to visit Stapley as well, but will have to reschedule the hamlet in what is becoming a tighter and tighter timescale as election day approaches.
Churchinford provided a brilliant experience for me, with a real variety of characters and political beliefs appearing on the doorsteps.
Despite being mistaken for a Green Party candidate - we are using the new Conservative logo, the green tree squiggle, on our rosettes (on which I will make no comment here!) - I managed to put across quite a lot about how the Conservatives have been working and what our plans are for the future.
The village also threw up a first on the campaign trail for me, so far - a council tenant who raised the subject of the housing stock transfer.
It is the one and only time the supposedly highly-controversial topic has come up, and it possibly showed how poorly the Conservatives had put across the case for the transfer.
The lady concerned held a deep belief that her home was to be sold off privately to a commercial organisation with the result that rents would double, etc.
I have never actually been much of a fan of the idea, although I thought I understood the principles behind it.
But standing on the doorstep and explaining face-to-face to a tenant how it would have worked made me think about the idea even more intensely and I found myself beginning to warm to it.
No, the houses were not being ‘sold’, they were being transferred; no, they were not going to a nasty private firm out to make a huge profit, they were going to a protected trust run by the very same people whom you presently call the ‘council housing department’; no, rents were not going to shoot up, they would be protected (and the £14 a week the Government takes away and spends in Labour-supporting parts of the country would be kept here to be spent on improving the properties).
The discussion showed the extent to which the Liberal Democrat misinformation campaign had traded on people’s fears, a campaign which has shamefully continued into the election period with gross exaggeration of the cost of an exercise which was ordered by the Labour Government and started by the former Lib Dem administration before they were rightly kicked out of office by the same voters they have now misled.
On a cold evening, there was also cause to appreciate how difficult it can be for elderly people to keep themselves warm.
I heard how heating systems in some homes seem not to be working efficiently, leaving some tenants unable to afford the expense of keeping all the radiators switched on.
Ironically, it appears it was the installation of a new heating system which has caused the problem, while tenants who opted to stay on the old system seem not to have the problem.
I shall be looking into this one more closely once I am elected.
Elsewhere, the subject of the desperate plight of some farmers came up, and here I was pleased to be able to explain some of the measures the Conservative team on the Blackdowns are looking at in order to help.
There were, as always, a few who will not be voting for me and who did not want my leaflets, not even to keep for a rainy evening’s reading.

I counted them all in and I counted them all out

2007-04-21T09:32:00.000+01:00

ANOTHER evening canvassing in Churchinford and another set of issues raised on the doorstep, but this time much more local and more in line with what can be achieved at Taunton Deane Borough Council.
It was also an opportunity to catch up with some old friends, one from my days as vice-chairman of the Taunton Sunday Football League - when I helped the new Churchinford team to join the league - and one from my days providing public relations advice in local government circles.
I had not realise that either of them lived on the estate as I knocked on their doors to introduce myself.
After a few rebuffs, some polite, some less so, it was nice to be greeted by friendly faces and to chat about old times.
I won’t name them, for fear of embarrassing them, as politics can sometimes cause people to change their opinions of others.
I actually have friends from (just about) all political viewpoints and I have no problem with people who do not want to vote for me – even some of my own family would not vote for a Conservative, so I quite understand the feelings.
However, I will be a councillor for them, whether or not they vote for me, and I will still do my best to represent them and take up issues they need resolving.
One common thread this time on the doorsteps was the lack of play facilities for children aged eight years and older.
Yes, there is the sports field where the football club play, but that is a long way out of the village and I certainly would think twice before allowing a nine-year-old to go there on their own or even with another friend.
I was told that several attempts had been made at finding a suitable site for a play facility but all had come to nothing.
Nobody, though, knew why all the efforts to date had failed.
It is something I will certainly be looking into and, starting with the parish council, asking what has been tried, why it did not succeed, and what more can be done.
I regularly ask people what their local concerns are as I chat with them on the doorsteps, and on this occasion I was surprised to find one chap’s concern of the moment was that he did not have any trousers.
Yes, he chatted away in his boxer shorts as he prepared to go out for the evening.
And he threw up a very interesting point about electioneering.
Quite a lot of people do not actually understand what the different councils do. I can explain it when I am talking with people, but for those whom I miss, the leaflets are all about what has been done and what is being promised, but they do not really explain the fundamentals of local government.
It was food for thought and something may have to change with future leaflets to help people understand the differences between the layers of local government.
Unless, of course, the Liberal Democrats get their way and there is only one council and everything will have to be done their way, anyway.
By now, everybody who has requested a postal vote should have received their paperwork and can start to submit their votes.
They will also have received an election address from me in the post at about the same time, which I hope they will read before casting their vote.
There were 142 households in the ward who requested postal votes, which accounts for about 200 voters.
I know, because I counted them, because I had to stick the address labels on 142 envelopes, put stamps on 142 envelopes, and put election addresses in 142 envelopes, as the photograph taken above shows. I counted them all in and I counted them all out as they went into the post box.
It was early morning and I undertook the task before getting down to the rest of the day’s work, which is why I do not look at my best, not that I really have a ‘best’.
Still, I consoled myself with the thought that a few years ago this could have been a photograph of Tony Blair or David Cameron, but then again, perhaps not as they would not have had postal votes in those days – didn’t they have it easy then!

Spanish trawlers, 4x4 taxes, index-linked pensions, and the powers of Deane House

2007-04-18T08:11:00.000+01:00

IT is interesting to discover through canvassing and meeting people just how much some voters believe a Taunton Deane councillor can achieve.
The usual issues which come up in the doorstep include Council Tax - “It is too high and keeps going up and we can’t afford it”; the state of the roads – “They (Somerset County Council) keep patching bits where there are potholes but it doesn’t last and they have to keep doing it when they should be resurfacing the whole road”; heavy lorries – “The roads are not good enough standard to take them and they destroy the verges and gouge out the surface”; recycling – “Why can’t we have plastic recycled as well”.
I agree on the Council Tax – I have to pay it as well, and I can only afford it with difficulty – and I point out that they are only paying £1.47 a week to Taunton Deane, while 90p in every £1 goes to the county council, and if you look at the record you see the Conservatives have kept any increases at well below half of the whopping hikes imposed each year when the Liberal Democrats were running the council into the ground.
I agree on the road maintenance, and although it is a matter for the county’s Lib Dems I will be seeking to understand why they throw away money like this instead of doing a decent job first time around which will last. It seems rather like having a leak in your roof and hiring a builder to come and replace a slate, and then getting him back to do another slate, and another, etc, rather than replacing the worn out roof.
I agree on the heavy lorries. It does not make sense to ban the lorries from the Corfe road and then send them up Blagdon Hill when the hill has the same geological profile and weaknesses as they have at Corfe. Why not at least share the burden rather than dump it onto one road.
I agree on the recycling – and take pleasure in telling people “Yes, you can, and cardboard as well.” The pledge is in the leaflets I hand out to residents. When the Conservatives get back in, plastic and cardboard recycling is also coming in. There are, of course, reasons why it has not been done earlier, which my opponents will not explain to you. But if you look what happens with plastic, it is in reality not so green a process when it is recycled. Nevertheless, it is a step we need to take and we can then address the issue of making the process more green.
However, when canvassing in Churchinford, there were a few issues on which I found myself out of my depth.
Yes, I understand them and can discuss them, but there is not a lot I am going to be able to do from the Deane House about taxes on deep sea fishing, nor about the Spanish trawlers which breach European Union fishery laws and pinch UK fish stocks.
And I will not be able to do a great deal about the issue of higher taxes on 4x4 vehicles which many people in the Blackdown ward rely on for transport, especially in the deep of winter.
Nor will I be able to make the Labour Government index-link pensions now instead of 2012 as they say they are going to do.
Neither can I “take the UK out of the EU tomorrow” as many people would wish, including myself.
I also, unfortunately, cannot create more jobs locally in the NHS to help those who have to travel far and wide to find work.
But, yes, I can help to get Tony Blair and Gordon Brown out of office and bring in a change of Government.
Because every vote I receive at the local election on May 3 is a Conservative vote and every one counts towards the opinion polls and forecasts which show David Cameron is going to be the next (elected) Prime Minister.
The more support the Conservatives receive now, the greater will be their support when the General Election comes, as voters will have more confidence in voting Conservative and actually seeing them take power in Westminster.
So, one small vote for me on May 3 is one giant leap forward toward a Conservative Government.

Llama on the loose

2007-04-17T08:27:00.000+01:00

AFTER visiting the parish exhibition in Pitminster to show off the plans for the planned new village hall, I was able to put in my longest canvassing stint so far and came across the strangest sight yet - a llama galloping along the road.
I suppose I should not be too surprised, as these days there are all sorts of exotic creatures being reared on the Blackdowns, llamas, alpacas, bison, and so on, as well as more traditional ones returning, like longhorn cattle.
The llama (pictured), though, did catch us unawares as we turned out of one road and must have startled it into galloping toward us.
I jumped out of the car to try to usher it to the side of the road so I could perhaps call the police for advice, and again I was surprised at its turn of speed as it raced past before I could do anything and disappeared around a bend in the distance.
All we could then do was alert a nearby farmer, who had a good idea to whom the animal belonged and promised to pass on the alert.
Earlier, the village hall plans attracted around 100 Pitminster parishioners to the Queens Arms to look at some of the detail of what is being proposed and to have their say on it.
The village hall committee have worked wonders to progress the project and it is a great example of a community working together to achieve something which will bring benefits to many.
There are, naturally, issues about which some people will not be happy, such as the impact of a large new building on nearby residents and it is something which will need to be given some extremely careful consideration.
But the bottom line with the village hall plans is that this is a desperately-needed community facility for which everything possible needs to be done to ensure it is provided.
I was pleased to meet some of the committee members and I am looking forward to being able to do my little bit to help them be successful.
The photo shows me looking at the plans, with in the background Chris Robinson, who used to be the ward councillor and who has played a big part in the community consultation.
The opportunity was also taken at the same time to allow people to have their say on the war memorial issue in Blagdon Hill – should it stay, or should it go?
Quite a lot of comments have been made by people, some in favour of keeping it where it is and perhaps doing more to encourage people to use the area, some wanting it moved to a more accessible location, and some wanting a bit of both with a new memorial in the village while leaving the existing one as it is.
Afterwards, I continued my safari canvassing around some of the more remote areas of the ward, where you drive half-a-mile or more between properties to meet residents who have not seen a local candidate for many years, if ever.
There are as diverse a range of people living on the hills as there are animals being reared on them.
But many of them have shared values and concerns, with worries about how they can afford Council Tax, fear of crime, complaints about the state of the roads and speed of traffic, and delight that the Conservatives are bringing in plastic and cardboard recycling.

Discovering a Deane microcosm in the Blackdowns

2007-04-12T07:08:00.000+01:00

IT is a lovely place, and I met some lovely people as I finally managed to canvass homes in Bishopswood, a day later than planned.
There was also the bonus of all that walking up and down the hill helping to improve my fitness, which has been suffering badly as I have not been able to do any football refereeing this season for the first time in 17 years.
Bishopswood turns out to be something of a microcosm of the whole ward, probably of the whole Taunton Deane as well.
There was the ‘staunch Labour’ couple - only the second I have actually met in the ward - but unfortunately for them, Labour does not have a candidate here. Their choice would presumably have to be the Lib Dems, because they are more Left than New Labour.
There was the lady who ‘does not vote anyway because they are all corrupt’ - I have met quite a few more of those than I have Labour supporters - but at least she accepted local council work was rather different from Parliamentary affairs and so she agreed to have a read of my leaflets and have a think about it.
I hope she does vote one way or the other. Everybody should at least have their say in a positive way about who runs the council rather than accepting by default whomever their neighbour has voted for.
There was also the ‘no point, we are voting UKIP’ lady - a first for me in this campaign. However, I had to break the news to her that she cannot vote UKIP because they are not putting anybody up.
I believe they might have one candidate somewhere in the whole of the Deane. But even if they ran the council, I find it hard to believe that Taunton Deane Borough Council would be able to pull the UK out of the European Union.
Still, I fully understand the sentiment, and, as a very long-standing Democracy Movement member and even (I say it quietly, in case I get into trouble with my Party bosses) having voted UKIP in Euro elections, I strongly share the sentiments.
So, for any UKIP voters out there, believe you me, I am the closest thing you have.
There was the lady who has built her own home single-handedly with her bare hands, who puts me to shame as my DIY skills are legendary for all the wrong reasons.
There was also a fellow blogger, but in my desire to impress him with political know-how, I forgot to ask what was his blog site. Perhaps, if he reads this, he will forward the address for me to have a look.
I found a great mix of people living here in Bishopswood, which must contribute hugely to the dynamics of the community and I look forward to learning more about them.
Only one resident point blank turned me away from their doorstep, using polite hand signals and a brief ‘no, thank you’, not even accepting the leaflet which will tell him how to get hold of me if ever he needs my help.
Others, even those who I cold sense are unlikely to vote for me, at least took the trouble to look at the literature which will tell them more about who I am.
With the election campaign now in full swing, I have been inundated with literature to give out to voters - two different Conservative newspapers, two different leaflets, and a slip for those who were not in to let them know I was sorry to have missed them.
I could not help noticing that this morning is recycling day, and almost everybody was putting out their green recycling bins.
The thought did occur that if I came back in the morning and had a look, I could find some of my literature had quickly made its way into the green bins.
If so, would it indicate the residents of Bishopswood have taken speed reading lessons, or that, rather like me, they do not have the time for all this ‘bumf’.
I try to read all the leaflets that the different parties deliver to my home because I think I should be able to understand what different candidates stand for before I cast my vote, but unfortunately even I have a rather large pile of them which I have not gotten round to finishing over the years.
It is easy to see what the Lib Dems stand for, having read some of the leaflets they have been delivering in the ward – ‘no’ to this, ‘no’ to that, ‘no’ to the other, and ‘yes’ to all the things the Conservatives are doing anyway.
I see they are even trying to claim the credit for the green recycling boxes, which the Conservatives introduced anyway. They want plastic recycling – the Conservatives are giving it to them.
They also rather deceptively complain about the things that their Lib Dem chums who are in charge in County Hall actually have responsibility for – not the Deane Conservatives - and which they could resolve if they so wished, such as speed limits and quarry lorries.
I have a good mind to fill out their ‘grumble sheet’. It would read something like: “Dear Lib Dems, why not try to do something constructive, why not try to be positive, why not tell people what you have actually done for them.” I already know the answers: “We can’t, we don’t know how, we haven’t.”
Perhaps my Lib Dem leaflets will quickly reach the recycling box instead.
At least the Conservative messages I have been delivering to people are positive and constructive – we have kept down the Council Tax, we are bringing in plastic and cardboard recycling, we are building more affordable homes for local people, we are supporting vital rural services such as Post Offices.
And as I trekked up and down the hill in Bishopswood, these were all issues that came up on the doorsteps time and again.

As dusk fell, I had to call it a day and realised I had left no time to take any photographs, as my gloomy photograph above shows.

Parish council election results announced a month early

2007-04-11T07:19:00.000+01:00

MY first Otterford Parish Council meeting, and what a pleasant one it was.
After a stressful day handling a work crisis in West Somerset, I was running late and found no time to actually canvass in Bishopswood ahead of the meeting as we had planned.
Instead, it was a mad dash just to get to the village hall on time.
But something appeared to be not quite right, as the hall was filled with young children, mostly girls, aged around eight to 10 years, enjoying quite a loud birthday disco.
Not being familiar with the building, I ask if there is a separate room somewhere for the local councillors to meet, although I cannot believe a meeting can be held anywhere in the vicinity against the thumping background of some ageless disco favourites.
The answer is negative, so I reach for the mobile to ring the council chairman, Cllr Tony Beaumont, only to discover that, once again since switching from Nokia to Motorola, I do not have a signal and cannot make a call.
Then, a lady appears who, not being unkind, does not look like mum collecting a daughter and who is clutching some paperwork and a large torch, indicating she may be arriving for a meeting which will finish post-dusk.
She turns out to be Cllr Rosemary Viant and she leads me to a committee room to the rear of the hall where other councillors and some members of the public are already waiting.
I have attended parish council meetings of one sort or another, of various sizes, in all sorts of isolated communities across the Westcountry, and wearing a number of different ‘hats’, for the past 30 or so years.
So, although I am a new face for Otterford, I know my stuff and hope to be able to work closely in support of them long into the future.
It turns out they do not have a public participation item on their agenda, in Otterford they call it ‘community time’, which I quite like.
A few verses of ‘Happy Birthday’ are sung in the adjacent hall and the disco then fades away for the parish council business to begin.
I take the opportunity in ‘community time’ to raise some of the parish issues which have been coming up on the doorstep and I am conscious that although I am coming to such matters fresh, the parish councillors will no doubt have heard them time and again.
I am correct - the danger to horse riders from speeding traffic, the absence of pavements to shelter pedestrians from speeding traffic, the problems of heavy lorries on unsuitable roads, have all earned the councillors the proverbial T-shirt in the past.
The ‘I’ve stopped because it hurts’ feeling is common among parish councillors everywhere after they have spent a long time banging their heads against the wall.
However, to their credit, the Otterford councillors do agree to again look into the issue of warning signs for drivers to alert them to horse riders.
They also throw some light on the mystery of the missing signs which ban heavy lorries from a stretch of road, as it turns out there is no ban.
It seems the county council have only told quarry lorries to use a diversion, and in the absence of formal prohibition they cannot put up any signs.
So it is a completely voluntary arrangement. I am not sure why the county think only one type of heavy lorry might be a nuisance and why, if those should use a diversion, others should not.
No doubt I will discover more in time.
The results of the May 3 local elections are announced. Yes, it is only April 10, but all five candidates for the five vacancies in the parish have been returned unopposed.
In fact, there will be no elections in any of the Blackdown ward’s three parishes, as it is the same story in Churchstanton, where seven vacancies have been filled unopposed, and in Pitminster with six candidates for six seats.
So, the only vote local residents will have on May 3 is whether or not to elect me as their Deane councillor.
What it says about local democracy, I am not sure. I know the picture is the same across large parts of the Deane, with only a handful of parishes being contested.
It is not the fault of the candidates, all of whom I am sure have the best interests of their communities at heart.
But if anything is to be done to address the issue of falling participation in English democracy, especially when it comes to a General Election where Governments are elected to decide on issues such as going to war in Iraq, Iran, Syria, or anywhere else, it surely needs to start with healthy competition at the grass roots of democracy.
It turns out to be a last parish council meeting for Cllr Irene Campbell, who is not standing again. Her place is being taken by Charlie Field.
There is some food left over from the disco, so it is passed through at the end of the meeting to accompany a couple of bottles of wine which have been brought along to toast Cllr Campbell farewell.
Being a journalist by profession, I spot the community news potential for the local newspapers and - not because I am invited to share the refreshments – I grab my camera and take a photograph of the occasion, which I will send to the papers shortly.
The photo (above) shows Cllr Campbell seated (right) beside Cllr Viant with (standing, left to right) Cllr Beaumont, Cllr Paul Williams, and the council clerk, Barbara Simpson, whom I have already met as she is (and will be again) a parish councillor in Churchstanton, where her husband Brian is the clerk.

Diversity is alive and well on the natural Blackdowns

2007-04-10T08:11:00.000+01:00

A FINAL evening canvassing on the Blackdown Hills before Easter and the weather has continued to be kind with sunshine following us wherever we go and enhancing the beauty of the environment here.
One of our first stops of the evening throws up a fairly widespread issue with concern about the speed of modern traffic on a rural road.
This time, it is the road which runs past the Holman Clavel public house and, as we are canvassing at a time when quite a lot of people are driving home from work, I decide to walk part of the road to experience the problem for myself.
Scary!
Walking just the short stretch from the caravan park to the public house with cars, lorries, and a towing caravan flashing past not too many inches away from my shoulder is a steep learning curve.
It is all very well listening to people telling you how dangerous something is, but when all you do is drive or stand and watch from a safe vantage point, you just do not feel the real danger people are exposed to.
And that was in the early evening when the light and visibility was excellent for drivers to be able to see me as I dodged on and off the little strips of grass verge which kept me out of harm’s way.
I am not going to be on the county council, which is responsible for the roads and pavements, but I shall certainly be taking every opportunity to let the powers that be know of the safety issue here.
If every highways engineer lived in a rural community and had to walk to his or her local pub, I am sure there would be more money spent on providing pavements for pedestrians.
Only a few minutes later I come across a bizarre situation where the highways people on the county council have banned heavy lorries from a stretch of road - but they appear not to have told the drivers of the heavy lorries.
As I stand at the side of the road and chat to a local resident about to walk his dogs, a large tanker trundles by. I say trundling, but the slipstream seems more like a train rushing by.
It is pointed out to me that such large vehicles are not supposed to use this road but should use a detour.
I ask why drivers who ignore the signs are not pulled up for this by the enforcement people and discover that there are no signs.
It seems hard to understand why, but anybody who has experienced the layer upon layer of county council bureaucracy involved in doing anything, even putting up a simple roadside sign, will have a good idea of how such apparent cock-ups happen.
The Lib Dems on the county council are currently trying to abolish local councils and seize all local government power for themselves with a unitary authority which they say will save us all money.
If they want to save money for Council Taxpayers, there are plenty of ways they could do so at the moment just by taking a look at how they themselves actually work, or do not work.
I tend to think that any money they think a unitary would save, would actually just go into the pockets of Lib Dem councillors who would want even bigger pay allowances than the tens of thousands of pounds they are already paid from the public purse.
The diverse nature of communities and their issues on the Blackdowns is illustrated in just a few hours this evening, as we move from running a caravan site and battling traffic to speak with couples who are retired, couples with young families, elderly people living alone, people who have only recently moved out from Taunton seeking a quieter lifestyle, and others.
There is the farmer who has had to move out of dairy farming because of the dire state of that agricultural sector despite what Tesco might tell you about the price of a pint of milk.
‘Out of the frying pan and into the fire’ comes to mind as he tells how beef and arable farming is hardly any easier.
A possible planning application for a house on a plot of land seems to be the only way out of the financial mire, but I cannot help wondering for how long it will help.
Farmers need to be able to sustain their living and not rely on generating lump sums from property development every so often. Sooner or later, there will not be any room left for such lump sums, but the need to look after the countryside and manage the environment will still be there.
Then, we meet a remarkable elderly couple who are trying to restock the River Otter with salmon.
They tell me how they hatch thousands of baby salmon - parr, I believe, is the technical term - which they distribute at different points in the river and how the water here is full of the foodstuffs baby salmon love.
There is something about the thought of salmon in a river which creates a feel-good feeling, if there is such a thing.
‘Salmon’ equates to pure, clean waters and the natural cycle of Mother Nature, so it must mean a better environment for us all.
The trouble is, the young fish have been killed by pollution which apparently came downstream from a farm some distance away.
Now, they are trying again with a new batch of salmon eggs and hope eventually to be successful.
I sincerely hope, too, that they do succeed and that I will be returning later as their borough councillor to see how they and the salmon are getting on.

Living life on the edge

2007-04-03T08:16:00.000+01:00

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

2007-04-02T10:20:00.000+01:00

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’.