One Person's Report on the Hustings
Hustings at KA
The hustings meeting at King Arthur's performance hall was an unusual and unique occasion because we are facing a triple election on May 5th for Town Councillors, South Somerset District Councillors and a referendum on whether or not to change to the Alternative Vote system for General Elections.
Organised by the Chairman of Wincanton Business Together, John Smith, it was an attempt to make the elections more accessible to the local community and to encourage democratic discussion and debate.
Turnout for the evening was not great. Between 50 and 75 members of the public turned up. This was despite advertising in the Window, the Gazette, the Blackmore Vale Magazine, and BBC Radio Somerset. Coming as it does in the middle of the Easter holidays on a beautiful evening it was perhaps not surprising that people could think of more fun things to do.
The Town Council
The evening started with the Town Council. Much has been made of the assertion that the Town Council is not divided on party political lines though in practice people seem to have a pretty good idea as to what the party allegiance or lack of allegiance of current councillors is. More importantly this election is the first in which all candidates have stood for election by the public for more than twenty years.
Perhaps as a result of this it seems to have come as an unsettling surprise to some current councillors to find themselves expected to turn up and give an account of themselves before their potential electors. Out of the 17 candidates competing for 15 places only eight turned up to face questioning, 4 sent apologies for not being able to come and the rest were not heard from. Perhaps they had good reasons or had been away when their invitations arrived. Let us hope so. Still, as District and Town Councillor Colin Winder was the first to note, their absence was a real pity.
Surely no one should stand for election as a councillor who is not prepared to face questioning and give an account of themselves, their background, qualifications and interests and some idea of their vision for the town. The Window has emphasised that it is happy to publish such manifestos, and is still waiting to receive them. This is odd bearing in mind that the hustings was not covered by the Gazette or the BVM although it was advertised in them.
Still the eight candidates introduced themselves and there followed a lively and thoughtful question and answer session. This revealed little or no disagreement as to what is needed. The town faces a shift in focus with the new Health Centre being built on the New Barn site together with the hotel and restaurant just off the A303. This, together with Morrisons and Lidl, concentrates the "retail footfall" down to the bottom of the town and threatens the continued vitality and viability of High Street shops and of the Co-op.
While this was deplored by several candidates, the decisions have been taken, building has started and the new reality has to be lived with and made the most of. This will include provision for the elderly and others with mobility issues so they will be able to access the new Health Centre.
When it came to the functioning of the Town Council itself when Councillor Dora Hibberd suggested more members of the public should attend Town Council Meetings criticisms were made that the present system of allowing the public to ask questions before the start of the council meeting and then being restricted to total silence was not encouraging. It was suggested, and it seemed generally supported by the candidates, that there should be at least two Open Forum Council Meetings a year when policies and concerns could be properly discussed with members of the public.
Here again Councillor Deryck Lemon pointed out the value of the Window as a place where views and opinions could be aired before and after meetings as well as news and achievements celebrated. I asked for clarification of the rules inhibiting councillors expressing their opinions and Colin Winder explained that as regards planning decisions, councillors were barred from taking part and voting on planning applications if they expressed their opinions publicly before the planning officers had expressed their views to the council. He also said that it was to be hoped that the Minister for Local Government, Eric Pickles, might modify or change this ruling in the new Localism Bill.
The Alternative Vote Issue
The Meeting then moved on to look at the Alternative Vote issue. Statistician and former Deputy Governor of the Bank of Botswana, Dr Derek Hudson who has retired to live in Wincanton, spoke in favour of the change to AV. He was followed by retired estate agent and Conservative candidate for the District Council Nick Colbert who spoke in favour of retaining First Past The Post. Both speakers spoke well with Derek Hudson pointing out the widespread use of the AV system across a range of organisations and the weakness of FPTP in that it can often result in a majority of constituents ending up with an MP they had not voted for while Nick Colbert emphasised the simplicity and clear cut nature of FPTP and the fact that AV is the system of choice in only three countries. There were of course many other points made by both and by members of the audience in what was an interesting exchange of views - if not exactly a meeting of minds.
The Contest for South Somerset District Council
Finally it was the turn of the three District Council candidates, Colin Winder and Nick Colbert for the Conservatives and Jane Lock for the Liberal Democrats. The Green Party candidate David Carnegie was away on holiday and the Labour Party candidate Tim Daniel was unable to attend, but he sent in a statement to be read out.
John Smith started by reading this out but half way through Colin Winder objected that it dealt with national issues and not just District Council issues. John Smith accepted this and continued reading the letter excising what he considered were national references. That seemed unwarranted censorship for candidates had been encouraged to submit statements but had not been told of such a restriction and such references could be relevant however unwelcome to the other parties for the cuts being imposed locally are clearly affected by national policies.
The two Conservative candidates were in agreement in that they strongly criticised the use by the Liberal Democrat District Council of consultants in preparing studies such as the Draft Core Strategy, claiming that the consultants had shown themselves incompetent and costly. In fact Colin Winder described his time as both a town and district councillor as largely taken up with taking on the District Council.
Both also emphasised that they saw Wincanton as overburdened with new houses. Nick Colbert judged many of these to be "aesthetically unpleasing" The biggest problem they agreed was that there were no new opportunities for employment in the town and a shortage of suitable land for new industries. They saw the town as being in danger of becoming simply a dormitory suburb servicing job opportunities in other towns like Yeovil or Salisbury. Jane Lock agreed with these criticisms while pointing out that much of the pressure for new housing could not be blamed on the District Council for it was the result of national policies imposed by the last Labour government because of national housing shortages.
Jane Lock also noted that despite the fact that the Audit Commission has judged SSDC as being one of the best performing councils in the South West on a wide range of criteria, the two Conservative candidates seemed unable to say a positive word about the work of the District Council. She thought this a pity and drew attention to policies she said had helped local businesses and the support it had been providing for vulnerable and elderly people. She also said she would press for building a new primary school on the New Barn site allocated for it and criticised the Conservative run County Council for blocking funding at the last moment for this much needed school. She wondered if the Conservative candidates would try to get this decision reversed. Nick Colbert argued that given the "disastrous deficit left by the Liberal Democrats" when the Conservatives took over the County Council, it was no surprise there was no money for a new school in Wincanton. Colin Winder did not appear to give priority to replacing the primary school and argued that KA should concentrate on teaching "practical subjects like welding" while co-operating more with Sexey's in Bruton.
The most explosive disagreement took place over the issue of car parking charges. The Conservatives have campaigned saying in their leaflet that, "The Lib Dems plan to introduce car parking charges to every market town in Somerset." In addition posters have appeared around the town which say, "No car parking charges here" or "no Lib Dem car parking charges here." In reply Jane Lock had said in relation to this charge in her leaflet that, "It wasn't true in 2007 and it isn't true in 2011, but for me the really sad thing is they know it isn't." She added that, "I can give you my word that parking charges will not be forced on Wincanton if I am elected to South Somerset District Council. This is a very easy commitment for me simply because there never has been any plan to do so."
In saying this she added that she had consulted the Leaded of SSDC Tim Carroll who supported her statement.
It has to be said that there was no agreement over this issue though there is good reason to conclude that this is not really a party political issue at all. It is more about the competing claims of Yeovil, the market towns and the County Council as to who should finance district owned car parks and county council controlled on street parking. See the following article by Tim Carroll.
All three were however equally adamant that as things stand currently if car parking charges were introduced either in the High Street or in the streets in and around the centre of the town the costs would be very considerable probably making the policy uneconomic to implement while its impact on local High Street shops would be catastrophic as all shopping would move down to the supermarkets or out of town, turning the High Street simply into a residential area.
Overall the evening had opened up a good discussion and provided those present with an opportunity to see the candidates perform under some pressure. John Smith is to be thanked and congratulated for organising and chairing the event, however in writing this article I learnt from him that the poster campaign "no car parking charges here" was his work and not, as many had thought, the work of the Conservative Party. His motivation he says was to support the interests of local businessand the WBT. He declares he does not know who put up the "no Lib Dem car parking charges" posters. This is a pity for I think the unmarked posters have inflamed both parties creating more animosity than clear thinking about a less than simple issue.
The Town Council candidates at the hustings meeting were Jim Eastaugh, Maureen Emery, Dora Hibberd, Edward Hoadley, Deryk Lemon, Lynda Walters and Colin Winder.
Apologies were received on behalf of: Georgina Ratcliff, Bernard Pearson, David Norris and Ruby Shave.
This report simply gives my personal take on the evening. Further comments amplifying or taking issue with what I have said are invited.
John Baxter
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