The Hedge End Independent

Lets learn from the mistakes with Comines...

2012-03-07T22:19:00.005Z

Hedge End was formally twinned with Comines-Warneton in 1994, but the cultural exchanges between the two towns have fizzled out and the Hedge End Twinning Association was disbanded in January 2010. There is currently no meaningful cultural exchange nor any trade links between the two Towns.

This history behind this problem was first reported on HedgeEndPeople two years ago, when the Twinning Association was disbanded, but the subject cropped up again yesterday evening at the Friends of Hedge End meeting, with the leader of Hedge End Town Council Cllr Jane Welsh shedding a little more light on the problem.

As you may know, Comines straddles the border between France and Belgium.

My understanding is that the twinning idea was initiated by the Comines France Carnival Committee in 1993 and formal twinning with the Belgian town of Comines-Warneton followed a year later. Cultural exchanges were mainly based around the carnivals in Hedge End and Comines. The arrangement was successful for a while, despite causing Hedge End Carnival Committee and our Twinning Association a few headaches, but hit serious difficulty when Comines France ceased funding for their Carnival Committee. Hedge End was able to continue muddling through as it had always done, but starved of its funding the Comines Carnival Committee struggled to reciprocate Hedge End's hospitality and eventually folded. The exchanges stopped.

When a new twinning organisation emerged in Comines, keen to resume their annual cross-channel jollies, Hedge End had difficulty finding local people who were interested in accommodating our guests. The Carnival Committee had recruited some new blood by now, but they were naturally less interested in the cultural exchanges than their predecessors, the people who had instigated the twinning arrangement. Residents and other local organisations simply would not get involved, despite numerous appeals. Having tried very hard, our Twinning Association conceded defeat and disbanded in 2010.

The twinning arrangement with Comines now amounts to little more than a dusty charter nailed to the wall of the Town Council Offices, the road signs on the boundary of Hedge End and a few mentions on various Wikipedia pages...

All of which is pertinent to the burning question of whether Hedge End should now twin with Mockmuhl in Germany or not. My preference is for the twinning idea to be dropped, for Hedge End Town Council to tell Mockmuhl that it is not possible in the current economic and political circumstances.

It seems to me that the difficulty with the Comines twinning is that it was far too dependent on the respective carnivals. If either of those hit a problem, the twinning arrangement was in real trouble. Strong trade links should have been established first, before formal twinning. Trade links would have helped to underpin & strengthen the cultural ties.

Think of it like this. Would you marry somebody after a couple of dirty weekends, without really knowing them and on the assumption that the longer-term relationship will be OK? Isn't it more sensible to spend time building and establishing the relationship first, before getting married...?

So with that thought in mind, if Hedge End really does want to do more twinning, I think it should be based around a regular weekly market established somewhere in Hedge End, with stalls bearing goods & produce from Mockmuhl and Comines. We should also be sending local produce the other way.

Wouldn't it be great to be able to to buy Belgian chocolate, German wine, continental cheeses and garlic-laden sausages from stalls in Hedge End Village centre every Saturday...?

Well maybe not the garlic-laden sausages, but my point is that only when such trade-links are well-established should formal twinning with Mockmuhl be considered.

Town twinning should not be based on carnivals alone.

Thank you for reading

Ray Turner
http://www.facebook.com/hedgeendindependents

Shamblehurst by-election result

2012-03-02T20:08:00.000Z

The results of the Shamblehurst by-election are now in. I'm afraid that I wasn't successful on this occasion, but I'd like to say a big thank you to everybody who supported me by encouraging me, signing nomination papers, delivering leaflets, voting for me and by reading/commenting on this blog. Every little helps.

The results were;

Richard Effeny (Lib Dem) 263
Paul Redding (Conservative) 96
Ray Turner (Independent) 52
Michale O'Donoghue (UKIP) 22

With 2 spoiled ballot papers and a rather disappointing turnout of only 24.81%

Which means that 75.19% of the electors of the Shamblehurst ward are so disaffected or apathetic about local politics that they didn't turn-out to vote.

It also means that the majority of the registered electors of Shamblehurst ward do not support the Lib Dems, or anybody else. Me included. So please do not let the Lib Dems tell you that they have the support of the majority of Hedge End, because they don't.

After this result we return to the situation where the Lib Dems have a 19 to 1 majority on the Town Council. I think that is an unhealthy situation as their majority is too large. In practice, it allows the Lib Dems to stifle any discussion or debate that they do not wish to have.

I'll keep plugging away, but your help in making the rest of Hedge End aware of the problem with the size of the Lib Dems majority on Hedge End Town Council is very important. Even something as simple as sharing the link to this site or liking the Hedge End Independents Facebook page will help.

Thank you for reading

Ray Turner
http://www.facebook.com/hedgeendindependents

Why I don't vote Lib Dem any more...

2012-02-28T23:11:00.000Z

Once upon a time, in a polling booth far, far away, I voted Lib Dem. It seemed like a good idea at the time...!

Somehow the Lib Dems got to know that I had done so. The "Vote Lib Dem" poster in my kitchen window might have been a subtle clue I suppose, but my displaying that poster actually had more to do with my not wanting the well-fed, sharp-suited Tory candidate to win, than a firm belief in Lib Dem policies and principles. It was a tactical vote rather than a partisan belief.

So I was amused a few years ago, to see the Tory & Lib Dem tellers eagerly checking their lists when I gave them my electoral number on arrival at the polling station, as though I had given them the next set of numbers for Sun Bingo.

As I walked away, I heard the Lib Dem exclaim to the Tory "He's one of ours!", the Lib Dem clearly delighted to get one up on the Tory. What neither teller knew at the time was that I'd voted UKIP in that particular election, because I was now thoroughly disillusioned with all of the main parties and wanted to give somebody else a chance. The Lib Dems had been given their opportunity and had proven themselves to be no better than the big two.

Now I mention this tonight because I've had the latest edition of Standpoint drop through my letterbox today, which rather nicely demonstrates why I feel that way. The newsletter set my blood boiling actually, as it is thoroughly outrageous in places. Local politics, electioneering, at its worst.

If you are reading this, you will hopefully know that for much of last year, 2011, Eastleigh Borough Council spent a lot of time & money developing a new local plan. That plan covers the whole Borough and includes some major new housing developments at Woodhouse Lane in Hedge End and at Boorley Green, literally thousands of new homes locally. They are some very controversial proposals.

To service those new homes, some new roads are proposed locally, including a new bypass for Sundays Hill which will cut through some historic countryside, connecting Heath House Lane with Pylands Lane.

The draft local plan was put out to consultation last year and the many thousands of responses are currently being processed by Eastleigh Borough Council. More news is to follow later in the year. It is possible that the plan will be changed, but it might not. We've just got to wait patiently for the time being.

The process of creating the new local plan was firmly under the stewardship of the Lib Dems as it is the Lib Dems who currently have control of the Borough Council. They are not usually slow to remind us of that. Yes the Town Planners did all the work, but they were openly telling residents at the Consultation Roadshows that their preference was to build in Allington Lane, adding that the decsion to build in Hedge End and Boorley Green was a political decision, taken by the Lib Dems.

The only reason for taking such a decision that I can think of, and I don't just mean the Lib Dems as all parties would do likewise, is that it is the option of least electoral damage. In this case building in Hedge End is the option that is of least risk to the Lib Dems position because they have a huge majority in Hedge End.

If you follow local politics closely you'll also know that many of our Town Councillors are dual-hatters, i.e. also serving on the Borough Council. That includes the two Cllrs pictured in this edition of Standpoint, Cllr Jane Welsh and Cllr Rupert Kyrle. In practice, dual-hatting means that decisions taken in Eastleigh can easily be pushed through at Hedge End.

Which is exactly what happened with the local plan. Hedge End Town Council failed to oppose the draft local plan last year. The decision to build in Hedge End was taken at Borough level and because the Town Council is so "under the thumb" at the moment it put up virtually no opposition. The Town Council just rolled-over and thought of England, allowing Hedge End to be well & truly <answers on a postcard please!>.........

So the Lib Dem's latest claim that they intend to save the countryside at Kings Copse is more than a bit rich. It is thoroughly outrageous. Standpoint is a campaign newsletter, nothing whatsoever to do with Hedge End Town Council. Standpoint is political and the Lib Dems are clearly trying to gain an electoral advantage, but how can they possibly have the cheek to say that they want to "Save our Countryside!" whilst doing something very different in other parts of the Town? Whilst planning to build on Woodhouse Lane, the only significant remaining chunk of Hedge End's countryside..?

There's another classic deception in the same issue of Standpoint, where the Lib Dem's refer to some new sports pitches that are to be built.

It sounds really great actually, but the Lib Dems omit to mention that these pitches are part of the development in Woodhouse Lane, which brings 1000 homes and all the consequential traffic movements into the area.

Once again they're only telling you part of the story, spinning the local news for electoral advantage in exactly the same way that Labour and the Conservatives have done previously.

If the Lib Dems had said "As part of the Woodhouse lane development, which will bring 1000 new homes to the area, the Lib Dems have secured a commitment from the developers to build some much needed sports pitches", I would have less of an argument with them.

But why can't they be honest and tell us that we're getting 1000 new homes as well as the sports pitches...?

And then, as if those deceptions weren't bad enough already, the Lib Dems have the cheek to try to shift responsibility for local development onto the Conservatives...

Frankly I've had enough of that party political nonsense, the relentless spin, the relentless deceit.

That is partly why I'm standing in the Shamblehurst by-election on 1st March, as an independent.

The other reason I'm standing is that the Lib Dems currently have an 18 to 1 majority on the Town Council. That is most unhealthy and needs to be changed. Urgently.

In my opinion, we need more people on the Town Council who are prepared to probe/challenge and question, raise the counter arguments whenever possible and who are determined to not let the Lib Dems get away with too much. At the very least, Hedge End Town Council should be forced to discuss the really big issues, like the draft local plan and new Town-twinning arrangements, but whilst there is only person (Cllr Keith Day) in opposition it often isn't possible to get a discussion onto the agenda. It needs a seconder as well as a proposer...!

I suggest that opposition is an essential part of democracy at all levels of Government, but it is not currently happening in Hedge End because the Lib Dems have been allowed to accumulate too large a majority.

Your vote for me on 1st March, whatever your usual allegiance or antipathy, really will help to make a difference.

Thank you for reading

Ray Turner
http://www.facebook.com/hedgeendindependents

Hedge End should not be twinned with Mockmuhl...!

2012-02-24T19:26:00.001Z

Perhaps one of the biggest issues facing Hedge End Town Council at the moment, is the question of whether Hedge End should be twinned with the town of Möckmühl in Southern Germany.

But have you seen that raised as an issue on any of the election leaflets that the Lib Dems have stuffed through your letterbox...?

Why aren't the Lib Dems raising this as an issue in the election campaign? It is clearly a local issue, but they seem very reluctant to discuss it. I can only assume that is because it is a controversial thing for them to be doing, in 2012 austerity Britain...

Part of the problem is that Möckmühl is actually very different to Hedge End. It is hard to see what, if anything, we have in common. Twinning with Möckmühl is a crazy idea really, reminiscent of the film that paired Arnold Schwarzenegger and Danny Devito as "Twins"...

Some of our Town Councillors were invited to visit Möckmühl last December, which I must say (to be fair to them), that they did at their own expense. They subsequently reported on the Hedge End Town Council website to have been overwhelmed by the German hospitality.

Town twinning is a very big deal on the continent and in Germany in particular. Clearly less so in the UK and in Hedge End in particular. The Germans have a budget for Town twinning and seem to regard their "jollies" as a perk of the job. We don't have a budget for Town twinning, mainly I think because it is politically unacceptable to do so. We don't like our elected representatives having fun at the Taxpayers expense. That is usually regarded as scandalous...!

Furthermore, our existing link with Comines-Warneton in Belgium has fizzled out. There is no cultural exchange nor any trade link between the two Towns at the moment. Our link with Comines-Warneton is now little more than a name on the road signs as you enter Hedge End. The citizens of Hedge End are clearly not interested in Town twinning.

When I asked about the twinning process at the February Town Council meeting, I was told that the Council were keen to give local schools the chance to arrange cultural exchanges with Möckmühl.

Which would be great, but surely we don't need to formally twin Hedge End with Möckmühl in order to do that? Schools are quite capable of making their own twinning arrangements if they want to, without it being necessary for the Towns to be formally twinned. They've been doing so for decades...!

So I think Hedge Enders need to be very careful that we don't give our Town Councillors the opportunity to go on "jolly's" to Southern Germany at our expense, and lumber us with the unwanted additional cost of reciprocal hospitality for their German chums.

I have noticed that our Town Councillors have been at pains to explain that any future trips would also be at their own expense, but there are two big problems with that claim.

They have recently voted, item 8 in the January meeting, to pay themselves Travel & Subsistence expenses for all Town Council business that is conducted outside of the boundaries of Hedge End. That could of course include Town Council business in Southern Germany...!

Even if the existing Councillors did fund such trips at their own expense, is it right for them to impose such a burden on future Councillors? There is no "allowance" for serving on the Town Council, i.e. no remuneration. It is a voluntary post. If elected, I would struggle to fund my own trips to Southern Germany on van drivers wages, so I would refuse the invitation. Other Councillors might be in the same position. Sooner or later, Town twinning with Möckmühl will fizzle-out, because nobody can afford to subsidise those activities out of their own pocket...

So given all of the above, I propose that it would be best for Hedge End if our Town Council bite the bullet and tell the Mayor of Möckmühl that "Cultural exchanges between schools are always welcome, but due to the economic and political situation that exists at the moment, formal twinning between the two Towns is not possible."

What do you think...?

Thank you for reading

Ray Turner
http://www.facebook.com/hedgeendindependents

The best man for the job, or Derby winner...?

2012-02-21T21:57:00.000Z

I have just been looking at one of the Lib Dems recent election leaflets, for the Shamblehurst by-election in Hedge End.

In it they list "three good reasons" to vote for their candidate, amid which is the assertion that the Independents come last here in Hedge End.

Actually, in the 2011 Town Council elections, the two Independents that stood did rather better than the Lib Dems are prepared to admit.

Cllr Keith Day was successfully returned to the Town Council, representing the Wildern ward and is doing a grand job, as you can see from his blog. Jenny Schwausch only just missed out in Grange Park East, by 16 votes.

So that was one obvious flaw with the Lib Dems argument, but I also noticed that the Lib Dems "three good reasons" for voting for their candidate told me nothing whatsoever about the personality, character, philosophy, experience or attitude of their candidate. Read it yourself if you still have that leaflet, and I think you'll see what I mean.

It is a problem that occurs regularly in the Lib Dems leafleting. I've noticed over the last few years that we are usually told very little about their candidate. There's a lot of negative campaigning, a lot of Tory-bashing, a lot of yellow flag-waving, but precious little of the information upon which we should really be basing our decision in the polling booth.

Further evidence for this is that the Lib Dems wouldn't even let their candidate participate in the interviews that have recently been posted on Cllr Day's blog. Please note that Richard Effany has not been omitted deliberately by Cllr Day. He was prevented from participating by the Lib Dem campaign team in Eastleigh...

For the record, the Lib Dems "three good reasons" for voting for Richard Effany were;

Only the Liberal Democrats can beat the Tories in our area. Labour have no candidate. Independents and UKIP come last here.
The Conservatives have axed vital services at Hampshire - but are stashing YOUR tax in the County bank - they don't deserve to win!
Only the Liberal Democrats represent our area on the Borough and County Councils. EVERY local councillor here in Shamblehurst ward is backing Richard in this election.

Which translates to;
"You really don't want the Tories to be elected. No, really you don't. We're the only party that can stop them and have a great track record of doing so. Our two remaining Councillors in Shamblehurst ward think Richard is a jolly nice chap"

Now I don't think that is anything like a good enough reason to vote for the Lib Dem candidate. I would want to know a lot more about Richard before casting my vote. I personally think we should be trying to select the best person to fill the vacancy on the Town Council, not back the horse that it is most likely to win the Derby...

But that's political parties for you. They are obsessed with winning and with gaining & retaining power.

Do you remember Labour's flag-waving in their quest for that "historic" fourth-term, which never actually happened in 2010, because we were all so fed up with them and their leader...?

I personally think we are on the verge of the same thing happening in Eastleigh and Hedge End. The local Lib Dems seem to have developed the same sort of arrogance that led to the downfall of Labour in 2010.

Perhaps we will see more Independents returned in future. If not me on this occasion, there will certainly be other Independents in future local elections.

From where I am sitting, the difficulty with being an Independent candidate is that we simply don't have the resources that the main parties have. Not just money. We miss the office space and equipment, the teams of people prepared to trudge around streets in February stuffing leaflets through letterboxes, the telephone canvassers and so on. Those resources make a big difference and give the main parties a huge advantage over the Independent candidate. It is why there are so few of us at the moment.

On the other hand, the best thing about being an Independent candidate is that I do not have a party line to follow.

I do not have a party leader or party hierarchy telling me how I should think, what I should say and how I should vote.

I do not have to defend the indefensible. If I'm not happy about something I can say so.

I am completely free to represent the people of Hedge End.

That's all I want to do.

Thank you for reading

Ray Turner
http://www.facebook.com/hedgeendindependents

Council Tax

2012-02-19T10:39:00.001Z

One of the problems I've noticed recently, is increasing pressure on the Town Council component of our Council Tax.

This is happening because the Town Council has been keen to continue services that are being cut by Hampshire County Council.

Youth Services are the prime example, where the newly formed Hedge End, West End and Botley Youth Partnership takes on a role that was previously provided by the County Council with Hedge End Town Council now funding a significant portion of the additional costs of providing that service locally. For instance the Town Council is currently in the process of recruiting a Youth Team Leader, for which the cost of advertising the position has already cost us an additional £960.48. That persons salary will in future be coming out the Hedge End component of your Council tax, rather than the County Councils.

But will you be seeing a reduction in Hampshire component of your Council Tax...?

No. There's extra cost at Town level which we will eventually have to pay for, but taxpayers will not see a reduction in the charges levied by Hampshire County Council. Service provision is being localised, which might prove to be better, but in a way that creates inflationary pressure on the Hedge End component your Council Tax bill.

Town Councillors have also voted recently, to pay themselves expenses for any Town Council business that is conducted outside of the boundaries of Hedge End. It was argued that it was right to pay the Councillors bus-fare to attend meetings in the Civic Offices, which is fair enough, but now that the Town Council has got such an arrangement in place it could in theory be used to fund expenses paid trips to Mockmuhl in Southern Germany, to discuss twinning arrangements.

The Councillors claim that those foreign trips will be self-funded, but they have clearly left themselves the room to argue that these twinning trips are "Town Council business". What do you think will happen, if we take our eye off the ball and fail to scrutinise the activities of our Town Council...?

Our Councillors have also been very generous with our money recently, funding new signs for the St Johns Ambulance building (shouldn't St Johns Ambulance HQ fund that?), donating £300 to the Hedge End new Music Makers so that they can hire a hall and professional pianist to hold a concert (but what about revenue from Ticket sales?) and donating £500 to the Asian Welfare and Cultural Association to help fund the Mela in Eastleigh this Summer (but you've already contributed towards that event via the Borough component of your Council Tax).

Now I currently have to work for a whole month every year, just to pay my Council Tax. I'm sure I'm not the only person locally in that situation. For me, that crosses the line in the sand where the level of local taxation is too high.

So I think that Hedge End Town Council needs to be a little tougher on what it agrees to take-on and support, and we need more people who are prepared to question such expenditure on the committees that take these decisions.

Thank you for reading

Ray Turner
http://www.facebook.com/hedgeendindependents

Apathy or disillusionment...?

2012-02-15T23:30:00.007Z

I've just returned from the 15th February meeting of the full Hedge End Town Council. I have to say it was perhaps the most tedious of all the Hedge End Town Council meetings that I've been to so far, lasting nearly 2 hours and achieving virtually nothing. No decisions were taken. There was a Police report, a report from the Borough Council and a report from the County Council all of which involved a great deal of talking and surreptitious clock-watching, but absolutely no decision making whatsoever.

I did try to get the full Council to discuss whether it is appropriate for Hedge End to be thinking about twinning our town with Mockmuhl in Germany, taking the opportunity provided by item 1 on the Agenda, which was "Public Questions not on the Agenda".

Bizarrely, because the subject of twinning was not on the Agenda for this evenings meeting, the Town Council wouldn't discuss it. I kid you not. They were hiding behind procedures. What is the point of having "Public Questions not on the Agenda" if the Council won't actually discuss issues that are not on the Agenda...?

I was told that the way the Council works is to delegate such decisions to its sub-committees, which I already knew of course, but the twinning issue seems to be such a big decision affecting the whole town that I think it is far too important to be taken by just a handful of people, literally just a handful of people.

At yesterdays meeting of the Community & Culture sub-committee, where twinning was discussed, only 5 of our Town Councillors were present. From where I was sitting, they all seemed luke-warm about the idea of twinning, clearly very aware of the many problems and issues, but nobody seemed willing to say "Hang-on a minute, we shouldn't be thinking about twinning in the current political and economic climate".

Which is why I attempted to raise the issue this evening. In my opinion, all 21 of the Town Councillors need to be involved in the huge decision about town twinning. It should really be discussed in full Council.

So despite what is in theory a great opportunity for a member of the public to raise questions with the Town Council, it proved impossible to get the twinning issue discussed this evening. Nerves and tiredness didn't help me tonight, if I'm honest. For some reason, I don't find that public questions forum an easy thing to do, I struggle with it. If it puts me off, I bet that others will find it difficult too...

Anyway, all I achieved this evening was to obtain a brief summary of the current situation from Cllr Welsh, the leader of the Town Council. No discussion, no decision. Not what I wanted. It was pointless asking the question really...

Which brings me to the main point behind this blog posting.

Public attendance at these Town Council meetings is routinely poor. Four people were in attendance this evening, and two of those (Paul Redding & myself) are candidates in the Shamblehurst by-election. There was no sign of the Lib Dem candidate.

I have sat in several Town Council meetings recently where I've literally been the only member of public in attendance, it is a very lonely place to be. I understand from the Town Councillors that having five members of the public in attendance is actually considered a good turnout these days. It is a problem that our Town Councillors generally refer to as "apathy".

But I'm more inclined to think that it is disillusionment, i.e. "what's the point of attending?" rather than "I can't be bothered to attend?"

Perhaps the format and the structure of these Town Council meetings needs to be reviewed and modernised, if the Town Council wants more members of the public to get involved...?

Thank you for reading

Ray Turner
http://www.facebook.com/hedgeendindependents

Divide and rule...?

2012-02-13T19:22:00.000Z

I was very disappointed today, to see a comment on one of the Lib Dem election leaflets, which said that the other candidates are all from the "other side" of Hedge End.

It is perfectly true of course, only the Lib Dem candidate currently resides in the Shamblehurst ward. I have no problem with the Lib Dems making that observation in their campaign, but I feel that they've done it in the wrong way. They've chosen their words unwisely.

Portraying the older part of Hedge End as the "other side", isn't really going to help to build a sense of community in Hedge End, is it...?

It is more evidence, if it were needed, that the people who are currently in control of Hedge End, the Lib Dems, have the wrong mindset and are no longer the best people for the job.

Thank you for reading

Ray Turner
http://www.facebook.com/hedgeendindependents

Leafleting in Shamblehurst

2012-02-11T16:17:00.000Z

Lib Dems claim the Recycling Centre
will be moved, but when...?

I have just spent a chilly but thoroughly enjoyable morning walking round part of the Shamblehurst ward, delivering campaign leaflets. Thanks to everybody who spared a little time to talk to me, even if it was just to exchange a quick "Good morning". Thanks also to the chap who declined a leaflet and said "You Politicians are all the same": it was a very polite refusal and a point of view that I know many people hold. I have said the same thing myself, before now. It is funny how things turn around sometimes...!

Now I must admit that I've not had cause to walk round the mobile home park previously. It isn't one of those things that there's ordinarily a valid reason to do, unless delivering or visiting. It is not a through route, it is not a dog-walking area, it is not a play area, it is a quiet residential area.

I found that getting round the mobile home park efficiently, without missing anybody, is quite a challenge when delivering leaflets, but I hope I managed to visit every letterbox. I do have a few spares if I did accidentally miss you out. Let me know and I will get one to you.

Whilst walking around the mobile home park, I noticed how homely and well-loved many of the plots were, with some fabulous water features and well tended gardens. I was also surprised at the cost of the mobile homes and the rentals that are charged. It is not as cheap a way of living as I had thought. Having walked round the whole park, I feel that I understand your little corner of Hedge End a little better now.

One problem I noticed in Shamblehurst Lane was the perennial problem of youngsters cycling around residents car parks, clearly causing some annoyance to one particular resident. It is the noise and the risk of damage to expensive and cherished vehicles that creates the concern. It seems trivial, but can actually be very stressful for the residents concerned. If you happen to read this and you know the young people who might be causing the problem, and you know them well enough to do so, please ask them to stick to the public highway. The Council might be able to erect some signs about cycling, if we campaigned hard enough, but can only do so much. Friendly education by parents, elders and peers, is likely to be a more effective solution.

I was pleased to be given one of the Lib Dem Standpoint leaflets whilst walking around the area, the one where the top story is "Recyling Centre to Move?". I agree that it is a problem in Shamblehurst Lane, causing long queues and congestion sometimes, not to mention the huge lorries that have to travel up and down the lane. I wholeheartedly support the idea of the Recycling Centre being moved, but noted that the Lib Dems were unable to say when that would happen. It is just a grand idea at the moment.

Please remember that I'm campaigning against the Lib Dems, but I would also like say that I was appalled that the Lib Dems leaflet seemed to have been written by the Borough Councillors with little or no input (so far as I could see) from the Lib Dem candidate himself. I urge you to read it again if you still have it. Even the email addresses were for the Borough Councillors, rather than the candidate in this Town Council Election.

And that I am afraid, is the problem that has finally brought me to the ballot box.

Hedge End Town Council is dominated by the Borough Councillors, who essentially do what they are told to do by the Lib Dem leader, Cllr Keith House. We thus have a subservient and compliant Town Council, currently comprised of 18 Lib Dems with only 1 independent Councillor (no Conservatives) to oppose them.

Hedge End desperately needs more Councillors who will stand up to the Borough and fight for the best interests of Hedge End, not the best interests of Cllr House's Lib Dem empire...

Your vote for me on the 1st March will help to reduce that problem. The Lib Dems will still have a huge majority on the Town Council after this election, but a second independent Councillor would greatly improve the dynamics of Town Council meetings. We'd be much better placed to get some of the important counter-arguments discussed and minuted. Those discussions could not be managed out of Town Council meetings by the cunning Lib Dems. If you would like to understand the problem more fully, this report by Eastleigh News might help.

Thank you for reading

Ray Turner
http://www.facebook.com/hedgeendindependents

Black Hole at Town Council Offices...?

2012-02-10T20:15:00.001Z

Something I've noticed that a number of Hedge End residents have said recently, is that they haven't received a reply from the Town Council Offices after writing to them.

It is not just once that it has been said. Different people have volunteered that thought of their own accord, completely independently of each other and in different circumstances. There is a clear hint that something is wrong, buzzing around the Town.

I have to say now, that my experience of communicating with the Town Council is generally very positive. But they know me of course and they know that I write a lot, including for Eastleigh News. There are however a couple of little exceptions to that general rule, which support what I've heard other residents say.

I've emailed the Town Council on a number of occasions recently and have generally received a full and prompt reply. I've been very pleased overall, but there was one notable exception. I offered to help with adding some new material to the Hedge End Town Council website, but am still waiting for a reply to that particular message. I haven't noticed that particular item of correspondence being raised in Council meetings either, but perhaps I missed it.

I did see some of my other correspondence being summarised at a recent Town Council meeting. I can see why summarising might be necessary, but I felt that one of the key points that I made had been completely lost in the summary. What was reported back to the Councillors was only part of what I had written. My message hadn't been passed to the Councillors in its entirety. If I hadn't attended the meeting I wouldn't have known. I would have assumed that my correspondence had been passed-on in full.

It isn't a huge problem as I'll raise the point again, in another way on another day, but I would have preferred that my correspondence was summarised a little more completely.

So what can be done...?

Well having tested the system and noted a problem, I would like the chance to address it.

IF I am returned as an Independent Town Councillor on 1st March, do feel at liberty to keep me informed of any correspondence that you are having with the Town Council. That offer applies whichever part of Hedge End you come from: it is not exclusive to Shamblehurst ward. If I know what you are saying to the Town Council Offices, I can monitor whether it is being dealt with properly. I can particularly monitor whether it is being summarised correctly in Council meetings. I would have the opportunity to stop some of the important points that you raise from being lost.

You could do this with any of the Town Councillors actually, liaising with whoever you feel most comfortable with, but if writing to an Independent Town Councillor you can be sure that matters will not be dropped into that black hole because they are inconvenient, at odds with the party line.

Independent Town Councillors do not represent any political party.

Independent Town Councillors represent the people of Hedge End.

Thank you for reading.

Ray Turner
http://www.facebook.com/hedgeendindependents

How do you solve a problem like, Speeding...?

2012-02-02T22:10:00.001Z

At the Hedge End, West End and Botley (HEWEB) Local Area Committee meeting on 30th January, our Borough Councillors agreed to reserve a sum of £3250 to underwrite the procurement costs for a Community Speedwatch team, which Hampshire Constabulary are working to establish in the Hedge End area.

The idea behind Community Speedwatch is that residents will apply to become Police Support Volunteers, and will be tasked with monitoring speed in known problem areas locally, reporting speeding motorists to the Police who will then issue a warning letter. Persistent offenders will get a knock on their door, from the Police, and could be prosecuted.

Now there is one obvious problem with Community Speedwatch. If you drive past the Community Speedwatch team doing 35mph and you see your neighbour in that party, how are you going to feel towards your neighbour when a warning letter drops through your door...? Not very favourably I suspect.

Would I volunteer to do it...?
No. I will not be jumping on the Community Speedwatch bandwagon.

There are some other problems too. For instance, how can we be sure that the volunteers won't discretely put their "enemies" details on to the list of speeders? It may not happen very often, most volunteers will be responsible citizens, but I'm quite sure it will happen one day...

So my question is this. Is Community Speedwatch really the best way of tackling the problem of speeding in Hedge End...?

Superficially, Community Speedwatch is an attractive idea. I can see why our Borough Councillors are enthusiastic about it, but when I think about the potential impact on our local community I'm not so sure that it is wise to go down that route.

As it happens, I cover more than 50,000 miles every year in my job as a van driver so I know from experience that those pesky mobile camera vans are the biggest deterrent against speeding.

Those vans, from the Hampshire Safer Roads Partnership can appear literally anywhere and I know that they'll most likely have measured my speed before I see them. The only sure way of staying out of trouble is to stick religiously to the speed limit. It is easier said than done sometimes, little distractions (such as election campaigns) can sometimes cause my mind to wander, but I do try very hard to stick to the limit. I know that if I routinely ignore the speed limits, the law of averages is such that a camera van is guaranteed to get me one day.

So those random speed traps really do work, they are much more effective than static cameras.

Community Speedwatch would also seem to have that principle of randomness working in its favour, but the people on those teams will be in full public view and potentially identifiable. They do not have the advantage of being able to hide in the back of a van, operating the detection equipment. Overall, I think that the risk of the volunteers becoming targets for hate/abuse far outweighs the other obvious advantages of the scheme. We should not be encouraging residents to expose themselves to this sort of risk, doing a job that is best left to Officers of the Law...

So what is the alternative...?

Well the other technology that I've noticed is very effective whilst I'm out and about in my van, is the speed-indicator sign. The signs that tell you how fast you are going and which encourage you to adjust your speed and comply with the law without any punitive measures being taken.

That's often all the responsible motorist needs, a little more information.

And unlike Community Speedwatch, those signs work 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

There are a couple of these signs installed on Woodmill Lane, in Midanbury, Southampton. They've been there for a few years now, so clearly must be having a beneficial effect. If they'd made the problem worse, they would have been removed. Look out for those signs the next time you are passing and see what you think. Does the knowledge that you've been measured doing more than 30mph encourage you to slow down...? It does me.

Perhaps HEWEB would have been better advised to invest in some of those speed-indicator signs, rather than on Community Speedwatch...?

What do you think...?

Thank you for reading

Ray Turner
http://www.facebook.com/hedgeendindependents

The footbridge in need of some maintenance...

2012-01-28T17:14:00.000Z

The Shamblehurst ward of Hedge End spans the busy A334, which runs from J7 of the M27 to Botley and beyond.

At one edge of the ward, on the Peter Cooper roundabout, is a footbridge, which connects Wildern Lane to Shamblehurst Lane. This supplements a traffic island and new pedestrian crossing, installed at the end of 2011.

It is a safe way of crossing the road and provides some good views looking across Hedge End towards the Rose Bowl and beyond.

But as you get close to the footbridge, you see that it is badly in needs of a coat of paint.

It has become an eyesore.

When using the footbridge, it is even more obvious that it hasn't been maintained for a very long time.

There is moss, lichen and algae on the steps.

So far as I am aware, this footbridge is not the responsibility of Hedge End Town Council, they are not entirely responsible for its poor state of maintenance. Its neglect.

But wouldn't it have been better if the Town Council had monitored the condition of the bridge, made sure that it received routine maintenance and took action before it got into this condition...?

Wouldn't you think the Town Council would be a little more concerned about such an eyesore in the middle of the Town...?

This matter was raised at the last full Council meeting, by Hedge End's one independent Councillor, Cllr Keith Day. The matter is now going to be taken up with Hampshire County Council.

Independent Town Councillors can help to get things done.

I'd like to hear from you if you are aware of any other problems like this. I'll certainly take them up for you.

Even if I'm not returned as a Town Councillor, I'm happy to raise these issues in full Council meetings, during the opening session where questions are taken from members of public.

Thank you for reading

Ray Turner
http://www.facebook.com/hedgeendindependents

The state of local politics in Hedge End

2012-01-27T12:30:00.002Z

Hedge End is a growing place. First constituted as a Civil Parish in 1894 it grew and experienced significant expansion in the 1980's and 90's, becoming a Town Council in 1992.

For the Town Council elections, Hedge End is currently split into seven wards, each of which returns three Town Councillors.

Of Hedge End's 21 Town Councillors, all but one are Liberal Democrats. The exception is Cllr Keith Day, an Independent, who currently writes about Hedge End issues as the HedgeEndBlogger.

That's fine. Everybody who is serving on Hedge End Town Council is there because they've gone through the due processes and have been formally returned as a Town Councillor.

But there is a problem.
There isn't enough opposition.

The dynamics of the Town Council are such that it isn't always possible to get important matters discussed. I've witnessed the problem first-hand, at the December 2011 full Council meeting.

At that meeting in December, Cllr Day arrived ready to discuss the Council's response to the draft local plan, something that he reasonably expected to be on the Agenda following his previous attempt to discuss the matter in the September 2011 full Council meeting. I was indisposed that evening in September and couldn't attend, but what happened was ably reported by Eastleigh News.

I was astonished that the Agenda for the December meeting did not include any mention of the draft local plan, which it should have done really following the decision in September. Despite his best efforts, Cllr Day couldn't get the matter discussed because nobody would "second" the idea of discussing it at the December meeting. I subsequently reported what happened on Eastleigh News, following up the earlier story.

Now with only one person forming the opposition on Hedge End Town Council, this sort of problem is likely to occur quite regularly. It is easy for a party, any party, with an overall majority to prevent measures from being approved. But when they outnumber the opposition by 20 to 1, they can also prevent measures from being discussed. I think that is a very unhealthy situation for local democracy.

So that is one of the reasons why I would like to be elected to Hedge End Town Council, to make sure that the things that should be discussed are properly discussed and minuted.

The current vacancy in Shamblehurst ward is an opportunity to achieve that.

The current vacancy has occurred because the previous incumbent resigned. Cllr David Humby was returned in May 2011, in an uncontested election. Nobody cast a single X on a ballot paper for Cllr Humby in May 2011, as nobody stood against the Lib Dems in Shamblehurst ward. Not the Conservatives, Not Labour, not UKIP, nor anybody else.

Now if the Lib Dems are being returned in uncontested elections, that problem with the dynamics of Hedge End Town Council clearly isn't going to be resolved, so when this resignation occurred the Conservatives, myself and a few others made sure that we wrote to the Returning Officer and forced this by-election.

We could easily have sat back and let the vacancy be filled by co-option, an alternative process which invites people to express an interest in joining the Town Council and which avoids the need for a ballot. Once the applications have been submitted, the Councillors will decide to appoint one of those applicants in a full Council meeting.

The obvious problem with that method of course, is that with a 19 to 1 majority, it is almost certain that another Liberal Democrat will be appointed. The Council is partisan and Councillors naturally tend to vote for "one of their own" when these co-option situations arise. If we allowed co-option to happen again, the dynamics of the Council would stay exactly the same.

So the best way forward, if we want to improve the state of local politics in Hedge End and make the dynamics of Hedge End Town Council a little better, is to have this by-election.

I'll therefore be standing in this election, as an Independent, and will be very grateful of your support on the 1st March.

Thank you for reading

Ray Turner
http://www.facebook.com/hedgeendindependents

Welcome

2012-01-27T08:38:00.001Z

Having decided to stand as an Independent in the forthcoming by-election in the Shamblehurst ward of Hedge End Town Council, which will be held on 1st March 2012, I think it is time to start a new blog.

I have been blogging on The Complete Works of TGRWorzel for a couple of years now, a personal blog where I write about anything and everything, from how I feel on a particular day to adjustable spanners. It has proven to be an interesting hobby and a useful tool. As I now have many regular visitors and an expanding global audience, I obviously don't want to bore them with the campaign material for these local elections, which is specific to Hedge End..

I have therefore decided to post that campaign material here instead. My regular audience can easily link across to read it if they want to, but this new blog will be more tightly focused on local politics in Hedge End and Eastleigh than is the case on my personal blog.

I hope you will enjoy reading both blogs.