It's all to play for...

Those people who have written to the press recently to point out that North East Somerset is a brand new constituency are spot on.

In Dan Norris’ literature he is giving misleading information to residents suggesting that the contest to become our next MP is between himself and the Tory. In fact, I don’t think Dan has mentioned the boundary changes at all publically because statistically he could be the big loser.

North East Somerset is a completely brand new constituency which sees the loss of an area to the north of Keynsham, which has had a Labour MP for 13 years, and the gain of over 10,000 people from the former Bath constituency – which has elected a Liberal Democrat MP, with a huge majority, for almost two decades.

Thanks to the boundary changes, this really now is a three-horse race.

In a modern day democracy people shouldn’t be told who they can and can’t vote for. The Labour Party’s tactic of bullying people into voting for them, because anything else is a ‘wasted’ vote is a complete infringement of our democratic rights.

In all the literature I’ve received from Dan Norris he doesn’t tell me anything he’s done over the last 13 years – his only reason to vote for him is to ‘stop the Tory getting in’. I agree, that’s why I’m voting Liberal Democrat!

I’m voting for Gail Coleshill, not just because as Lib Dems we share the same beliefs and values such as fairness, fighting for the underdog and community empowerment, but because she is the only candidate who actually has a track record of action and getting things done in our area. Last week, 34,000 households received a leaflet from Gail outlining many of her success stories over the last 10 years.

Her campaigns to save post offices, invest in better facilities for young people, protect the greenbelt from mass housing development, save the mobile library from council cuts, to set up a new health park in Keynsham and her part in setting up the successful Farmers’ Market in Midsomer Norton are testament to her belief in building a fairer, more equal society.

On May 6th people must be given the chance to make their own choice. Here in North East Somerset it’s all to play for.

The people have taken democracy into their own hands

For almost a year now I have been continuously inspired by the hard work of campaigners in Midsomer Norton to create their own Town Council. For years, there has been a growing dislike for Norton Radstock Town Council – an organisation that is increasingly out of touch with residents and has no public mandate to serve the community.

Last Spring, over 900 people in Midsomer Norton demonstrated their growing anger towards the current Town Council by returning a petition card calling for a Local Governance Review to take place. Later in the year, a further 700 people in Westfield signed a petition calling for the same for their area. That’s more than many B&NES Councillors get in their own elections!

These petitions and surveys were carried out by people who are passionate about the place they live in. By people who believe so strongly in local democracy that they’ll do anything to ensure that residents stay at the centre of our democratic system.

Not once, during the last 12 months, has our Labour MP helped or at all showed an interest in this matter, and it’s only recently (with a General Election just 8 weeks away) that he decided to call a public meeting – at 2pm on a Friday afternoon! This was only advertised in one local newspaper a week before the meeting was taking place.

As a local Councillor, I know how difficult it can be at times to encourage people and inspire them to feel passionate about their community. It isn’t something that happens overnight – it takes year of work and relationship building. To push in at the last minute and claim to have done a survey asking for residents views on the future of local democracy in Norton-Radstock is just cheap and tacky. Mr Norris claims in his column in last week's Somerset Guardian newspaper that he has had the lowest response ever to this survey. Did he deliver this survey to every house in Norton-Radstock? Did he put petitions in all the shops and businesses? No! He expected residents to take part in the survey on his website – which gives him the total freedom to decide which results to release to the public and press.

Ideally, as an MP serious about getting elected he should be encouraging residents to take part in the consultation by writing to B&NES. If residents want to keep the status quo, as does Dan Norris, they have every freedom to express that in their submissions to B&NES.

Dan needs to be reminded that a) it was his government that introduced Local Governance Reviews – so people can shape their own democratic future and b) all political parties, including Labour, voted in favour of the review at a B&NES Full Council meeting last year.

I agree that B&NES has dithered over when the consultation papers were to be sent out – but their recent arrival on door steps has nothing to do with any intervention by Dan Norris.

I really struggle to understand why Dan Norris doesn’t support the movement for change in Midsomer Norton, Westfield and Radstock. The only answer I can come up with is that it will finally end the unhealthy, undemocratic hold the Labour Party has on the current Town Council. Dan Norris has had many chances over the last 13 years to address this. He hasn’t, so the people have taken democracy into their own hands.

MP fails to help... again!

Last Friday I spent the afternoon visiting some of my residents in Peasedown St John – helping with various issues and listening to their concerns.

On my rounds I bumped into a young mum who is struggling to find somewhere to live. She is currently staying on her Mum’s sofa and desperately needs to find a place of her own.

She told me she had been in contact with the Council’s Housing Department to ask for her old reference number (the housing application system has recently changed) which she had lost. I was horrified to hear that they had told her ‘It’s in the basement and we’re not going down to look for it’ – If this is true I am going to go mad! A council is a public body, its councillors and staff are there to serve the people in the area it covers.

This young mum’s plight for somewhere to live re-iterates just how frantic the social housing situation has become. There are currently over 6,500 households in our area waiting for a ‘council house’. My party has been campaigning for months for many of the empty properties in the district to be brought into social housing use (similar to the case in Mendip District Council where landlords are given financial help to bring properties back into use).

At a meeting in January the Conservative in charge of housing confessed to me that he did not have any idea of the number of empty properties in the area and seemed uninterested in trying to tackle the 6,500 (and growing) waiting list.

Since becoming a Councillor in May 2007, helping with social housing problems has been a huge challenge for me. But, I got involved in politics to help people just like this young mum. It is they that need that extra bit of help, support and encouragement.

This same conversation also sparked up another issue – something else that has been bugging me for some time. The young mum started by telling me she had been to see our local Labour MP – Dan Norris. Her words to me were ‘he’s s#@t’. She had been to visit him some months ago but since has had no response and has been completely unhelpful.

This isn’t the first time I’ve heard this. Over the past two years this is something that I hear more and more often. People go to visit our MP and he is no help at all – in fact, does not even appear interested.
It is when I meet people like this young mum and hear her story that I realise how useless and ineffective our MP is. It’s upsetting to think that the Labour Party, which was founded over 100 years ago to fight for and defend working class people can no longer be bothered to even help those that need it the most.

I must thank Dan Norris for one thing though. It was through meeting him in 2000 (when he visited my school) that I felt inspired to go into politics… and join the Liberal Democrats.

Meeting him made me realise that we had little in common and if I wanted to join a political party that really did stand up for people then the Labour Party was no longer it. (Just like this young mum, I didn’t feel he was at all interested in what I had to say and he couldn’t even give a straight answer to a question I asked him.)

My conversation with the young mum left me feeling more than ever that we need a definite change at the next General Election. Our Labour MP and our Labour government are clearly not working!

I know this won’t come as a surprise to anyone but my support will whole-heartedly going to Gail Coleshill – someone that for the last ten years has stood up for hard working people and believes in the same kind of change as I do.

Change can happen – we just have to believe in it.

For information about Gail Coleshill visit www.gailcoleshill.co.uk or www.nes-libdems.org.uk