In last weeks edition of The Stratford Herald, Cllr Tim Sinclair for Stratford North Division wrote an excellent letter to the editor highlighting what local representation should look like. This Thursday is polling day to select your local representative to champion the issues that are local to you. Make sure you choose a representative campaigning for issues within your division. National politics have no place in local elections.
Cllr Sinclairs letter stated:
"We have to keep the 'local' in local government". So said the Lib Dem Leader of Stratford District Council in your 16 January edition (‘District Matters’). A sentiment I wholeheartedly agree with.
Strange then with candidates having just been announced for the various seats in the Warwickshire County Council elections, to see that there are quite a few familiar Stratford upon Avon Lib Dem faces standing in the far north of the County.
The Lib Dem member for Welcombe Ward is standing in Polesworth for example, some 41 miles away. The member for Bishopton is going for Arley, 29 miles away and the member for Hathaway is in Kingsbury, 35 miles away. I could go on. In fact there are 10 Stratford Lib Dems standing in seats in the Nuneaton and Bedworth and North Warwickshire Boroughs, completely unconcerned that they are about as un-local as you can get for those voters.
And that's not counting the further six Lib Dems who come from Warwick District. I know this sort of thing happens from time to time but the local Libs are doing this on an industrial scale at this election. Apparently saying one thing and doing another is okay if you wear a yellow badge. What’s the expression, ‘do as I say, don’t do as I do’?
The Libs Dems historically don’t stand in most seats in those two northerly Boroughs. Last time their candidate in Arley got just 34 votes, coming 5th behind the independent on 41. So I suspect they’re not going to end up winning. However, it seems odd, and dare I say it a tad hypocritical, to bus candidates 40 miles up the road when you apparently strongly believe in ‘local’ politics. Are there really no local Lib Dems out of a combined population of around 200,000 that could have represented them?
The Stratford Dems have form here though. There are nine District Councillors covering Stratford upon Avon town. All of these Wards are held by the Lib Dems now, but by my reckoning only three of them actually live in the Wards they represent. The Lib Dem standing against me in the County Council elections lives completely the other side of town. Who knows where the 17 Lib Dem Town Councillors are based?
Around Nuneaton way these Stratfordians probably won’t win. But it's not impossible. They could in theory end up as the next County Councillors for these somewhat distant Divisions, and then what will they do? Fire up the sat navs presumably.
When it comes to who represents us, let's definitely it local. And if we say we believe in something, can we actually follow through on it. Otherwise it's just hollow words isn't it, and the people we're elected to serve surely deserve better than that."
