Mike Baldock - Swale West

Aftermath

2009-06-05T12:36:00.000-07:00

SWALE WEST ELECTORAL DIVISION (35.2% Turnout)

Mike BALDOCK - Labour - 700
Keith FERRIN - Conservative - 2609 ELECTED
Elvie LOWE - Liberal Democrat - 1348

Well, after 5 weeks slog I feel pretty knackered!

The Labour Party suffered a meltdown pretty much across the whole of Swale and Kent.

I had originally hoped to put together an effective campaign across Swale West, to leaflet every house with at least two leaflets and get a good canvass done. I wanted to show the residents that someone was listening and that someone wanted to put their concerns first.

Given the national picture however, and the obvious anger on the doorsteps, the party was forced to concentrate all its efforts on trying to hold the seats it already had rather than expanding into areas where there had been precious little effort for over a decade.

Consequently I was only able to get a single leaflet out, and was able to canvass only a fraction of the people I had hoped to reach. This inability to provide voters with a good campaign hurts more than anything else to be honest. I never expected to win, and never claimed it was likely. But most importantly I wanted to show that people's votes mattered - that they were not being taken for granted, or that people didn't really care if they voted or not.

Under the circumstances, to have virtually matched the votes of the Borough elections in the wards that make up Swale West is quite motivating in itself. To know that many of you were conned by Lib Dems claims of running neck and neck with the Tories in this seat really annoys me.

As the result shows, this was never 'a two horse race' as The Lib Dems declared - people being conned into switching their votes on the basis of false claims and barcharts is an insult to the electors and to the concept of democracy. And it should be illegal.

Full credit to the Lib Dems for running a massive campaign with lots of helpers, lots of leaflets and lots of canvassing - but surely even they would gain more satisfaction from running an honest campaign and doing well, than running a dishonest one and stealing people's votes?

And I have to say how surprised I was that even the Tories were active this time - perhaps some of the comments made during the election hit home, and hopefully a little more attention will be given to our local issues over the next 4 years - I will be making sure Cllr Ferrin knows all the concerns you pass onto me, and he can expect a busy intray from me next week :-)

So a huge thank you to everyone who voted for me - in the current climate it's amazing anyone bothered to vote for any of us!

Meetings, Doorsteps and Lib Dem falsehoods

2009-06-02T12:22:00.000-07:00

Well another hectic week.

Thursday night was a local planning meeting where residents turned up at the Swale Borough Planning Committee to oppose the Care Home proposed for Hengist Field. I spoke on behalf of the Parish Council, and here is my text:

"Firstly, I would like to mention that Borden Parish Council fully appreciates the need for more elderly care homes, and is not averse to having more in our parish. But this current proposal is just not suitable for many reasons, many of which have been admirably highlighted by Mr Gilmartin and effectively ignored by the authors of the recommendation before you. I would urge Councillors to read Mr Gilmartin’s letter in full, and wonder about his detailed observations on how this proposal fails to meet with many of Swale Borough Council’s own supposed policies. Because it would seem from the report in front of you that these concerns have not been considered in much detail by the officers – or at least, they are not addressed in an adequate fashion by this report.

Regarding these proposals, we have heard of the expectation that most of the likely staff would avail themselves of the local bus service – until it was pointed out that the service consists of just two buses each day – one into and one out of the area. So it is with considerable scepticism that the plans and assurances that accompany this proposal are met. There are no local amenities – there is no effective local bus service.

But aside from the totally inappropriate location of such an establishment in this area, there is the vexatious question of traffic and the impact on local roads and residents.

The proposed site is located on a multi-junction, blind corner that already sees traffic passing at inappropriate speeds. The predicted Vehicular traffic movements of 40-45 journeys per day are pure fantasy. With a staffing level in excess of 100 for the two aspects of this proposal, accompanied by additional visitor numbers, deliveries and medical appointments this proposal will inevitably result in far higher levels of vehicular journeys than is claimed therein.
This is a very dangerous piece of highway, and speeding cars, blind corners and multi-junctions designed for days of horse and cart will not be made safer by higher traffic levels. Indeed, this section is already quite risky for cyclists – the idea that a stream of eager new workers will be making their way along these roads to their new job would in itself be a cause of some considerable concern were the prospects of it so remote as to be laughable.

There will be no great flood of cyclists; there will be no reliance on any bus service. People will overwhelmingly access the site by car.

Most of these journeys will have to be made along roads that are already designated Rural Lanes, and will therefore impact negatively on those areas in direct contravention of Policy RC7 which states that Development will not be permitted that would either physically, or as a result of traffic levels, significantly harm the character of rural lanes

I would like to turn to the issue of the Offices. Sittingbourne is not short of available office space. More is planned for the future. There has been trouble filling the available office space in a time of relative prosperity – what are the prospects for the existing office spaces during the current downturn and for the foreseeable future? Consequently one is forced to ask just what sort of precedent is Swale seeking to set by allowing a business to dismiss all this existing office availability but, if they are allowed to build their own offices in a nice rural location they’ll move in? I note also the letter of support for this application from the people behind the Kent Science Park – I wonder why they are so heartily in favour of this application? Could it be because they recognise that any such precedent set will further their own attempts to foist inappropriate developments on the countryside?

To summarise then, Borden Parish Council object to this application. We object because this is not a suitable location for such a development, that the increased traffic will be a blight to the residents and communities nearby, that the entrance will be on a very dangerous piece of road, and because the development would set a precedent that could be used to further undermine the policies that Swale have introduced. "

The meeting was going well, with good contributions from local residents and our Borough Councillor Nicholas Hampshire, followed by some good contributions from the Members, but a decision has been delayed because it was decided to arrange a site visit...

Monday was the Kent Association of Local Councils AGM which was as ever well attended and we had an interesting speaker from DEFRA on EU funding.

On the doorsteps the reaction has still been pretty good given the National Picture, but once again the Lib Dems have been seeking to mislead voters about their chances with fantasy figures showing that they can win and Labour are out of the picture. These figures bear no match with reality, but it's a tactic they trot out at every election, even when they know they can't win, and even when they know they are going to come last as they did in Grove Ward last time. It is duplicitous and it is trying to deceive the electorate.

They cannot win this election and shouldn't pretend they can. If they tried some honest hard work, attended local meetings and didn't just turn up at election time they might have something positive to offer the voters...

Meetings, doorsteps and sunshine

2009-05-28T00:00:00.000-07:00

A very busy week last week.

Thursday night was a special meeting of Borden Parish Council to discuss a planning application for a Care Home at Hengist Field. As our chair couldn't make the meeting I had to step in as vice-chair - a bit of a baptism of fire! Basically the developers want to build a care home in a fairly remote area of the parish right next to a dangerous road junction with blind corners! A large number of local residents came to hear and question the devlopers and there was good lively debate. Then the Parish Councillors discussed the matter and voted to oppose the application - tonight it goes before Swale's planning Cttee and I will be speaking on behalf of the Parish Council supporting our opposition.

The weekend was given over to canvassing with former Kemsley candidate Russel and the responses are still fairly encouraging though there is very little enthusiasm for the Euro Elections at all. This is worrying as a low turnout makes it more likely the BNP will win a seat.

Bank Holiday Monday saw some of the remoter areas getting leafletted, and with help from another former candidate Pete I've managed to cover some tricky ribbon housing which is always better with two rather than one! Had some interesting chats in the villages and learnt some useful information.

Last night there was a MYVC (Make Your Vote Count) meeting in Chatham - only Labour and No2EU bothered to send candidates although all parties bar the BNP had been invited. Some compelling arguments from both candidates but a rather poor attendence.

It is desperately urgent for the major parties to stop posturing around a mythical centre ground and to start seriously engaging with people again, or the extreme right will start gaining power by default!

Conference and The Speaker

2009-05-20T06:47:00.001-07:00

Returned late yesterday evening from the annual PCS Conference in Brighton.

Another good and successful conference that saw the Union preparing it's position to defend public services and to oppose the continuing privitisation of various aspects of the Civil Service. My motion on setting H&S Key Work Objectives for managers was passed overwhelmingly, so it will be interesting to see what progress can be made on that over the next year.

I also heard that Speaker Michael Martin announced he was to stand down in June - my genealogical research has suggested that one of my ancestors was Sir Robert Bell - speaker of the House during Elizabeth I's reign! Things in the family have changed considerably in the intervening centuries however!

Back to the leafletting and canvassing again today, and preparing for tomorrow's public meeting about the planning applications for a Care Home near Vigo / Oad Street.

Week 4

2009-05-16T12:52:00.000-07:00

A varied week of leafletting this week, with some good areas and some frankly dispiriting ones! Well, one dispiriting area but it was pretty darn dispiriting!

Thursday night was Borden Parish Council AGM and there was a lot of business to get through. I was elected Vice-Chair for the year and we managed to cajole the existing chair into staying on another year, but it was agreed that all the councillors will take on portfolio responsibilities to share the burden of keeping on top of things. I feel the Council will acheive a lot over the next 12 months as lots of projects and plans are starting to be taken up.

One of my personal projects is to set up a Borden Heritage website which will hopefully preserve the content of many old documents and pieces of research along with old photos, postcards, and hopefully some oral history files which will be great for future generations and researchers.

I also collected the shields for my one of my other projects - Borden in Bloom - which we got from ShoeCare in Sheerness.

Tomorrow I'm off to the PCS Conference in Brighton for a couple of days, and then it will be straight back on the stump :-)

MP expenses

2009-05-10T12:42:00.001-07:00

I haven't really commented on this snouting in the trough behaviour of most of our MPs, but this one really did make me angry:

http://www.newsoftheworld.co.uk/news/299354/Tory-MP-James-Gray-is-exposed-as-a-greedy-skinflint-after-claiming-for-Remembrance-Day-WREATHS-on-expenses-while-Marathon-hero-Phil-Packer-crossing-finishing-line.html

Meetings and Leaflets

2009-05-08T00:49:00.000-07:00

The last week has been very hectic with the main focus being delivery of leaflets.

Sunday saw a very successful MayDay Charity Fun Day at the Maypole in Borden - very very busy and they must have collected loads for the relevant charities including MacMillan Cancer Relief and Demelza House.

Tuesday was a Regional Health and Safety Committee in Guildford. Two years ago Management and the Trade Unions would hardly speak to each other, and there was a hideous atmosphere at these meetings. Since then, the Regional Management seem to have slowly realised that Trade Union H&S isn't about messing up the working day and bringing things to a halt - perhaps they'd been watching too many 70s sitcoms! Now that they understand that the TU Reps are generally more knowledgable, better trained, and more focussed on H&S and simply want to ensure that changes are made or prevented that will enable staff to work better under safer and more comfortable conditions, both side cooperate far more and we manage to get a lot of things agreed and progressed. You actually come out of these meetings with a positive feeling and a schedule for action!

The meeting went on late so I was quite late back home, with just enough time to grab some food before heading off to Newington Parish Council's AGM. I do like the way Newington runs its affairs - every Councillor has an area of responsibility, they always have good reports and feedback, and they get a lot of decisions made and progressed.

Wednesday - yuk! Had to spend the day sorting out my nominations - the part of campaigning I hate most! Couldn't get in touch with several people who had agreed to nominate me, and ended up handing my papers in to my Agent Roger Truelove at 9 o'clock... which meant I sadly missed the Bobbing AGM for the first time in several years.

Thursday and back to the stump with over 1000 leaflets delivered. Several supportive comments as I walked around and bumped into an old school mate and had a chat - sadly Charlton Athletic's progress this year didn't make for successful football stories, but at least the Gills might save the season!

Rain and Sunshine as the campaign gets under way.

2009-04-28T04:19:00.000-07:00

Well the first week of full campaigning was largely taken up with preparing my leaflets for the printers and tidying various loose ends at work as I will be on leave for most of May in order that I can focus on the campaign!

The first batch arrived in time for a weekend delivery of certain areas, and the main bundle should be arriving soon... Having walked from Borden to Hartlip and back, my feet are already starting to feel sore, and a downpour en route with no pub in sight and only the speeding traffic for company along much of the way left me humming that annoying song 'Always Look On the Bright Side of Life'!

Unsurprisingly, given the weather, I didn't get to meet as many people along the way as I usually do, but there were still a couple of good chats during the brighter periods, and blunt 'I ain't voting for you lot' type comments can still be counted on the fingers of one hand!

What did bring a wry smile to my face was the recent activity that our roads have seen with nice new yellow lines being repainted. It's a shame then, that Kent County Council didn't think to put up warning notices or cones before the road painting was due to be done with the result that in some areas - such as Wises Lane - the yellow lines had to stop abruptly because cars were parked over the area the lines were due to go!

The next three days are all work days, including a Regional Health and Safety meeting in Guildford - I'm a PCS Regional Health and Safety Representative and these are useful meetings as we set standards for the whole of the South East from the Isle of Wight to Milton Keynes and across Kent. I just wish Health and safety had a better press - it's not about stopping kids playing conkers - it's about measuring risks and suggesting means that might lessen those risks if the risks are deemed too high. So often the people responsible for managing the risks take the easy option of banning an activity rather than just taking the measures that will enable the activity to go ahead, but without unacceptable risk. Still, that's probably a blog for another day!

UPDATE:

After I returned from the evening session of leafletting I was amzed to see that Kent Highways had returned to finish the job they couldn't complete the other day.

However - as they still hadn't bothered to set up cones or warn anyone - unsurprisingly there will still cars parked there again. So now we have bits of yellow lines in the gaps where the cars weren't parked!

No wonder KCC's Highways Dept costs a fortune and achieves very little - I assume a third trip will now be required - will they notify people in advance this time? Or join up some of the lines where they can? Oh that's going to look lovely when they finish isn't it!

What an incompetent, expensive, messy looking farce KCC can make of painting a few yellow lines!

Weekend report

2009-04-20T11:55:00.000-07:00

Well I had a lovely weekend to start with, and managed to speak to a large number of people in one of our villages. A friendly reception across the board, and many long chats about village life, the current problems facing the rural areas, and what people would like to see done about them. A strong sense of village community was evident and people all seemed to know each other and about events that were going on in the area.

Exactly the sort of community that Kent is traditionally famous for, and that underlines precisely why our local Councils should start to pay more care and attention to our rural villages.

I must admit, I felt really upbeat after the weekend's progress!

From my Winter 2008/9 newsletter

2009-04-18T05:26:00.000-07:00

RURAL ROUND-UP

Bus Services
At a time when everyone else is highlighting the benefits of clean and reliable public transport, Kent County Council are presiding over a regime that is allowing Bus Companies to cut back yet again on the already rather poor rural bus services. I have had many calls and letters from residents worried about their local service getting removed, and have raised the issue with KCC on several occasions. Hopefully through the Swale West Group we can arrange some alternative provisions for these residents, but is it really respectable for KCC to be allowing public services to disappear at the same time as trying to improve their climate impact ratings? Does their right hand know what their left hand is doing? Or are they simply taking the rural vote for granted?

Dumping
Despite dismissing the proposal just 2 years ago, the Tories on Swale have sneaked through a scheme to charge people for the collection of large items, such as furniture, TVs, etc. This is clearly another attempt to cover up the black hole that sits at the centre of their financial adventures, and sits awkwardly with their claims to be moving forward with rubbish and litter problems. Because rural people know exactly what happens to a lot of the rubbish that people can’t afford to get collected – it gets dumped in the countryside! Another example of the Tories taking the rural vote for granted?

StreetLights
In 2008 the Tory Executive announced a nasty surprise for many residents when they decided to cap the funding for streetlights in some parished areas, with the threat to remove the funding altogether next year. This resulted in some huge increases in Parish Council Tax rates, and real concerns over future lighting in rural areas. I highlighted these concerns at several forums and meetings, and have pushed for both a retention of the funding in next years budget and a guarantee that parishes will know the impacts of any proposed changes in time to set their own budget accordingly. Hopefully this pressure is paying off, and the funding will continue in some form for the new year – otherwise it will be yet another example of the Tories taking the rural vote for granted!

Swale West

2009-04-18T02:16:00.001-07:00

This blog is to provide a Diary of my campaign in the Swale West County Division 2009.

It will provide residents and local groups with a means to contact me, see what my position is on a number of issues that crop up, and to ask me questions.

I look forward to meeting and speaking with as many of you as I can over the next 6 weeks!

Mike Baldock