Graham Ellis - my blog
Dog Poo and CCTV
We had a long discussion in Council last night about our new CCTV system and how it's to be used, bearing in mind all the data protection requirements. I know that if you go into a shop such as a convenience store these days,the chap or chappess behind the counter will have a screen showing parts of the shop out of his/her direct view, but it's not that easy for us as a council and with monitoring public areas rather than private premises. Cutting the very long discussion last night short, lots of changes suggested to the CCTV policy and our staff team will come back to us with the suggested changes brought in at a later meeting.But I do have one answer to share. The system is there to help the police with serious crime issues and access will be very limited. I was asked last week if I could use the CCTV to find out who's dog had fouled in KGV right outside the children's play area. I raised this last night and, no, this is not what the CCTV is intended for; it's there to help the police dealing with crime and our involvement of two key and trained staff members who can view it is to help the police in that filtering. It is unlikely that the police will be interested in dog fouling or the enforcement of the bylaws.
In my view, our bylaws could do with updating. "No cycling in the park" is interesting when national cycle route 403 passes through and there are cycle racks and a repair station there. "A person shall not in the pleasure grounds bathe, wade, or wash in any ornamental lake, pond, stream, or other water" which seems to make it against the rules to use the splashpad. "A person shall not cause or suffer any dog belonging to him or in his charge to enter or remain in the pleasure ground unless such dog be and continue to be under proper control ... a dog shall not be deemed to be under proper control unless it is on a lead." which means that dogs are not allowed off-lead even in the areas set aside as dog parks.
The rules also suggest to me that "Council Officers" and "Constables" can remove people from the park if they are breaking the bylaws. Makes sense though I have not seen it done by council officers who might be uncomfortable in that role, and that they may fine people breaking certain bylaws £5 or £50 if they see them in the act of breaking the rules. But that's if the actually catch them in the act and not if they're seen later on a CCTV recording.
Footnote - the picture was NOT taken in the park, and on being asked about the mess last week, with a specific mess being pointed out, I cleared it away. Most dog owners ARE responsible about clearing up after their pups in public places - it's just the odd one who gets us a bad name
"What is happening on ..." project list
I admit it - I have got pretty fed up with being part of a talking shop that passes resolutions and makes plans far beyond what we wish to achieve, with some projects going into a black hole where we don't know what progress is being made, and making enquiries in itself loads our very limited in number (but not limited in skill) staff. We want to do more than we can, and in trying to do so have failed to do very much at all. But there are some shoots of encouragement - our strategy, which we met to set in June 2021 (seriously!) and should have been our four year plan has moved forward and, hopefully this Autumn we will be able to set a budget for next year that will provide the foundation for the next council to actually achieve something.
I am asked, almost daily, about how "X" project is getting on and I have to waffle far too often, or say "I don't know", and I had planned to ask about each of them at last night's full council meeting. The public want to know, and I want to know. However, I changed my plan because one of our staff team is getting together a list of all the projects and resolutions to be implemented we have on the books for councillors to prioritise on 5th August, and we need to give that thread of action an opportunity. Hence I changed my plan to ask as follows:
Questions from Councillor - from Graham Ellis - for 22nd July 2024
Our Council has a very large number of projects in various stages. I am often asked by members of the public about progress on a particular job or project and I was going to ask at this meeting for updates in the public domain on perhaps a dozen projects. However, on Monday of this week (15th July) our "Strategy Task and Finish Group" met - 10 councillor and 5 staff members present and we resolved to get a list of projects to our officers so that we know what we've got on our plate to prioritise.
So:
1. Can you please give a brief public update on when, where and how members of the public and councillors can find updates on projects in progress now and in the future?
For information - I am aware we have been here before - Councillor Goodhind was steering a system though Sharepoint that we could refer to, and more recently Councillor J Westbrook was instigating a system of including an update on all projects in the agenda for each Finance and Performance meeting, but this has not happened either due to (I understand) a lack of staff resource, and indeed councillors have been reminded / asked to be aware of the load we put on officers by asking. We are encouraged to let things slide, on the basis that if we don't, we'll be putting pressure beyond reasonable expectation on officers. On that basis, and looking to help move things forward, I am asking below only items which are both important and urgent.
We have lacked an active permanent clerk, a responsible finance officer, and a deputy clerk for some time now. And we have lacked an events officer for several months. We have excellent staff in some other roles who are picking up an amazing amount of the extra work, but that's sometimes at the expense of their own job, sanity and perhaps beyond their training.
2. What steps are we taking to ensure that we are staffed appropriately in consideration of the welfare of our staff and our ability to perform as a Town Council working for Melksham in line with an agreed strategy.
I understand that councillors are providing a list of project by 22nd July (the date these questions will be addressed) and that a list and status on each of them will be available to the Task and Finish Group on 5th August.
3. May I assure members of the public who are asking me that I will be able to give them an update on all the projects they are asking me and I register with staff by 22nd July about shortly after the 5th August meeting?
Submitted by 09:00 on 18th July 2024
Answers ... as written by the clerk ahead of time and published here for the public record. You should also be able to watch back the Facebook feed to see the answers as they were actually stated
""The role of the Deputy Clerk and the Events and Community Development Officer are now live on the website
https://www.melksham-tc.gov.uk/about-melksham-town-council/vacancies they are also advertised in various other council locations.
""The Personnel Committee agreed to keep myself and Kalpesh as Locum Clerk and Locum RFO until the council settles and to see it through the next election period.
""I regularly meet with the staff to ensure that they are not stressed in their job roles. I am soon to conduct appraisals as these have not been undertaken since 2021.
""All staff are collectively producing a project list which we have been asked to provide for the next meeting on the 5 August. This will then be prioritised by Councillors.
""There is no statutory duty to provide to the public a list of our projects, however, this will be recorded in various committee meetings. ""
We have no fewer than five people who have been Mayor of Melksham on our current council - in alphabetic order Pat Aves, Simon Crundell, Jon Hubbard, Tom Price and Adrienne Westbrook. So no lack of experience. We have four councillors who have joined within the last two years and have a more youthful vigour than those of us in our fourth year. And we have three councillors who also sit on Wiltshire Council, with a wider view of the local government scene and remunerated for the time they spend serving the public. So we should have the expertise we need to get this house into better order. But perhaps we have too much expertise and history, and yet at the same time we are a bunch of people selected for our ability to woo the voters rather than pull the whole together
I would love to see a mayor, and a permanent clerk, leading and inspiring us as we move forward. He's been in post less that two months, so perhaps that's the current mayor and I offer my support, as I do to the locum clerk and financial officer who are helping us reset for the future.
At this stage - here is my "items of question" list - projects, and little things ...
Questions to council for 22.7.2024 – Graham Ellis. Aborted because of Task and Finish work to list and sort these things for 5.8.2024 ...
1. How are we monitoring and keeping councillors and public informed of projects? Goodhind failed, now not meeting J Westbook's even limited scheme for reports at each Finance meeting.
2. Happy to Chat and memorial bench - raised 17th Jan 2023 and now been chased around 9 times with 4 different staff. Last promise – May 2024 – "soon".
3. WC has offered us the option to buy the Blue Pool for £1 - that was last year. How are we doing?
4. I have been asked what is happening with the dog park. Should be on project list?
5. I have been asked about Assembly Hall availability dates - I understand we now turn away members of the public wishing to book on the ground of "no staff" or "not fair to ask staff that day".
6. I have been asked for an update concerning control / masking of the lights for residents near KGV
7. I have been asked to confirm that the AH is now watertight and that we have paid for the works done.
8. I have been asked about the status / progress on the Sensory Garden.
9. I have been asked about progress on potentially taking on the Church Street loos with particular reference to potential use by the Pet Larder
10. It has been noted that the real time bus information is now provided at "The Pilot" and but not (yet) at the Market Place stops. Is that still on track and if so when will it happen
11. What is the status of the splashpad resurfacing project?
12. What is the status of the subway project?
13. Are we clear of good stored for projects such as Homes for Ukraine and for the Melksham and District Historical Association?
14. Is the rear door bell on the back door too high for wheelchair users
15. How are we doing on health and safety monitoring for the assets team and public? I was supposed to be involved with a monitoring process but all seems to have gone quiet
16. Can we confirm that our "leisure" provision strategy covers both indoor and outdoor venues and events equally?
17. How are we looking on having the right staff in place, and retaining them?
18. Maple Close / Sandridge Road corner - what's happening?
19. Explore Wilts App - data feed, data updating, publishing, monitoring?
20. How are we implementing our environemnt and climate resolutions such as specification to hold an annual event (such as) ClimateFest and what is happening this year within the council
21. Staff room and staff toilets at the Pavilion - what is the arragement?
22. Clock on Town Hall - stopped. Will it be restarted?
23. Our council website, and with reference to an easier search capability and contact points for staff which are no longer there
24. Cemeteries, running out of space. What are we doing about it / how are we considering stuff
25. Public Participation and council questions at council meetings – revamp on how it works
26. Yellow lines on Waverley Gardens
27. Neighbourhood Plan - progress, etc
Written and updated late on 22nd July and to be updated. Illustrative picture is perhaps THE largest decision we need to make.
Published Monday, 22nd July 2024
Looking forward past the next year
Ladies and Gentlemen, I won't be campaigning for re-election to Melksham Town Council in May 2025. I do intend to remain actively and positively involved in a voluntary capacity where I feel I can be of some effective use, where I am welcome, and where I enjoy myself.Some reasons behind this decision
1. Campaigning for elected office at any level brings out both the best and the worst in people. On the good side, it causes them to take a long hard look at themselves and what they have achieved and wish to achieve. But on the other hand it causes them to be economic with the truth, overlooking parts of the picture which are inconvenient (like "who got us in this mess in the first place"). It causes them to look at short term potential gains which may be or may look attractive even if they have pretty poor long term outcomes. It causes them to press themselves forward to take credit for good they have had little or nothing to do with, or indeed have worked against. And it causes them to be pushy / aggressive / bad-mouthing / bullying towards others who they are competing against for election. We've seen this in the recent general election, we're seeing it in the USA's competition for president, and we're seeing it in Melksham Town. I could indulge myself in these techniques, but have no wish to. One of my colleagues on the council asked me to "check my moral compass" on something. I did, I found it to be pointing in the right direction, and I wish to continue to find that when I check again or she does.
2. Being a Town Councillor requires the patience of a saint which I lack. That is not patience with you the public, who are lovely, but with the systems of local government and how we in the town apply them. Quoting a fellow councillor the other day - "we seem to have achieved nothing in three years". She's wrong, but we have achieved painfully little at painfully great expense in our own volunteer time. I don't mind volunteering, but I would much rather do so usefully.
3. I am far better as a back room technical specialist than as a generalist, and as being part of the team doing something and perhaps helping direct it rather than passing resolutions and then sitting back and watching. And I need to understand much more than I do as a councillor. I took a phone call yesterday from a qualified accountant asking me if I was happy with signing off something along with all the other councillors in a vote. Truth be known, no, not really happy because I did not understand the detail to my satisfaction - and I was less than happy when the legality of the decision made and our individual liability was questioned, as I don't know and I worry.
4. Local Council rules are archaic, and since I was elected in 2021 have taken steps backwards. At the time of election, councillors could attend meetings remotely as well as in person, a modernisation that had been brought in the previous year. Sadly, this modernisation has been revoked, and whilst Melksham Town Council DOES now provide Zoom and Facebook live links to meetings, and I do attend, I cannot vote and can rarely speak when I'm away; as a member of the public I can put my hand up on something, but it is up to the chair to notice and decide whether to ask the council to let a member of the public speak. I WILL thank Simon Crundell especially for enabling me to interact with certain key meetings.
I will at this point sdd a brief but heartfelt thanks to those Town Council staff, past and present, and also those councillors who have left us in the last couple of years, who hve put their heart and soul into Melksham and the Council. You ARE appreciated, even if (at times) it doesn't feel like it or it goes unsaid ... and we have a marvellous town and people, don't we?
So - where does that take me forward?
1. Until next May, continuing to serve to the best of my ability on the Town Council, in such a way that it's beneficial to the long term future of the town. I continue - just as a "for example" - to sit on the steering group of the Neighbourhood Plan; the main work on that is complete, and so it can pass over to others for the final sign-off and credit late in 2025.
2. Just as I was writing the above, and seated in the train from Melksham to Weymouth, I was contacted by a good friend who suggested a catch-up on public transport matters and suggested I might like to resume a deeper role that I gave up in order to find the personal resource to take up the council. Tempting, and I suspect that could be much more effective for Melksham than my being of the council.
3. I will continue to be vigorously interested in environmental issues, and they overlap the boundaries of Melksham Town. The hustings we ran late last month introduced me to Brian Mathew, who's our new MP and I'm early-impressed there, and also by the teamwork that we've started to establish on environmental matter across the consituency
4. Yesterday evening, I popped into the Assembly Hall to - well - offer encouragement to the great new team we have started to build there. They're doing a good job anyway, but in amongst all winds blowing in Melksham it's worth re-assuring them how much they are appreciated. Sounds like it was a great event too. I will remain a friend of Melksham Assembly Hall long after I leave the council, and when that happens there will be some things I cannot do, and other things which I can do without the "You can't do that - you're a councillor" line when I volunteer / offer.
5. I will not loose my interest in what is going on and sharing what I learn, probably here on my blog amongst other places. I am resolved not to become a thorn in the side of the next council, but rather help in a positive way / partnership..
Finally, dear friends and family, I love doing things / working productively with you / listening to and learning from you and hope to continue to do so. And let it be known that I have left that most important comment of all to the end so that you are left with in your mind after reading all the above
Illustration - the chair of the Neighbourhood Plan Steering Group (David Pafford) explains the changes made at last night's consultation event in The Campus.
Published Saturday, 20th July 2024
A new personal Facebook profile
I'm getting there! Last week, my old laptop drowned and cannot be restored, and I have been rebuilding. Meet "Cato" - a MacBook Air so small he can be opened and used between the close-pitched seats on a train. I'm writing this on Cato, currently undergoing training to be my effective helper - and that means installing software (at current versions) and restoring files. Yes, I had most things backed up, but rather sadly it's turned out that one or two things were so well secured that I have lost access.
On Facebook - I have a new personal profile at https://www.facebook.com/graham.ellis.melksham/ - set up at the weekend, and already re-connected with lots of friends. But many more to re-link. If you see a request from me, it's probably genuine, though please take a careful look because there have been "cloners" out there too. My Town Councillor page at https://www.facebook.com/Graham4Melksham/ is reconnected as well and to that new profile, as are some groups such as the Friends of Melksham Assembly Hall, the West Wiltshire Rail User Group, and the Melksham South Ward group.
If you are a LinkedIn user / contact - https://www.linkedin.com/in/wellho/ and more connections welcome. The Great Western Railway Passenger Forum and a whole host of other web sites are running and have been without missing a beat, including those which are now more archives like my IT training career pages, hotel pages,"The Horses Mouth" blog that ran from 2004 to 2018 at http://www.wellho.net/horse and the articles arranged by subject via http://www.wellho.net/net/modules.html
Illustrations - my current (new) Facebook profile, and my old laptop in typical use - working with people in and around Melksham while learning about other parts of the world.
Other sites:
* Melksham Enviroment Group
* Option 24/7 Wiltshire Buses
* Friends of Melksham Assembly Hall
* Well House Consultants (IT Training)
* Well House Manor (Hotel)
Published Wednesday, 17th July 2024
Melksham Carnival - review
A wonderful sense of community at the Melksham Carnival yesterday (13th July 2024) ... with thousands of people (literally) lining the streets and perhaps five hundred actually taking part in the parade. To each and every one of you, so good to see you out in town, enjoying the afternoon, and celebrating our town, our people, our activities. The work that goes into arranging Carnival, and running the event on the day is massive. Without project managers the whole thing could so easily be a flop. That management is a team effort and I'm going to tip my hat with respect and admiration to the team, at the same time as singling out Michelle Brightwell for her lead at the event and on the run up. Michelle has bubbled and smiled all the way through, even in intimidating settings such as coming along to Town Council meetings to ask us (I'm writing as a councillor) to make and clarify grants, support street closures, etc. Well done, and thank you Michelle and the whole team.
Each and every entry - there were around 35 - was in itself a team too. Thank you to each of those teams - both behind the scenes and in the parade - for all the work put in, and the joy brought. There's a joy in taking part (I wouldn't miss walking in support of a local community group) snd so much good from the promotion and fundraising with those groups. Talking to individual groups as we got ready to walk, people were celebrating and promoting their own activities, but at the same time raising funds and awareness for prostate cancer support, for pet food support, for althzheimers, and for other excellent and charitable causes - again I list just a selection I happened to come across.
What about the thousands who saw us walking? An overload, for me, of brief conversations along the way, ranging from people I have known for years though to people I was meeting for the first time. From people who's lives are turning a corner from the gent who's wife passed away recently to our new MP talking about the enormity of the task he has taken on and how he is getting on with it. To people who live in and love the town, but have moved on in their employment and were just in the audience as cheerleaders yesterday, and people who live here and come out and engage with their community just occasionally. I was really touched to see so many people along the way who's health or age limitations restrict them in what they can do - many seated outside or near their homes, and to see some of the groups stopping to give a little performance for them. A "win/win" and a memory that will endure long after the floats have been dismantled and we've all had our summer breaks and are back in the autumn.
And so to the group I walked with - the Melksham Environment Group. A new group and a late entry into the parade. Many readers, I know, feel overloaded with information about climate change, its effect on the environment around us including the natural world, and what we can do as individuals to help ensure a sustainable home, street, town, county, country, planet for ourselves (for aren't we always selfish) our children and our grandchildren. It's an issue we are wrestling with and looking to provide a local focus and switchboard of information - enable and encourage information sharing and good practise by supporting others locally in all the various facets involved.Yesterday, our objectives were to market the group - have our name start to come onto the Melksham radar, and to inform and give residents and visitors some ideas and thoughts as to what they can do which is both beneficial to their own quality of life, but also kind to the environment. No intent to have a memorable float - just a barrow of literature and co-ordinated tabards in hideous florescent lime green, and information to pass out that's targetted - designed to be read and kept by those who take it.
1. At http://melksham.info/you'll find "Great things are done by small things brought together" - the front and pages of our LOCAL leaflet which includes "Use Public Transport", "Grow your own and share produce", "Generate and use sustainable energy", "Shop, eat and entertain local", and "engage with others". The leaflet also includes a Melksham Train timetable for people to keep and refer to.
2. At http://www.fomah.org.uk/ you'll find a link to the program for Melksham's Assembly Hall until the end of September, backing up the "entertain local" message. Why always travel to Bath, Swindon or London for a good night out when we have local comedians, stars, music and tribute acts visiting us. The "environment" message is "reducing your emissions" but the personal corollary is "and increase your quality of life by cutting travel time, cutting your costs and supporting and making better your own town".
Our team of five from "MEG" (Melksham Environment Group) started with a barrow heavy with literature. Half way round, it was virtually empty and I refilled it from a strategic stockpile I had available if needed. But yet our objective was not to hand out as many as we could - it was to hand out the information to those who WANTED to receive it. We "briefed" ahead of time, and walking along the crowds described what we had and only passed out one, other or both pieces if hands came out. And where people were together in household groups, we typically just passed out a single copy. It was really noticeable just how enthusiastic many people were to get the information the Assembly Hall leaflet almost universally. With the "use public transport" line, a proportion of people were saying "I look online" and that - let's be fair - is greener than a printed piece. There also remains a significant number of people for whom public transport is so alien that they won't even consider it.
Overall, job well done - very well done by the distribution team of Gill, Caroline, Pat and Mike, and a big and grateful thanks to my wife Lisa for producing two wonderful leaflets. Over 1,000 of each distributed at Carnival, but we intentionally had an overrun and they'll be available at the TIC, and hopefully at the Town Hall too.
Well - that's Carnival done for another year. Next Saturday, Melksham Rock and Roll at the Assembly Hall, or a day trip to Weymouth by train and so it carries on with so much happening through the summer holidays. We are left with memories of a wonderful day in the town, and also with a legacy of it motivating us to look onward, upward and forward.
Published Sunday, 14th July 2024
Small Grant awards - Melksham Town Council
I am no longer on the Town Council's finance, admin and performance committee, but I attended last night's meeting as a "sub" - substitute - for another councillor who was unable to attend.One of the ways the council can make a very real difference is by making small grants to small community organisations to help them get started, or to help them meet an extraordinary one-off expense. Our community thrives on it little volunteer groups who can "match fund" their volunteers time with some funding from the public purse. But as a Town Council we need to be very careful indeed not to give away public money unscrutinised, nor to give money to worthy causes which however, are properly funded from elsewhere. Of the 17 requests we received last night, we granted funding to 10, and in seven of those cases we only granted part of the money asked for. We were asked for a total of £13,112, and granted £4,000 which is a quarter of the year's budget.
Congratulations to Celebrating Age Wiltshire, Group Five, Melksham Amateur Swimming Club, Melksham Gardners Society, Melksham Lions, The Riverside Centre, That Meeting Space, the Wilts and Berks Canal Trust, Wiltshire Search and Rescue, and Wiltshire Mind.
Why did we not provide any funding at all - not even a token amount - to the other seven? Some were not for projects in Melksham Town. Some were from commercial organisations where all we would have done is to boost their profitability. Others were to meet general running costs, or gave the appearance of not making the best use of money. In many cases the paperwork wasn't complete. Not a single applicant was present in the room, nor on zoom, in spite of encouragement to attend. That would have made a very real difference as we could have raised queries there and then rather that saying "come back in the autumn" or "no, because it doesn't appear to add up".
The rejection or partial funding of only 3 out of 17 requests, with all 14 of those scaled back being in my view "worthy causes", indicates a massive investment of time by organisations filling in 5 or 6 page applications, and then by a Town Council officer producing a spread sheet that evaluates each of them against 21 criteria. It's administration gone mad, and burns up what could and should be productive time of officers, councillors and applicants - symptomatic of modern society where there are complex authorisation processes. How do we fix that? As a start, we would do well to have a council officer or councillor talk with / advise applicants so that what comes forward is good, clean, understood and tuned. I would far rather see 7 good applications that we can fund fully that 17, most of which we cut back and I really hope that our partial funding doesn't result in the worst of both worlds - money granted and paid, but not enough for the project to go ahead ... and resulting in the volunteers looking for yet more sources of the rest of the fund, more admin for the volunteers who I would really like to have their time available to do the voluntary work and not the admin.
Iluustration - the left had side of the spead sheet that we considered last night, taken from the public agenda
Published Tuesday, 9th July 2024
General Election - Melksham and Devizes
Congratulations to Brian Mathew (pictured) on his election as the MP for the new Melksham and Devizes seat. Votes cast were as follows:
| Brian Mathew (Liberal Democrat) | 20,031 votes - elected |
| Michelle Donelan (Conservative) | 17,630 votes |
| Malcolm Cupis (Reform UK) | 6,727 votes |
| Kerry Postlewhite (Labour) | 4,587 votes |
| Catherine Read (Green) | 2,229 votes |
In Melksham, we had a choice between our previous member of parliament, who had a nine year Westminster record to refer to in addition to her local work, and four candidates we knew far less about. I was delighted that three of those four found time to come along to our hustings, and that helped me and a hundred others get to know them a little better. Personally, that evening really helped me and gave me a confidence to vote for a candidate who I had not met before that evening;
A "thank you" is due to Michelle Donelan for her hard work over the past 9 years. She was swept out on a national tide of unhappiness with the Conservative government (for which, hwever, she has an element of reponsibility being a cabinet member) even though she and her team were very responsive and visible locally of late.
Here is a table of constituencies that neighbour ours (*) and all other Wiltshire constituencies, with their new MPs (% - re-elected) and the percentage of the vote they each took
| Swindon South | 48.4% | Labour | Heidi Alexander |
| (*) Chippenham | 45.5% | Liberal Democrat | Sarah Gibson |
| (*) South Cotswolds | 43.9% | Liberal Democrat | Roz Savage |
| (*) Bath | 41.3% | Liberal Democrat | Wera Hobhouse (%) |
| Swindon North | 40.6% | Labour | Will Stone |
| Melksham and Devizes | 39.1% | Liberal Democrat | Brian Mathew |
| (*) Thornbury and Yate | 39.0% | Liberal Democrat | Claire Young |
| (*) Wiltshire East | 37.5% | Conservative | Danny Kruger (%) |
| (*) Frome and East Somerset | 35.5% | Liberal Democrat | Anna Sabine |
| Salisbury | 34.1% | Conservative | John Glen (%) |
| (*) Wiltshire South West | 33.8% | Conservative | Andrew Murrison |
Published Saturday, 6th July 2024
Government manifesto and members
With the 4th July election, we have a new Labour government and many new policies. To guide us, and for reference later, here is a summary of their manifesto plicies as compiled by the BBC, the initial membership of the shadow cabinet, and maps and diagrams. It makes sense as we look to help from within the community to move our country forward to do so in a way that aligns our aspirations to those of both the governing party and to those of our own member of parliament (Brian Mathew, elected as a representative of the Liberal Democrat Party).
Partnership not protest, at times as a critical friend but still very much co-operative working.
For each topic below, click on the image to enlarge it.
I have mirrored the complete manifesto ((here))
And the political colour of the UK and our area:
Published Friday, 5th July 2024
General Election - transport policies and my vote
I attended (OK - helped organise) our Melksham and Devizes Parliamentary Hustings on Wednesday evening, with a climate and nature theme. I am not associated with any political party - will (and do) work with any, so may be considered to be a floating voter. I have a strong interest, and some knowledge, of transport, which accounts for around a quarter of CO2 emissions in the UK and emissions in that sector are stubbornly not falling, and asked a question on that topic. How will I vote? Scroll down to the end of this article to find out.Candidates:
Jump to Labour
Jump to Green
Jump to Liberal Democrat
Jump to Reform UK
Jump to Conservative
And also:
Jump to Conservative Record
Jump to and to conclude
We have five candidates. Here are their answers / approaches (with my comments) on them, starting with those present in the room.
Labour, for whom we were joined by Kerry Postlewhite. Kerry started on transport by telling us of picking up a friend from Belgium who arrives at Swindon Station, and how that friend was shocked at the car park full of cars there, where in Belgium it would be full of bicycles. Agreed but how, Kerry, would / will a Labour government encourage / make us make the transition? She also spoke of Melksham Station, and how people travel to other stations in the area because the local service there is so poor. Sadly, I agree. Policy: Buses are uncool and should be made cool. Buses and public transport don't run at all times they are wanter and are expensive. Take rail back into public ownership. Melksham trains "always late". Reference to Louie Haigh document.
Green, for whom our candidate is Catherine Read. I had met Catherine previously at our ClimateFest, and I admire and cherish the Green presence of Caroline Lucas that we've had in parliament - not necessarily agreeing with some of the more general left wing policies, but delighted that they are expressed and promoted to a degree in parliament. Policy: Make public transport easier and cheaper. Bring back buses that have been cut locally, and there is is not enough public transport. Under 18s go free. Invest £10 billion. Rapid electrification and reopening of stations. Safe streets.
Liberal Democrat for whom Brian Mathew is standing for parliament. Of the three candidates present, I knew Brian the least. I was not his liaison person for the event, and although the name was familiar our paths hadn't crossed prior to the evening. So let me say that I am relieved at how Brian came across, his manner, his experience, and his good knowledge on the subjects that came up. Policy: Keep £2 bus fare. Cheaper to South West. Electrification. Intro grants. 2030 zero for transport. More money any authority to spend locally. Simplify tickets. More station re-openings on existing current main lines (mention Devizes). Make bus franchising easier.
Reform UK - not present and I have no prior experience of them. But I have been in direct correspondence with our candidate, who sent his apologies. He had prior appointments for all three dates we were able to offer, and they checked out and were no doubt a genuine part of a program. Policy ... ... He sent a statement which I read out to the meeting and in it he spoke of scrapping net zero on the basis of "what difference can the UK make" - while making a point of not denying climate change. The general statement did not reference transport [fair enough - wasn't asked to]; looking through the party's headline policies, I see they want to cancel net zero, and also cancel the remaining section of HS2. I have got on well enough in exchanges with Malcolm Cupis - as a person happy to sit down with him over a pint, but his views including many wider topics than transport are such that I could not personally vote for him.
Conservative - not present. Michelle Donelan has represented Melksham in parliament, as part of the Chippenham Constituency, for nine years and I know her on a "business" level and work with / to inform her on public transport matters. She (and her team) have been responsive locally, and as a constituency MP - especially over the last year - she has been very visible indeed. I will confess to having misgivings as to whether certain things said by/for Michelle, while true, are misleading. That's not just a one-off; an example is her apology for not being able to make the hustings where she writes "Due to the snap election and the very short time frame between now and the election - I am already fully booked up with hustings right across our area" - odd really, as there were only two hustings in the area, taking the electoral commission's definition of a hustings as "Hustings. A hustings is a meeting where election candidates or parties debate policies and answer questions from the audience". Michelle has been very visible meeting with people and asking for their votes and was probably out doing so on Wednesday evening - and that might be considered "husting" people by debating people on their own doorsteps and answering questions from them. I can understand why she may find that a more effective way of increasing her vote, but her explanation just felt dishonest to me.
Policy ... So what can I tell you about Michelle and the conservative's policies on transport? Well - I can look at what the government has done and past record in the absence of big headline policy changes proposed.
As I write this, a promotional video for Michelle popped up ... "Don't trust me for what I say - judge me for what I have done". So these are the sort of things she wants to be judged on ...
Recent years with Michelle
Bradford-on-Avon to London trains. Popular / useful / busy / low cost services lost in spite of a petition with 6572 signatures asking for it to be retained. London travel now involves a change of trains and usually a long wait. Ironically, 18 months after the service was withdrawn to "remove duplication", extra trains were added back in to the paths occupied by GWR, except that they just miss the London connection at Salisbury. Broken for no gain - why? At the time, Michelle wrote to me that she had gone to see the minister and had spoken with him about it. Nothing in what she wrote convinced me that she had made a strong case, and in hindsight it's quite possible that she and the minister agreed that the problem would blow over long before the next election.
£2 bus fare. Yes, this is a good one. Hugely sensible to be encouraging people to use the bus, with fares slashed temporarily to market buses to people after covid, and now extended until December (i.e. after the election). £6 down to £2, Melksham to Devizes single, makes a huge difference. I think I saw a manifesto (or other) promise to extend the £2 for at leat 5 years, and stable public transport pricing (as seen Bristol to Avonmouth and Severn Beach rail line) has made a huge positive difference there. More of this needed.
Rail Franchising and government micro-control of the railway. Rail use has doubled since privatisation and franchising - arguable whether it was the right approach or not, but commonly accepted that significant changes are needed - wheel out the William report and Great British Railways which feel like they have been going on for ever. And in the interim, the Department for Transport has been micromanaging the rail system to the intense frustration of the professionals - "can't let the experts use their expertise"? That said, financial support through Covid gratefully received. Industrial relations have been abysmal, with the passenger feeling, perhaps, like a punchbag between government and unions, at the long term expense of damage to use and development of a rail system fit for the 21st Century.
Open Access rail operations - trains run commercially to fill network gaps - run on the east coast but not at present in our area, although there has been a proposal around for a decade to run Open Access through and serving Melksham. Tory proposal "big" the retention and perhaps growth of Open Access, but I have never seen or heard Michelle comment on it locally. It could make a huge difference at Melksham - positive or negative depending on how it's done
Fare System. Generally acknowledged as being too complex for purpose, and high fares; the proportion of rail costs paid for by the passenger in the UK, and the need for ever-more safety and red tape hasn't helped. And all parties know that simplifying the fare system while maintaining income levels on same passenger levels would result in winners and losers, with winners quickly forgetting and losers remembering at the next election.
Melksham station progress. When Duncan Hames was our MP, services stepped up from 2 to 8 each way per day, and as a result passenger journeys rose from 3,000 to 75,000 per annum. And there it has stuck. Technical work suggests that a service of 16 reliable trains per day would bring passenger numbers up to around 250,000 per annum; as it is, we are now up to 9 (7 at the weekend) and that is too thin for most people. Disappointing that during Michelle's time and with the local Community Rail Partnership having an absolute majority of Tory current and past Unitary councillors on its board that service remain as poor as they do.
BBB - Boris's "Bus Back Better" was / is a wonderful review post-covid. Huge amounts of hard work put in locally - what a pity that it was bid funding and for high profile new stuff. Initial bids - shire counties in the Western Gateway got nothing for all that work ... WECA got £100 million and have spent a lot on WestLink demand responsive transport for three years with many teething problems reported and a difficult future to see.
New stations - Corsham and Devizes - in her old constituency that included Corsham, Michelle has been promoting a re-opening of the station in Corsham. Very popular, but it hasn't happened and there seems little immediate prospect. In Devizes, in the new constituency, there is logic for a "Gateway" station 2 miles from the town on the main West of England line, though the business case for that has just failed.
Electrification - was supposed to have been completed through Chippenham to Bath and Bristol and a lot of money spent on scheme that's been stopped. No electric trains or buses in the Melksham and Devizes Constituency, and no suggestion that a conservative government would electrify any railways here during its next term. Still all diesel, including the heavy freight that pass through and where a real difference could be made.
Reliability - trains, awful, Melksham over 10% cancellation where 2% should be the absolute limit. Lack of staff, lack of working trains. Both issues utterly frustrating to rail management, and IMHO the failure can be largely laid at the feet of the government in which Michelle has been a minister.
Fuel Duty - how ungreen (and populist) to freeze fuel duty in successive budgets and keep stepping up rail fares. Hardly going to help the climate, but it will help maintain the votes of those wealthy enough to afford a private vehicle.
Town Bus - service halved during this parliament, and just re-tendered at what was the "temporary" covid level. Looking very personally at the stop outside my home, around 20 town bus service a day down to 5. And many are empty because it's no longer a service that runs when people want it, nor does it actually connect with (for example) the train or go to the Campus. It goes to the supermarkets, which these days are doing a lot of their business through home delivery
HS2 - continuing with the southern section and cancelling the northern section - a disjointed decision that for the most part gives us the worst of both worlds.
None of these are easy matters, but Michelle does ask us to judge her on her record, and her lack of availability on any date for the hustings has left me with just her statement and that record.
And to conclude
You can watch back the hustings and hear all five statements at
https://www.facebook.com/noel.woolrych/videos/1013704943601722?idorvanity=1589423811847101
also at https://youtu.be/AlyV1nwOvNA?si=uXeqRD_hj4KZ9mD8 if you're not a fan of Facebook
I said at the start of this article I would tell you how I am voting. It's a slight cheat, isn't it, to tell you that I have a postal vote that will be going off tomorrow (Saturday) morning to arrive in good time for next Thursday.
As to which candidate to select, I wish I could mix and match policies and personalities. And I wish I could first and foremost vote for whoever I felt would do the best job, even if that person has no realistic chance of being elected in Melksham, and my vote for [him/her] takes what could be a key vote away from a second choice who has better prospects. I am also aware that it making my decision, I've never met one candidate, have little more that proposals and talk fro three more, and I have deep experience of living in the constituency of the final one, who has been busy for this past year (prior to purdah) paid from the public purse to fulfil her role, which has included being paid to look after her constituency. These factors are far from unique to Melksham; all over the UK they make for a very unlevel playing field. And I then have to guess as to the nationwide result and perhaps consider how we will do hear if our MP is part of the government party, part of the official opposition, part (perhaps) of a coalition if no-one gets and absolute majority, or part of a minority party or grouping.
Unlike so much publicity I see around, I am not suggesting who you vote for. I AM suggesting you vote, and you give serious thought to your vote and cast it with seriousness and care. If it turns out you get the person you wanted as MP, good news for you and the more votes that person has the stronger place they will be in. If the candidate that the vote for does NOT get elected, it is not a wasted vote. That person has your support, and a strength in numbers to carry on within the community with the good work they do.
I could work with any of the four candidates I have met in my community area of interest and look forward to doing so positively into the future. The environment is key to me and within that transport in many ways - be it carbon emissions directly, or by providing better, cleaner, healthier, more efficient ways to get around if, indeed, we need to get around as much.
I will leave with some thoughts of things that did not crop up on Wednesday evening, but may well in the next decade, and I wonder about the position each candidate would take on them.
* Ride Sharing - less than a third of car seats are used - inefficient or what?
* Electric Scooters are illegal in Melksham - and the most friendly powered transport mode that there is.
* Carrots are needed to help encourage the best use of mass/public transport with integrated information, fares and network, and with reliability that has been lacking. Going where people want, when people want, at a price that can be afforded.
* Railway and bus electrification is "obvious" - but electricity is just a means of transmission of power and we have to ensure it comes from sustainable.
* Did anyone mention the Lime Farm solar farm, or the Melksham Bypass?
This time next week, we should have some idea of the shape of our new government and whether our prime minister is Rishi Sunak, Keir Starmer, Ed Davey or Nigel Farage, or if we are in for a period of horse trading to go between them to establish a government. And we should know if Michelle, Brian, Kerry, Catherine or Malcolm represents us in parliament. That will, perhaps, be time for a further update.
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Published Friday, 28th June 2024
Placing my vote - a chance to listen
I am looking forward to the hustings at Spencers Sport and Social Club on Beanacre Road, Melksham, on Wednesday 26th June 2024. Take your seats, please at 18:00 for a prompt start at 18:15. All welcome. Free Entry. See ((here))We have five candidates standing for the new seat of Melksham and Devizes - representing Conservative, Green, Labour, Liberal Democrat and Reform parties. The choice - in my view - is partly based on the party and policy, and partly based on the individual and how appropriate and effective they would be for our area, and that being as part of the UK and for the world. And with a "first past the post" system, there is a temptation to vote for a candidate we consider second best if the boosts his/her realistic chance of being elected, and our best candidate has no realistic chance.
I have not yet made a final decision on where to place my vote. It's a single vote based on a multitude of factors and policies. Decision to make after the hustings, which have a climate and nature theme; environmental issues pervade all policy areas and it will be very educational to hear what the candidates have to say about how they weave these issues into their plans, and what they say on the night in person (most will be there), or through a representative or statement.
132 MPs from the last parliament are standing down. With 650 seats that means that in 518 seats have an MP standing on a record, and with salary and usually a paid staff to do their job, and also to raise their profile. There is a spending limit during campaigning, but that does not negate the effect of their prior spending paid by our taxes. We are in a new constituency - Melksham and Devizes - with incumbent MP Michelle Donelan standing for the seat, having previously represented Melksham and Bradford-on-Avon as part of the old Chippenham seat, and taking on Devizes from the old Devizes seat. Looking to be MP for the first time are Malcolm Cupis, Caroline Read, Kerry Postlewhite and Brian Mathews and whilst I have observed (and in some cases interacted) in recent weeks, I know them very much less than Michelle - naturally so as they have all had to learn their livings in day jobs rather that being paid £90k per annum to represent us.
I wrote down some factors that I'll be balancing. Honesty. Fully informing. Effective. Policies. Realistic. Listening. Strategic. A pleasure to work with. Knowledgable - from local to the world.
Published Friday, 21st June 2024