The state of local politics in Hedge End

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