A very long night (part 1)

May 7, 2010 — simonashall

During the past few days I have been too busy campaigning in Horsell West to blog and of course I’m disappointed that having got more than 1,800 votes in the ward – the largest number by some way that I can recall the Conservatives getting - this wasn’t enough to win. The Horsell campaign team – Ben Carasco, Tony Branagan, Michael Gammon, Beryl Hunwicks, Alex Smith, Matthew King, Tim Read and others – worked extremely hard to try and secure a result in the ward and I can’t express enough gratitude for the work they have done.

As John McCain said, the failure is mine, not theirs – but I also have to pay tribute to the Lib Dem effort too. We didn’t see much of them but there was clearly some work being done somewhere as you don’t pull 1,850 votes out of Horsell West by just turning up to the count. It’s quite an achievement and congratulations to Ann-Marie Barker for being elected to replace Richard Sanderson in what was a closely-fought and intense battle with turnout at a furious 77%.

We all care about these things very much, otherwise we wouldn’t be doing them and to say that I’m not disappointed would be untrue. But I’m also philosophical – I knew Horsell West would be very, very close when I put myself forward for selection and I certainly didn’t get sucked into envisaging myself as a councillor on May 7. It’s a ward where nothing can be taken for granted and victory really is only for four years. Let’s also not forget that this was a Lib Dem seat with a majority of around 150 in 2006. So I walked into the hall not a councillor – and I walked back out not a councillor, the only thing it has cost me is the time and energy of the campaign.

And the campaign has been a real blast, a chance to get to know the area even better than you ever believed you could (you start to remember the names of houses and their order on South Road and the location of hidden front doors) as well as meet people from all over the village. I couldn’t honestly say I look upon that as a “cost” – more like a benefit and an experience that will help greatly in the future. It won’t be much of a surprise to learn that I’m not giving up and see highs and lows as part of the political process.

Being a councillor is a great honour but it’s not a requirement for contributing to the community. I will be continuing to do this and – after a suitable break – we’ll see what next year brings.

Meanwhile, congratulations to Dorothy Farrant, new-elected councillor for Byfleet and terrific news for Carl Thomson, who unseated Norman Johns to be the new councillor for Mount Hermon East. Well done, Carl.

Posted in Community, Horsell West campaign, elections. Tags: , , , . No Comments »

Majority halved

April 14, 2010 — simonashall

I’ve just been out and come back from a Horsell Village Hall meeting and on my way I was told by a resident that they had been canvassed by the Liberal Democrats. Unfortunate enough at any time but particularly as this canvasser, who shall remain nameless, tried to tell the resident that the current Conservative parliamentary majority was “two or three thousand”. When challenged, they upped this to “three or four thousand”.

For those Lib Dems that don’t know and aren’t sure, perhaps you ought not to be misleading residents on the doorstep. It’s actually 6,612.

It’s little stunts like these that make me realise that while the Lib Dems like to profess ethical social views, their election tactics can be anything but.

Posted in Horsell West campaign, Lib Dem lies. Tags: , , . 7 Comments »

Horsell Action Day

April 10, 2010 — simonashall

There’s nothing better than a bit of politics when the sun’s shining, people are in and willing to talk and the parliamentary candidate is getting greeted on the street by people who recognise him from literature. But so it was this morning when we held an Action Day in Horsell for my campaign along with Jonathan Lord.

I’ve read an awful lot of baseless rubbish about him elsewhere and in some election literature, which I have addressed previously. While our opponents campaign on the importance of locality because they have little else to recommend their candidate, Jonathan is interested in meeting people to demonstrate the broad portfolio of personal and political skills that we believe would make him a strong and effective MP for Woking. It seems that people in Horsell High Street this morning understood this.

Far from quizzing him about where he lives – as Lib Dem activists have been asked to do if he calls – they are concentrating on the big picture. That is that we need someone to stand up in parliament and argue Woking’s case to the highest democratic authority in the land and that person needs to be charismatic and credible. He was greeted warmly both on the doorstep and in the street this morning by people from all parts of the village who can see what he would offer Woking as our representative if they back him on May 6.

It’s a common theme of Lib Dem literature to erect barriers - a barrier between Jonathan and his party, a barrier between Jonathan and Woking or between anyone else and the people they want to represent. Well, those barriers are all very well as election tools but they don’t exist in reality. As Conservatives, we must not talk the language of barriers, problems and disconnects but of accessibility, solutions and relationships – and watching Jonathan’s reception in Horsell this morning demonstrated to me the value of that approach and why I believe that ultimately it will win through.

Posted in Horsell West campaign, Lib Dem lies, Woking PPC, elections. Tags: , , , , , , , . 4 Comments »

Rhetorical Questions

March 23, 2010 — simonashall

Firstly, it’s good to see that Ann-Marie Barker’s nomination as my Lib Dem opponent in Horsell West is now official (unlike her, I am happy to afford my opponent the courtesy of using her name!). Richard Sanderson has left big shoes for whoever replaces him to fill and I look forward to a good-tempered if hard-fought final six weeks.

I’m also glad to note that she’s been reading my blog judging by her comments on Community Question Time and I’m delighted to discover that she’s in agreement with me over developing and expanding the Community Question Time into something more meaningful:

The funny thing is a local Conservative [that's me by the way - Simon!] is now suggesting that a quarterly or twice yearly event that moves around the borough would be a good idea. It’s a great idea and one that was put in place under the theme ‘Tune In’ through a local Liberal Democrat initiative.

Let’s make one thing clear – Tune In was never given a budget to do anything. So its travelling around the borough raising residents’ expectations of what might be achieved was a particular exercise in futility and one that as a journalist and then a press officer at a participating local authority I looked upon on in amazement. The only thing that Tune In was able to do was shift money from one budget heading to another and push some things further up the work programme.

The idea that “working in partnership” is the answer to everything needs to be challenged. Partnership working can be a useful tool in some regards but having six different organisations trying to make decisions together is seldom successful. Very rarely do they truly gel as one “partnership” and the individual interests – usually budgetary – almost always prevail. What you need is the right balance between operational matters that are best worked on together with the support of the community and those that really should be left to one organisation and its professionals to deal with.

My idea of a Community Question Time separates the democratic elements of community dialogue and council accountability from the bureaucratic rhetoric of partnerships and any false expectations of delivery. The views of residents should be constantly expressed at every level by members and every single year, voters have the chance to show their feelings at the ballot box. They are entitled to ask the questions in public that will give them the information they need to inform their vote. I believe that few are interested in how well various slices of local government are working together or not – so long as the outcomes are there.

I agree with Ann-Marie that Tune In was meant to be much more but I believe the only way to achieve it is by little steps. The idea of Question Time standing alone is meant to be that first step - it is distinctly not trying to emulate the flawed Tune In model.

Posted in Community, Horsell West campaign, Woking Borough Council. Tags: , , , , , . No Comments »

Hard Graphed

March 23, 2010 — simonashall

 

Now all I’m going to say is this; the sound of the Liberal Democrats moaning about graphs on Conservative literature and claiming unfairness/inaccuracy/irrelevance is sweeter than new spring lamb with mint sauce.

How man dozens of dodgy Lib Dem graphs have we had to suffer?

Posted in Horsell West campaign, lib dems, politics. Tags: , , . No Comments »

Allotments in Carthouse Lane

January 15, 2010 — admin

Sorry for not blogging more, I’ve come down with a heavy cold over the last couple of days and haven’t felt like doing much.

I will blog on it more at a later point but a planning application for light industrial units and warehouses on the Carthouse Lane site, as well as 80 new allotments, has been put in by Rutland Homes. We are assured that these will be in addition to and not instead of the current Horsell Allotments.

I need to declare a personal interest here – as someone on the waiting list for Horsell Allotments, I stand to gain getting an allotment several years earlier than expected if the application is granted and the scheme goes ahead. But setting that aside, I don’t have a problem with the warehouses given what’s already there – and think it would be difficult to stop them through the planning system anyway.

However, I’d be interested to hear from anyone living in the lane if they have any objections. The application can be viewed on the Woking Borough Council website at the Public Access for Planning application. Under application search, enter PLAN/2009/1091. Objections need to be in by January 21 – Horsell Residents Association is aware.

Posted in Environment, Horsell West campaign, planning. Tags: , . No Comments »

Need for less speed

December 8, 2009 — admin

On Monday evening, I hosted Horsell Village Horsell Trustees and this clashed with both the Conservative group meeting and the Christmas panel meeting for Horsell of Surrey Police. I did however pop along to the first 25 minutes of the latter before dashing back home for HVH because I think it is important to know what the policing issues are.

The panel consists of PC Josh Parish, our excellent neighbourhood officer, PSCO Kimberley Muir who I don’t know that well but I have seen out patrolling in the village quite a lot and Kate Wilson, Woking Borough Council’s neighbourhood officer. Josh spoke a bit about problems of parking near the C of E school around rush hour and about how he and Kimberley had been moving inconsiderately parking vehicles on – to mixed reaction. Plans are afoot to strengthen this measure.

He also mentioned the anti-burglary operation that Surrey Police has been carrying out, the reason that he knocked on my door a few weeks ago. Questions from the floor were almost exclusively about speeding, whether it be along Chobham Road, Brewery Road or down side streets. It certainly seems to be a problem and on Brewery Road I know of at least one recent incident where damage was caused by an accident.

The Speedwatch programme is an excellent scheme but not to everyone’s taste. I guess it depends on your views on speeding – my view is that communities have to take responsibility and that training them up to issue warnings to speeding drivers is a natural application of this principle. Drivers don’t have the right to speed just because they think that they can handle it – while it is annoying to be picked up for doing just over the speed limit, unfortunately for many dangerous drivers speed is a key identifier.

I would train up for the scheme but cannot see how I would have the time to participate at the moment. We need less speeding in Horsell because of the busy and crammed nature of our village. There are too many people around, a lot of them children, to take risks. Horsell can easily be bypassed for those trying to get elsewhere in a hurry – there is no excuse for them to coming racing through the village.

Posted in Community, Horsell West campaign, Police. Tags: , , , , . No Comments »

My left footpath

December 4, 2009 — admin

I really did have an unpleasant journey walking back from work on Wednesday evening. My route takes me back through Woking Town Square, past the council offices and over into the Brewery Road Car Park. From there, I go up Chobham Road and cut through Wheatsheaf Road/Orchard Drive onto Grange Road. But on Wednesday it had been raining heavily – and still was – and the whole area of Brewery Road by the car park entrance was flooded and under about three inches of water (that’s a whole different post!).

Instead of walking back and trying a different route on to Chobham Road, I decided to use the footpath that heads up past the Pegasus and behind the Broomhalls and on to Horsell Park. But on Wednesday it was also under a good inch of water in most places. There was precious little lighting – I was focussed on finding my way out half way up Chobham Road  but only remember the moon as any form of indication as to where the puddles were – and absolutely no signage to tell anyone unfamiliar with the path where they were going or where the severall branches led to.

I’ve been up the footpath before but in the squalling rain and dark I couldn’t make out which turn to take and eventually ended up in The Larches. Fortunately, my knowledge of the area is sufficient to know where that is but not everyone would do. Nor would everyone’s eyesight necessarily be up to negotiating the footpath in that state of darkness. In addition I’m able, as a last resort, to simply wade through the floods if necessary without anything more than temporary discomfort. But for some, getting their feet wet in dirty water is not an option to take if at all possible.

So I’ve been speaking to borough councillor Beryl Hunwicks, who has raised the issue of lighting along there before. We are going to check the lighting and signage because if we are to encouage people from Horsell to walk to work or the station rather than using the car, we need to make the footpaths safe, comfortable and practical. Maybe it’s just me but my experience on Wednesday wasn’t any of those things.

Posted in Community, Horsell West campaign. Tags: , , . No Comments »

Coffee in Horsell

November 21, 2009 — admin
Fighting for Horsell West - the Conservative team

Fighting for Horsell West - the Conservative team

It’s been a busy day – I was down at Horsell Village Hall at 9am to clear leaves from around the vicinity. Luckily, the strong winds had taken a few of them away but there were still eight bags that we took to compost. The hall is lucky to have a very good team of volunteers and I am by no means foremost among them – we all take pride in making sure the place is as presentable and pleasant as we can possibly make it. A lot of people probably suppose that the trustees hire in gardeners to tend the grounds and sweep the leaves. Not so, we like to spend what money we have on improvements for users and ensuring the hall remains fit for purpose for many years to come.

Then on to the home of Diane and Gary Shepherd for a very successful and well-attended coffee morning for Horsell and Woodham Conservatives. It was superb to see all the Horsell borough and county members there and once again to be in the company of Jonathan Lord, who far from dashing off was pretty much the last person to leave. He gave another upbeat but pragmatic speech on the times ahead before unexpectedly asking me to say a few words.

I’ve never given a proper speech to activists before and probably fell somewhat short of that but for a piece of rhetoric made up on the hoof I was pleased with what I said. I can’t match Jonathan’s eloquence but got a round of applause anyway, although I suspect that was more sympathy than agreement. Inevitably one ends up thinking of several things one should have said after the event; but that it the beauty of learning and I’ll know for next time.

Into a single coffee morning goes the work of many people – the hosts, the organisers, the bakers of cakes, the collectors of raffle and ticket money, the helpers and those who simply turn up to show their support. Thanks to all of them – they are the people who can win the election for me; I am only able to lose it. Without the support of a great team, a candidate is merely a legal requirement.  

I am very flattered that they have seen fit to advance me as their candidate – I only hope I can  justify the faith placed in me.

Posted in Conservatives, Horsell West campaign, Woking Borough Council. Tags: , , , . No Comments »

My Facebook group

November 7, 2009 — admin

I have created a Facebook group that will keep updating on details about my campaign. This can be viewed here - it is a closed group for obvious reasons but please feel free to request membership if you are interested in joining.

I don’t want this blog to get too tied down with campaigning details and want to keep it as varied as possible - so a lot of the Horsell West information will go onto Facebook.

Posted in Horsell West campaign, Woking Borough Council. Tags: . No Comments »
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