Cllr Vic Pritchard is the Chief of the Conservative Group on Tub and North East Somerset Council
“Once you’re going via hell, hold going.” This well-known aphorism from Churchill comes perilously near describing how the previous few years have felt in Tub and North East Somerset (BANES) below a Liberal Democrat administration.
However change is simply across the nook. With native elections scheduled to happen subsequent Might, we Conservatives should follow Churchill’s recommendation and hold going.
We misplaced management of the council in 2019 and have since been confronted with a Lib Dem majority of between 11 and 15 councillors. With 10 members, we’re a small however robust opposition pressure on the council. Now we have used our affect to assist reverse plenty of disastrous insurance policies the administration has been intent on delivering. These embrace the introduction of automobile parking costs in one in every of our cities, makes an attempt to cost folks to recycle sure supplies (dubbed the ‘Tip Tax’), and plans to fully exclude folks with disabilities from accessing Tub metropolis centre. Now we have additionally continued to be robust ward champions, serving to our residents with any points, nonetheless small they could be.
However we didn’t turn into councillors with a purpose to sit on the opposition benches. If we need to do constructive issues for the group, issues we all know we have now the capabilities to realize, we should do all we are able to to make sure we win subsequent yr.
Over the previous few years, the Lib Dem coverage agenda for BANES has mirrored that of different authorities throughout the nation additionally below their management. In York, for instance, the Lib Dem administration just lately made nationwide information by fully proscribing entry to the town centre. Likewise in Tub, the council has this yr carried out metropolis centre entry restrictions identified domestically because the ‘Ring of Metal’. Briefly, the coverage includes fully proscribing entry to Tub metropolis centre via the liberal use of bolstered metal boundaries. The plans have been vociferously opposed by folks in Tub who’ve disabilities, and far pointless stress and anxiousness has been attributable to the insensitive method through which the Lib Dems have pushed the coverage ahead.
Whereas we recognise the significance of retaining members of the general public secure from potential terrorist assaults, we don’t suppose the Ring of Metal is a good or proportional response. That’s why, forward of subsequent Might’s elections, we are going to decide to reviewing the scheme and amending it the place it’s smart to take action.
Right here in BANES, we stay in part of the nation that’s replete with pure magnificence and wealthy in cultural historical past. Located on the southern finish of the Cotswolds, on the sting of the Mendips and which incorporates Salisbury Plain and the UNESCO World Metropolis of Tub, plus numerous historic cities and villages, we occupy a nook of the nation that’s of particular curiosity. To place it one other method, it is part of the nation that should be positioned below the trusty stewardship of the Conservatives.
Whereas the finer particulars of subsequent yr’s marketing campaign are nonetheless to be agreed, already we are able to determine some broad themes. These embrace a renewed deal with ‘hyper native’ points that matter most to residents, the necessity to inject a way of delight and place again into our district, and efforts to enhance relations between residents and the native authority, which too usually below the Lib Dems has ridden roughshod over peoples’ views, giving the impression that it is aware of higher that they do.
We need to assist sort out the Local weather Emergency in a method that makes residents really feel included, relatively than the current administration’s tendency to manage peoples’ behaviour in an authoritarian method. For instance, as a substitute of introducing a plethora of Low-Site visitors Neighbourhoods (LTNs) throughout the entire of Tub as a quick-fix to decreasing automobile emissions, we’d be extra conscious of Tub’s distinctive topography and solely take schemes ahead which have robust justifications.
Whereas we’re assured that, within the face of the Lib Dems’ myriad failures since 2019, the native voters will put their religion in us subsequent yr and return a Conservative majority to the Guildhall, we all know it won’t be a straightforward marketing campaign. Our opponents are nicely organised and routinely ply residents with infinite streams of celebration literature. However as Conservatives, we undoubtedly have a successful message.
Our colleagues within the Tub Conservative Affiliation just lately introduced the brand new Parliamentary Spokesman for the Metropolis, the individual hoping to unseat Lib Dem MP, Wera Hobhouse, on the subsequent Basic Election. Matthew Heappey beat some glorious candidates in a tricky choice course of, and it is going to be a privilege to work with him through the subsequent marketing campaign. In North East Somerset, Jacob Rees-Mogg continues to be a preferred native MP and enjoys the robust help of councillors, activists, and celebration members.
In case your native authority space has elections subsequent yr, the BANES Conservatives will probably be with you in spirit, cheering you on as we hope you too will probably be cheering us on. And if at occasions it might really feel an inconceivable job, keep in mind Churchill’s phrases – simply hold going.
