Politicians are big on promises and low on strategy

I used to think our democratic system was the best in the world, Churchill is attributed with saying “democracy is the worst form of government, except for all the others”, but I become less convinced that either of us were correct.

We must all be alarmed at the way many of our elected politicians appear to be working against the view of the majority.

Closer to home our local council have held another election apparently created by some squabble within the ruling party. Apart from the cost I question the stamina of the electorate who faced with yet more promises of action, will no doubt presently reflect once again upon the short memories of the elected. Our recent councils (of all persuasions) blame national government for lack of funding, yet have found money for new council offices, leisure centre, “The Crescent” (and wonder why the town is empty), the co-op building purchase (possibly soon to be demolished) no doubt “lobbied” by local councillors with more than a passing interest in businesses located nearby, cycle lanes that are rarely used by the few cyclists who prefer to impose their right to share the highway.

I don’t understand with the increase in local house building, new businesses, warehouses and distribution companies flooding into the A5 corridor and the Hinckley conurbation (without the accompanying infrastructure), how there is a shortage of income?

Business rates and council tax incomes must surely have benefited.

We have less police, less fire-fighters, less schools (our child population is in decline), less refuse collections, less grass cutting, less road repairs, less street lights and less hospitals. So where the heck is the money going?

I have written to many of our county council representatives of all persuasions over the last 12 months, highlighting the traffic problems suffered by all who live in the area and in particular travel to Coventry. Anybody travelling from the eastern side of town are faced with a journey through Hinckley in the morning and again at night. For some that may mean a queue at Smokington Hollow which is just as daunting as the queues to get on/off the A5/M69. The solution is surely to open the Sapcote junction (howls of derision from Sapcote residents).

Each of our county representatives replied with full agreement and the promise to fight for Hinckley’s cause. My letter was forwarded by one councillor to County Hall who replied in the affirmative and indicated that many of the suggestions to improve traffic in Hinckley were already being addressed.

They did however mention they had a “projects to do” list of £360m across the county, so don’t hold your breath Hinckley.

In the meantime we continue to choke on the traffic fumes, we watch more cycle lanes being painted, more traffic lights to delay people and our prospective new candidates continue to claim they will campaign and fight to overcome these and many other issues.

Big on promises low on strategy and timeframe, and utterly powerless to persuade county hall. It appears only County Hall have the money and the muscle. In the meantime our democracy has layer after layer of parish, town, county, regional, national and European councillors all apparently working on our behalf.

Trouble is there seems to be little evidence of any tangible results, but one lives in hope. In the meantime I intend to write to Jeremy Corbin and ask where to purchase these money trees he seems so good at growing, we could certainly do with a few around Hinckley.

Perhaps Hinckley Times could adopt a campaigning approach within its pages. Whilst its lovely to reflect on photos from past times, its hardly riveting stuff and only adds to the sheer frustration that our elected representatives have not kept abreast of the changing world we live in and have failed to provide essential services and infrastructure “fit for purpose”, but continue to pursue vanity projects. Burbage Barry