BIG PICTURE
I AM writing to sincerely thank the 586 electors who voted in the recent Bollington Town Council Central Ward by-election.
These voters elected Independent candidate Sara Knowles on a very low turnout of just over 23 per cent.
Despite such a democratic deficit, nevertheless my congratulations go to Sara – who I am sure will become a diligent town councillor.
During my campaign I personally visited nearly 1,000 households canvassing openly as an official local Labour Party candidate and spoke directly with over 2,000 voters.
From these discussions it is worryingly clear that many voters were still extremely disillusioned with politicians of all parties – namely due to the many false promises previously made with little local and national delivery against voters clear needs and wants.
Particular areas of concern in Bollington were recent catastrophic local flood damage, no regular gully/grid emptying, lack of enough adequate parking, road potholes, dangerous vehicles speeding throughout Bollington (with much sympathy for a new 20-mile limit and better signage), poor youth services, lack of appropriate public transport, recent ineffective planning/ greenbelt processes eg the new Tesco development planned for a very busy Grimshaw Lane junction (surely a bad road accident waiting to happen).
Finally of particular concern to me is the new trend over the past few years towards the election of ‘Independent’ candidates and the personal attacks (often via social media) made about any other officially democratically selected political party candidates.
In Bollington it is now evidently clear that the Independents are not as independent as voters may think? For this election the Independents, Conservatives, Lib Dems, Bollington First political parties and others pooled their limited supporter resources campaigning together to form a Stop Labour coalition – to win this very close election by just 12 votes.
I simply ask - how are future Bollington voters supposed to know the difference?
John Place via email
CAN POLICE JUSTIFY RISE?
NO doubt like many other residents, I received my council tax bill this morning and was quite shocked by the rise in the police precept. This has risen by five per cent and is now nearly three times the cost of the fire authority.
On top of the enormous rise last year of 13.6 per cent, one wonders how the police commissioner can justify this, especially as the government has in any event pledged so many more police officers.
We see little enough activity in the semi-rural areas and in the last year or two, I have felt there was no point in ringing the non-emergency number as too often it is just left ringing, but is still being charged as it is not a free phone and you have to go through the first stage.
In the light of the loss of our excellent former Chief Constable and the forthcoming election in May for the police commissioner, I hope the present one can be challenged on these large percentage increases. Hilda Gaddum, address supplied