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RICH HADLEY

Thinking around.

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Why Ledbury Town Council Needs To Be Cut Down To Size

21/1/2015

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Soon, in the May 2015 election, the voters of Ledbury will have the chance to decide who represents them on Ledbury Town Council – or maybe not.
The trouble is, Ledbury Town Council always fails to attract enough candidates to trigger a poll when the whole town council comes up for election every five years.

Nobody can remember the last time when there was a full town election. The customary pattern is that fourteen or fifteen candidates put themselves forward, are ‘elected’ unopposed, and the shortfall is filled by co-option, via Ledbury's 'chumocracy' network. Not exactly a healthy democracy is it?

So, if events run to form, on May 9, town councillors will proudly celebrate their ‘election’ – even though not a single voter will have cast a vote for them. Theirs will be a hollow victory, providing a tiny fig-leaf of democratic legitimacy.

For a contested election to take place in Ledbury, one in which citizens actually place a cross on the ballot paper, twenty one prospective councillors will need to step forward in future. Under new voting arrangements, because the town will be divided into three, elections next May for the Town Council will consist of three separate polls, relating to three wards, roughly south (Deer Park), west (New Mills) and north-east (old central Ledbury).

What this means is that for an election to take place in all parts of the town, seven prospective candidates will be needed for each six-member ward.

We could also be faced with the absurd situation where there is an election for town council in one area of town, but not in another, some councillors democratically elected, others elected unopposed and a gaggle of co-options, people unwilling to submit to the polls but happy to polish their buttons in the council chamber.

The outcome may look less like an election and more like a postcode lottery.

Relief
There will be those on Ledbury Town Council, who, fearing the wrath of the voters, will be rubbing their hands in glee as the prospect of a contested general town election recedes even further into the distance.  Goodness knows, in living memory we could never muster 19 candidates under the old arrangements – let alone now finding 21 willing souls to put their hat in the ring all at once.

Winston Churchill said democracy is the worst form of government, except for all the others. For candidates, democratic elections cost time and money, are bothersome and psychologically testing. You have to nail your policy and personal colours to the mast: what you stand for, believe in, propose to do, submit your record for examination. Sometimes you are derided and insulted. You tramp the streets delivering leaflets and stand in the town centre talking to strangers, exposed to the glare of public scrutiny. But why not?

So while it might be uncomfortable, this is the stuff of democracy. It means the charlatans and lightweights, the fruitcakes and lazybones have a fighting chance of being weeded out before they can inflict damage. It gives a mandate to councillors to take the necessary decisions in the best interests of the whole community. It also offers what Harvard professor Michael Ignatieff (2004)[i] argues is a basic sense of human dignity. As an individual voter you are given the right to decide: ‘Dignity here means simply the right to shape your life as best you can, within the limits of the law, and to have a voice, however small, in the shaping of public affairs.’

Voting in contested elections shouldn’t be seen as a luxury, but rather a necessity, something to which all steps are taken to make happen.   

Top Heavy
For a start we must lower the electoral bar. The number of Ledbury town councillors must be reduced.

I propose that that there be four councillor vacancies for each of the three wards, twelve in total for the whole council. To this, there could be added several specialist co-options to provide expertise as required – young people, minority interests, economic development for example. The three elected ward councillors could be automatically co-opted. We might still end up with 18 councillors, but at least there would be an election.

To serve on the Council would be a real achievement, an honour. It would mean something.

Nor is this a whacky idea dreamt up to provoke the traditionalists.

In an inspiring report[ii] by Paul Hilder for the Young Foundation into promoting local democracy and community governance (which should be required reading for all town and parish councillors) the point is made that: “Often for reasons that are long-obsolete, many [town councils] have a large number [of councillors]... Where there is a scarcity of candidates, they are setting themselves up to fail the democratic test. If electoral energies were concentrated on fewer seats, contestation would increase. Furthermore, evidence suggests that collective executive structures such as boards and executives are seldom able to operate so effectively as the number deciding rises above 10-12.”

Ledbury Town Council is one of the most top-heavy parish councils in the country. Nobody can explain why we need so many. Among local towns, only Hereford City Council – with a population of 60 thousand - supports as many councillors as Ledbury. Meanwhile, Leominster has 14 councillors, Ross has 12. Even large towns like Cirencester and Tewkesbury have only 15 councillors.

In terms of town councillors per head of population, Ledbury is right up at the top of the table: we have one councillor representing each 500 people.  In Hereford, the proportion is three thousand three hundred people to one councillor.

Less is More
Would we miss the odd six councillors, the supernumeraries and council chamber loafers? I don’t think so. On reduced numbers alone, it’s a given that with so much less hot air, pompous posturing, and devious game-playing, council business would be achieved much more effectively and rapidly, saving money and energy all round. 

Not only would a reduction in the size of the council increase the likelihood that there will be an election in all town wards, but it would also facilitate a more effective and dynamic town council.

By bloating the size of the Ledbury Town Council in the past, it does makes you wonder whether the burghers of this town have fixed it so as effectively to rule out democratic elections. Either that, or they had ideas above their station. 

In these times of belt-tightening and austerity and in the interests of contested elections, the time has come to take the pruning knife to Ledbury Town Council, and chop out some of the dead wood. Don’t let’s be a rotten borough any longer. 

[i] Ignatieff, M, 2004. The Lesser Evil. Politics in an Age of Terror. Retrieved 20 January 2015 from http://press.princeton.edu/chapters/s7578.html
[ii] http://youngfoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/Local_democracy_and_community_governance.pdf



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The Road To Hell. Why Ledbury Town Council Needs to Tackle Traffic

20/1/2015

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How much more can we take?

Increasing congestion at junctions, badly parked cars, illegal traffic movements, damage to buildings and above all, speeding traffic in many of Ledbury's roads and streets: so many people are calling for positive and decisive action to get the traffic under control.

Residents and traders complain bitterly about the driving antics in their own local neighbourhoods – it isn’t just one or two hotspots where there are problems. The whole town seems to be afflicted by traffic overload, bad driving, and dangerous places.

The sheer density, speed and dangerous driving behaviour of traffic in and around Ledbury, mean local residents and visitors on foot are having to curtail their freedom of movement in efforts to avoid being hit.  

More seriously, cyclists, wheelchair users, older people, dog walkers, parents with buggies and children, joggers, in fact, everybody who walks around Ledbury regularly have to take their life into their hands to get across the roads.  With the advent of new housing and an increased population in potentially new areas of town, traffic problems are going to increase. The situation is unbearable and unsustainable.  

The Town Plan research has shown that traffic management is at the top of the agenda for local people. They want urgent action.

The Danger Spots

At a recent Planning & Economic Development Committee of Ledbury Town Council I presented this list of traffic danger spots:
  1. Southern by-pass / junction Martin’s Way: illegal overtaking on the turning right lane; speeding traffic in both directions
  2. Island at Full Pitcher: dangerous pedestrian crossing for access to Ross Road and sports fields
  3. Island at Lower Rd/Little Marcle Road: dangerous pedestrian crossing for access to Little Marcle Road and Riverside walk.
  4. Island at Homebase: dangerous pedestrian crossing
  5. Island at Hereford Road: dangerous pedestrian crossing
  6. Hereford Road towards station: speeding traffic
  7. Homend near station: dangerous crossing for pedestrian access to station; dangerously parked cars at station / Homend trading estate access; no disabled access to station
  8. Knapp Lane junction/Homend: congestion from cars turning right; dangerous pedestrian crossing/no pavement
  9. Knapp Lane: speeding and inappropriately heavy traffic; dangerous pedestrian crossing out of Dog Hill over to Frith Hill footpath
  10. Traffic lights at Orchard Lane: regular jumping of the lights on pedestrian crossings
  11. Homend: speeding traffic, particularly in early evenings, illegally parked traders vehicles on double yellow lines
  12. Homend/Bye Street: dangerous pedestrian crossing and narrow pavements
  13. Bye Street/ Lower Road: speeding traffic; congestion
  14. Longacre/Orchard Lane: illegal parking by primary school; speeding traffic
  15. Longacre/Bye Street; dangerous turn exacerbated by illegal parking
  16. High Street Market Area: confusing parking restrictions
  17. Top Cross: badly phased traffic lights causing unnecessary danger and congestion; dangerous pedestrian crossing
  18. New Street: illegal parking; speeding traffic; dangerous crossing by Coop
  19. Woodleigh Road: speeding traffic; no pavement for pedestrians
  20. Southend: illegally parked vehicles on double yellow lines; speeding traffic including outbound PSVs and HGVs  
  21. Junction of Southend and Mable’s Furlong: dangerous pedestrian crossing; congestion and illegal parking at school access; speeding traffic in both directions; worn road markings
  22. Biddulph Way: speeding traffic
  23. Southend through Gloucester Road: speeding traffic; dangerous pedestrian crossing into Biddulph Way

Proposed Actions

What I'm suggesting is this:
  • The Town Council should now address this issue, not on a piecemeal basis, but comprehensively, systematically and proactively.
  • A group needs to be established to examine traffic movements, speeds and behaviours in order to obtain baseline data and build a detailed picture of the current situation as well as potential future options.
  • A detailed consultation exercise needs to be undertaken with residents to identify problems and identify solutions.
  • LTC needs to engage in discussion with Herefordshire Council’s Highways Department with a view to bringing forward a programme of works to address issues in an appropriate manner and sequence.
  • A traffic management strategy needs to be agreed and used as framework to guide all future road investments and access policies.
  • All necessary measures need to be taken to improve people’s quality of life, and avoid casualties in future.
Ledbury Town Council has eighteen serving councillors - that's more than enough for us to get on top of the problem. Let's get to it. 

Here's the press report in the Ledbury Reporter.


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