Democracy for West Bridgford

If you live in West Bridgford, most of your local services, including adult social care, education, public health, transport and waste disposal, are provided by the County Council, whilst the rest (waste collection, care of some green spaces, planning etc), are provided by Rushcliffe Borough Council.

However, if you live anywhere else in Rushcliffe your local Town or Parish Council will take care of parks, events and other really local issues.

Why don’t we have this in West Bridgford? Does it matter? After 6 years as a councillor, I think it does.

Do we really need another council?

I think we need a Town Council, sensitive to our local needs and aware of our local problems. Here are some reasons why:

We are ignored

• Astonishingly current Rushcliffe’s proposed changes to Central Avenue have involved no consultation with West Bridgford residents, Councillors, businesses or bus companies.
• The County Council’s on-street “shoppers parking” scheme is being brought in despite objections from over 60% of the residents who responded to the consultation and from me as the councillor representing affected residents. A Parish Council would be harder to ignore.

We are missing out on services

• Many opportunities are only available to Parish councils: for example they are consulted about where grit or sandbags should be stored, or how to manage verges and the  Midlands Net Zero only worked with Parish and Town Councils. When I am aware this is happening I suggest that our residents’ associations should be consulted, but that is second best and doesn’t always happen.
• Local notice boards provide a unique way to provide information to residents who are not online. In most places these are looked after by Parish Councils but ours are organised by Rushcliffe: officers are helpful but this can’t be as responsive as doing it locally.
• The twitchel down the back of Eltham/Blake Roads used to be a road, managed by our old Town Council until it was subsumed by Rushcliffe. It is now neglected, even though it could provide a great route from the new Pumphouse estate into the town centre.
• Parish Councils can get reduced planning fees, but the same deal isnt available to West Bridgford community associations etc.
• Parish Councils get to comment on planning. We need to be able to be heard on HMOs, flats with inadequate parking, and indeed traffic and parking problems in general.

What about money?

Right now, we pay an extra council tax to Rushcliffe to “look after” us, but we have no say in how these West Bridgford Special Expenses are spent.  The Rushcliffe Council Tax is going up by 2.55% this year but the West Bridgford Special Expenses are going up by 9.1% – who decided this? What are the plans for spending it? [Note: Band D tax is increasing by 4.27% in West Bridgford]

It very hard to get to the bottom of how this money is spent. A lot goes on paying for the ongoing costs of historical infrastructure projects, such as a repair to the Green Line bridge on Devonshire Road- who signed this off?

The West Bridgford Special Expense Group is meant to have a role in this, but it doesn’t include all West Bridgford councillors, isn’t representative of them, and it is chaired by someone who doesn’t live in West Bridgford (for reasons of political balance). Unlike most other council meetings, its meetings are secret and not open to the public! Its role is also not clear, as it generally only notes matters that have been decided elsewhere, rather than making decisions. A Town Council would provide a representative and accountable way of deciding how to spend money.

But Rushcliffe looks after us doesn’t it?

Does it? Since Rushcliffe is Tory led (and has been for a very long time) Rushcliffe is largely run by people who live in villages. To be clear this is not a matter of party politics, only of different cultures. People who live in villages have a rural outlook, can they really know what we need and want?

From what I can see there is a hazy separation between what Rushcliffe does for West Bridgford, and what Rushcliffe does for the whole of Rushcliffe. Events in Bridgford Park are designed to suit the whole Borough (I think) but many are paid for by the people of West Bridgford who have absolutely no role in their planning.

Many people have told me they that think the Christmas Light Switch On is too crowded and the fireworks are inappropriate and too expensive. Do we want this sort of event, or could our community come up with something much more imaginative, maybe involving our other shopping centres and avoiding the crush around the fireworks? This might put us on the regional Christmas map- supporting our local businesses.

Elsewhere in Rushcliffe Parish Councils allocate money raised from planning applications (the CIL), for instance to enhance local play parks, or support locally relevant charities. In West Bridgford this is managed by Rushcliffe via the West Bridgford Special Expense Group.

No more politicians!

Parish and Town Councillors are special, they are frequently independent of any political party or group and very locally focused. Already Conservative, Green and Labour politicians in West Bridgford work together very effectively try to tackle local issues regardless of politics.

Why now?

Local Government Reorganisation is likely to mean that the County will take over the responsibilities of all the boroughs including Rushcliffe, and the City. (It may then split, for instance into Notts North and Notts South). If at that point we don’t have a Town Council, our problems will only get worse with decisions about local issues being taken by people with responsibility for the whole County.

I can see good arguments for having three Town or Parish Councils within the area of West Bridgford, but right now we probably need to move fast to get one across the area so that everyone has local representation (though that is for everyone to decide).

Establishing new Parish Councils is not unprecedented: in recent times a new Parish Council was created in Upper Saxondale and another is being considered in Fairham Pastures. West Bridgford even had an Urban District Council until 1974.

Not another one!

When I was first elected as a councillor I never thought I would end up arguing for an extra level of local government. But the reason I became a councillor is because I believe in localism and community building.

We need an accountable, representative local voice for West Bridgford.