Nice to see that, so soon after he was elected following a campaign in which he criticised the blue nest for putting up Council Tax, Councillor Montaut has suggested that us Council-Tax payers pick-up the tab for any additional cleaning that’s required if there’s an increase in activity at Swindon Town Football Club’s ground.
Councillor Montaut: working hard to cost residents more!
Hat-tip: Broadgreen blogger & and the local blue egg.
After a good night’s sleep (and a not so good day at work), time to reflect on the outcome of the election. In Central Ward the result was a win for Derique Montaut (47%) with Karen Leakey in second (29%), Steve Pipe third (13%) and the other two less than 10% each.
So a negative campaign won? Actually, I don’t think so. This ward is traditional red nest territory, but not so strong that a good local candidate could not come close, very close, as happened for one blue egg in 2004. But no matter how strong a candidate is, if incumbent councillors from the same nest seem to have no interest in their ward, it will be a struggle to break through. (The two incumbent blue nest councillors were both defectees from other nests.)
There is a monthly free news sheet, Central Outlook, distributed throughout inner Swindon. In it, all the councillors of Central, Gorse Hill & Pinehurst, Eastcott and Western Ward have column space, as do the two Swindon MPs. All use the space… except for the blue nest councillors for Central. Unlike their red nest counterpart, their piece has been noticeably lacking since one of them chose to seek re-election elsewhere. Visibility for councillors’ activities is generally low, so opportunities like this to address one’s electors should be used. For the last six months the answer to the question ‘What are the blue nest councillors in this ward doing for us?’ has been an echoing silence.
The latest little glossy leaflet from the red nest fulfils komadori’s prediction for the election. In a strange reversal of political reality, it claims law-and-order to be the responsibility of the local council and waste and recycling collections to be the responsibility of national government. In a strange reversal of economic reality, it claims that ‘house conversions have continued unabated into unwanted flats’ yet of those same unwanted flats ‘The high rents have driven people into multiple-occupancy and overcrowding.’ Prices rising for an unwanted commodity…. Novel.
Most bizarre though are some of the implications about their candidate.
With over 26 years experience of community representation as a councillor I know when a community has been let down.
Would that be through personal experience of letting communities down yourself? Perhaps the reason why you were unelected a few years ago?
Derique is a former Mayor with over 26 years experience as a Councillor in Swindon.
If the Tories were truly ‘In Touch’ why have they not sorted things out?
Err… and why didn’t you sort them out in your previous 26 years as a councillor, for much of which the red nest was in control?
As as a fine example of layout editing, in this glossy leaflet, below a photograph of a grimacing grinning Derique
They are happy to spend lots of your Council Tax money on glossy brochures full of cheesy smiling faces.
Someone take that pistol away quick, before they shoot themselves in the foot.
At least they’re telling me about their candidate, even if it’s not believable. So far communications from the red nest outnumber those from the blue nest four-to-one, and there hasn’t been a single chirp from the yellow nest yet.
The list of candidates in the local elections have now been published (though you have to search for your polling station by selecting ‘where’ before the site will tell you). (Actually, they’ve been published for about a week, but it’s taken me until now to work out how to get the list from the official site.) Those for central ward are an interesting bunch, honest. There’s David Cox (independent egg) who’s apparently taking the man-of-mystery approach. Listed next is Karsten Evans (green egg) whose only promise is “I can be a ‘pain in the neck’ when I need to be.” So no different from most other politicians then, for whom being a pain in the neck seems to come naturally. Other candidates are Karen Leakey (blue egg), Derique Joseph Montaut (red egg) and Steven Francis Pipe (yellow egg), all of whom, as predicted, are committed to fighting crime and anti-social behaviour, dealing with traffic congestion and protecting the green spaces in the town centre.
Two of the main parties (the blue and yellow nests) have announced their candidates for the local elections in Swindon. In the imaginatively named Central Ward the three main parties’ candidates are Karen Leakey (from Broadgreen, in ‘Central’), Steve Pipe (from Abbey Meads) and the aforementioned Derique Montaut (from Moredon). So far all claim to be concerned about crime, anti-social behaviour (including graffiti) and preserving green space. Aah, such a diverse choice….
Yet another missive from he who does not know his name. This time it’s a letter from Derique in which he tells us Derique said “I’ve been extremely busy meeting and talking to local people”. Just like last time, I presume. Strange too that he writes about himself as if he was another person. Derique wants to know what local people think about these issues, and said that “I hope that people will take just a few short minutes of their time to complete my survey… and I look forward to hearing your views”. Well, if he actually bothered to knock on my door, rather than just shoving bits of paper through my letterbox, I’d take just a few short minutes and tell him.
Still, at least he is communicating. I’ve yet to hear or see anything from either of the other two main political parties.
I’ve just received the first leaflet through my letterbox for the coming local elections. It is from Derique Montaut (or is it Derique Montaur, it is hard to tell, as the spelling is different on each side of the leaflet) who is, it says, ‘working hard in central ward’. I guess that is why the ward news section of his party’s website hasn’t been updated since January 2006. The, rather small, leaflet that he left says ‘Derique Montaut called today. Sorry I missed you!’. But Derique, you didn’t, I was in. You just couldn’t be bothered to knock on the door and talk!
