Categories
Elections

Sensational win in Baughurst: Conservatives lose majority on Basingstoke & Deane

Congratulations to Michael Bound, his agent Jo Slimin and the team who fought and won the Baughurst by-election. There was a 21.5% swing from the Conservatives to the Lib Dems – giving Michael a majority of 60 – and meaning that the Conservatives no longer have a majority on Basingstoke & Deane Borough Council!  A great result – and particularly encouraging given recent by-election results in Romsey, Wickham and Whitchurch! 

Michael Bound – Liberal Democrats 428 53.8% +21.5%
Conservatives 368 46.2% -21.5%
Categories
Bus Pass Winchester

Result! Winchester bus passes to start at 9 a.m.

Martin Tod collects a signature from Audrey Bayes on the Lib Dem 'Bad Timing' petitionGood news! The Conservatives have finally given in to popular pressure on the start time for over-60s bus passes in the Winchester District.

Current bus passes allow free travel from 9 a.m.  Back in September, the Conservatives announced that they intended to move the start time to 9.30 a.m.

We objected to the plan at the time, increased the pressure at the Council Meeting on January 9th, launched a petition against it last Thursday, January 17th (see photo left), launched the ‘Bad Timing’ website as part of the campaign on Monday and press released the launch on Tuesday.

The campaign got off to a very encouraging start.  Even though it was pouring with rain when I was out collecting signatures, almost everyone we talked to wanted to sign up.

As late as Tuesday, the Conservative administration on the County Council were still arguing for the 9.30 a.m. start at a meeting of Parish Council leaders.  But earlier today they did a u-turn and decided to go back to the original timing.

Good! Local bus services have been attacked enough by the Conservatives running the County Council without the City Council joining in too.

Categories
Parking Winchester

Victory on parking for local campaigners in Weeke

Many congratulations to Steve Feeney and his team in Weeke for their successful campaign to get sensible parking hours in their local roads.

As previously blogged, I was concerned when I saw that the Council Officers were planning to overrule the points raised by local people at the final decision-making meeting on Tuesday.

I hoped the councillors would see sense and back the hours that local people wanted.

The good news is that they have. 

Councillor Wood started the parking meeting by announcing that they would be going with Monday-Friday 10 a.m. – 4 p.m. – in line with residents’ wishes.

As Steve Feeney points out on his campaign website, this doesn’t mean Weeke’s parking problems are now sorted, but it is undoubtedly a good step forward and a credit to his work and the work of local people.

Categories
Bus Cuts Chandlers Ford Hiltingbury

Fighting Chandler’s Ford bus cuts

Martin Tod and Stuart Rudd out collecting petition signatures from local residents

We’ve just launched a website (http://www.saveourbuses.org.uk) and a petition against the proposed cuts to the Red Rocket bus service in Chandler’s Ford and Hiltingbury.

In essence, almost no Blue Line buses will go north of Fryern Hill or west of Winchester Road.

I was out on Tuesday collecting signatures at Fryern Hill, Ashdown Road and Sutherlands Court and it’s clear that these cuts are going to hit many residents very badly. For pensioners in particular, the combination of the cuts to the Red Rocket bus services and the loss of the Chandler’s Ford post office are a double whammy.

You can sign the petition here and join the Facebook group here.

Categories
Parking Winchester

Tidy-mindedness set to triumph on Weeke parking?

Back in November, I wrote about the excellent public meeting held in Peter Symonds about parking in Weeke. The people there had concerns about the proposed parking hours on their local streets and, pretty unanimously, wanted to have shorter hours and fewer days with parking restrictions. These would have tackled the problem they had with student parking, while being considerably more convenient for local residents.

Now the officers have put forward their proposal and … the proposed hours that the parking restrictions will operate remain unchanged.

Very disappointing. This isn’t about high politics – it’s about trusting local people to know what’s best for their local area. I hope that the Councillors at the meeting next Tuesday see sense and vote for the hours that local people want.

You can find out more about the local campaign via Steve Feeney’s excellent campaign website.