The Elephants in the room… (an election thought piece)
Whilst Doris and Cuthbert from Parsons Heath ruminate over #Growlergate and #Tractorgate there are some who could be taking their eyes off some of the bigger issues that the next Council may face.
Alumno
This has gone quiet lately but previously had caused a bit of a kerfuffle, especially amongst the genteel cultural set. However, the next Council will have to deal with this once and for all.
They will be doused with the cologne of accountability whatever the outcome. It may be a case of who can you frame the blame on.
It isn’t a bad scheme and just needs to be a bit more historically sympathetic and to use the public realm a better.
In my opinion is does not seem worthy a choice of a hill to die on, but then I do not live in the town centre.
Pedestrianising the High Street
Sh*t or get off the pot. Just make a decision! Currently it is Deliveroo’s biggest car park and is intolerable between 6pm and 10pm.
One suggestion from a past focus group was to lobby the Government regarding food deliveries and that local authority licensing to have the power to make premises licenses conditional on only bicycles or small cc motorbikes allowed to collect and make deliveries.
Also, another good idea from the group was for taxi’s to rank on North Hill or St Johns Street instead of the High Street. There is popular support for this but it needs to be done correctly, fairly, without emotion and free from unqualified political idealism.
Middlewick
let us be clear, this is a hyper-local issue but it is probably symbolic of the overbuilding over the previous decade. A green field site used by people to walk their dogs, which adds quality of life and well-being to local residents.
The cause has some support, and hardcore clipboarder Sir Bob Russell and our freshly Russian sanctioned MP Will Quince are both vehemently against any building of homes on this MOD site.
However, there is a bit of realism we must consider. Population growth in the UK post Brexit is at 0.6% versus United States 0.4% and France & Germany 0.2%. This is a an awful lot of homes and they need to go somewhere, as believe it or not handwringing does have consequences.
There is a lot of politics around this one and the least painful route is for the indigent to be piled into high rises on a smaller brownfield footprint. Whilst, this may be convenient and a replication of Central Europe housing policy we all must agree that quality affordable homes will eventually have to be built on greenfield sites.
I don’t envy the decision maker on this one.
Garden Villages
As we segue into Garden Villages, the irony is not lost that that the answer to Middlewick is Garden Villages and visa versa.
Or it could all be part of some dark machiavellian plot with local politicians to threaten to build on local beauty spots unless Garden Villages are accepted. However, I have met most of them on all sides of the divide and believe me there is no hidden agenda. They just all want to keep their seats.
They have an impossible task and they acknowledge that population is growing nationally (as seen in the graph below from the ONS). However, they have to do more.
The current status is that this is with the inspector for a final decision and looking at the map above you can see potentially what the outcome will be.
It could be worth asking your candidate their thoughts on these four issues facing our town. It is probably more pertinent than you think.
Until tomorrow. Keep it classy Colchester.
