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Your last chance to vote for a County Councillor

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Tomorrow you have the chance to vote in one of the most historic elections in this country for many years.

This is going to be the last County Council election before both County and district Councils are abolished under plans being pushed forward by national government. Elections after this one are most likely to be associated with the new Unitary Authority which will be formed in Oxfordshire, although currently exactly what form that will take is unclear.

The option preferred by the Greens is one of 2 unitaries formed from Cherwell District, West Oxfordshire District and The City Councils with a second one formed around South Oxon and the Vale plus West Berkshire. We feel that would keep decision making as local as possible as well as ensuring that councillors don’t become too remote from the people they represent. The County Council Cabinet recently voted to push forward their preferred option of one huge council across the whole of the County, while the City Council are proposing they form their own Unitary Council by absorbing areas around them such as Kidlington, Yarnton and Begbroke. I would certainly strongly oppose that, as, I believe, would most of the residents in those areas!

Map showing the two new Kidlington County divisions

The outcome of all these options could largely be driven by those people elected to the County Council tomorrow, so not only is it important to vote because it may be your last opportunity, it’s also doubly important that you get a councillor who is going to represent your views on what your future council may look like.

Of course my advice is to vote Green at least in areas where you already have a Green Councillor such as the two new Divisions in Kidlington which make up nearly 80% of the area I currently represent on the County Council. As I can’t be in 2 places at once I have decided to stand in the new East Division because I am involved in several ongoing issues there, Not least the proposed football stadium and the huge Oxford North development. But my fellow Green Councillor Fiona Mawson is standing in the other part, now called Kidlington West even though 2 thirds of it comprises Yarnton and Begbroke. As the only candidate in this election that actually lives in that new division, I’m hopeful that she will get a good reception from voters.

Map of the new Kidlington West Division highlighted
to show Green and Conservative representation

Currently the whole of the Kidlington East area is represented by me as the County Councillor and by me, Fiona and Linda Ward as District councillors. I’d like to think we’ve done a good job of representing the everyone there, we all certainly work hard to achieve that, so I hope I will receive your support in the East whilst Fiona is elected to replace me in the West.

It’s a rather complicated scenario , especially given that the whole set up is likely to change in 2 or 3 years so neither of us are likely to see out a full term as County Councillors, but in the meantime it’s important that both areas keep consistent Green representation so that work I and Fiona have started on things like ensuring development proposals are beneficial to the area can continue into the next few years, along with our input into the re-shaping of local government over the next 2 years.

However you vote (and I hope it will be Green) do make sure you vote. It may be the only chance you get to make a decision that affects you and your local community for the next few years.

If you need any further information from me or Fiona please let us know. We have knocked on a lot of doors over the past few months, so if we missed you we’d be happy to talk.

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2 years on and potholes are still with us along with the political blame games.

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Political Posturing on Potholes is Full of Holes

I wrote this post back in 2023 and not much has changed since.

As we approach another County Council election (probably the last), the Conservatives are declaring a “pothole emergency” presumably reflecting the climate emergency declarations of a few years ago. But it didn’t seem to be that much of an emergency in 2019 when they were in control of the County Council. Back then they were even worse and had been getting that way for decades.

The truth is that no council, regardless of political control, ever receives enough funding to fix the roads properly. The reason is that it would cost BILLIONS to do it really well and no government has ever committed to that. Our roads have been allowed to get worse year on year because no government wants to commit to the costs of fixing them properly. Why would they when local councils can take the brunt of the criticisms for them?

No council wants to see potholes. They are a very visible problem that nearly everyone experiences and every councillor and council officer would like to see gone. Of course we’d all like to have the unlimited funding that would be required to fix them, but it’s just not there at the moment. That, coupled with fact that we’re all driving much heavier vehicles than the roads were designed for (plus the increase in HGV traffic) means our roads take a hammering 24 hours a day. Add in the weather extremes we see now and it’s little wonder they break up.

But it’s not a recent problem. The Tories may say they will fix it, but they didn’t seem to be able to do so in 2019 when Oxfordshire was ranked 5th worse in the country for the number of potholes as can be seen from the attached article in my post from 2023.

So let’s get serious about this issue and stop using it as the proverbial political football every time an election rolls around. Potholes are always going to be with us until central government takes proper responsibility for maintaining our road network, rather than insisting on us building even more roads that we won’t be given the money to maintain. The more roads we build, the bigger and more costly the problem will get. Until governments make that connection, there’s not going to be a long-term solution.

We all also need to take personal responsibility for the way our roads are treated. High torque acceleration from traffic lights, on corners or near traffic calming areas such as speed humps will simply tear the road surface up. Our roads are not indestructible, certainly not when we’re all driving heavier cars with 4 wheel drive or more and more of us are buying things online that need to be delivered by heavier vans and trucks. Climate change also plays a part as heavier rainfall and sudden cold snaps play havoc with road surfaces.

Yes our roads need to be properly attended to, but until there’s a national political consensus on that, along with an ongoing commitment to proper funding from national governments, potholes will always be with us to a lesser or greater degree, and any political party that tells you different is just avoiding the holes in their own arguments.

I’ve done my best to get potholes fixed in my division over the past 4 years but it is like playing a game of of whack-a-mole. You get one fixed and another 2 pop up somewhere else. Whilst I agree there needs to be better quality control on the standard of repairs, simply filling the holes will never solve the problem as any hole is always going to be a point of weakness in the future. In reality there are many roads in the county that need to be completely re-laid, but if the money is spent on that, it’s not there to fix areas elsewhere.

It’s a juggling act that will be made better over the next 2 years as OCC have committed nearly £39m to a 2 year road improvement programme. That will help matters (and they have been getting better over the past 4 years despite what the Tories might say in their leaflets), But that sort of funding is still small beer compared to what we need to spend, and that need is getting bigger every year.

What I think is really needed is a pothole summit where councils, residents, motoring organisations, haulage and delivery companies, civil engineers and of course, national government can come together to work on a solution. All the time we simply blame each other every time there’s an election, there’s never going to be the long term solution that we desperately need.

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County Council Elections 2025

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It’s hard to believe it’s 4 years since I was elected as the first Green County Councillor in Cherwell in 2021 during the aftermath of the Covid-19 pandemic. It was a worrying time for all of us and as a new County Councillor I had to quickly come to terms with my new responsibilities whilst navigating remote meetings and all the various limitations that were placed on all of us in our day to day lives. I know people who were personally affected by the virus and some that still are. Thankfully I and most of my family came out unscathed, although I did lose a close family member to the virus who I still miss today.

Covid now seems like a distant memory as we all deal with other issues, not least the cost of living crisis, the ongoing lack of affordable housing and the pressures on our health service. We are also about to see seismic changes in the way local government operates which means that this is likely to be the last County Council election in Oxfordshire.

We also have boundary changes to the County Council which sees my current division of Kidlington South split into 2 new divisions – Kidlington East and Kidlington West. This left me with a dilemma about which division to stand in for this election. Ultimately I chose Kidlington East which includes most of the area that is also covered by my District Council Ward. I’ve dealt with a lot of casework in this part of my current division and there are still a number of ongoing issues so I feel I have to try to maintain some contiunity there.

We do also have a strong Green candidate in Kidlington West though, which includes Yarnton and Begbroke as well as Roundham ward in Kidlington. My wife and fellow councillor District and Parish Councillor Fiona Mawson is standing there and I hope she will be able to provide some continuity of representation there, as well as building on her 10 years experience as a Yarnton Parish Councillor where she is currently the Deputy Chair.

Over the next 2-3 years there will also be a further reorganisation of local government which will see a single authority combining the remits of both the District and the County Council. The details of how this will be achieved are still being hammered out but there are concerns that moving to a larger, more remote authority could reduce local engagement.

There are also moves being made by the City Council to expand their borders to swallow up areas like Kidlington, Gosford, Yarnton and Begbroke into one larger authority. I don’t think that’s what local residents want. Neither do I think it will be in their best interests. So I will be fighting to maintain the integrity of all our local villages to prevent us becoming just a suburb of Oxford city.

On top of this we have to deal with the creation of a new local plan amidst sweeping changes to the planning process which could also see a significant erosion of local democracy. This is likely to lead to even more erosion of our surrounding green spaces, especially if the City Council get their way.

So it’s clear that, during the next few years, we will need strong voices at all levels of local government in Oxfordshire to ensure we end up with a workable model that truly represents local residents and responds to their needs. I would like to continue to be that voice for Kidlington East

Whilst I hope we won’t be facing anything on the scale of Covid again for a very long time, there could be other equally disruptive events on the world stage coming our way. We are now seeing the impacts of climate change on our communities with increased incidents of flooding which has brought misery to many residents. I’m working hard to try to reduce the impact of that and we’ve seen new measures introduced locally to support residents faced with the threat of flooding. I am continuing to push for more.

So I hope you will choose to support me again in the County Elections on May 1st to work for you as probably your last county councillor before the changes are made to local government structures. I still feel there’s work to be done in the division, not least in the face of some of the new developments that over the next few years that could have significant impacts on all our lives along with the challenges posed by national government and global events.

I’m trying to get round to meet as many people on the doorstep as possible, but with all the changes going on at the moment, it’s a huge task. If you’d like me to come and see you to discuss any local issues please contact me and I’ll try to arrange something. Otherwise feel free to email, message or call me.