Councillor Report For May 2021

 

Casework Success / Walkabout Photos 14.05.2021

Whilst out leafletting on 20th April I spotted this damage to a pathway on St John's Way which I reported to Breckland Council - very pleased to see today the repaired path when completing a monthly walkabout. Before & after picture attached.

The Challenge For The Labour Party And Future Direction....

I first stood for Norfolk County Council in 2009. It was the year of the expenses scandal nationwide and Labour performed terribly. In Norfolk, Labour lost 19 seats and was reduced to a group of just three Councillors - two from Norwich and one from Great Yarmouth. In that context, I was pleased with the 706 votes that I received, albeit I ended in third place (of three candidates), with the Tories second and the Lib Dems coming first and winning the seat. The Lib Dems have never been particularly active locally but their candidate was the former Headmaster of a local High School and went from nowhere to gain the seat with 934 votes. 

In 2013 I stood again, having been elected to both Thetford Town Council and Breckland Council two years earlier at the 2011 local elections. 2013 can best be described as the UKIP surge year as they gained seats up and down the Country. In Norfolk they went from a single seat to 15, and became the largest opposition group on Norfolk County Council. In my own seat of Thetford West, I increased my vote to 813, just one single vote short of the 814 for the victorious UKIP candidate who was somewhat shocked at his election and eager to accept the result when one of the four recounts had me up over his tally. Some six weeks after his election he promptly resigned from the Council and a by-election took place. The Norfolk Labour family rallied round and thanks to a significant amount of support I was pleased to be successfully elected and at the third time of trying, polling 1071 votes. UKIP still managed to get 900 votes in the by-election despite costing the tax-payer and estimated £10,000 in costs to hold the by-election.

Fast forward to 2017, my fourth time on the ballot across Thetford West. There had since been a further Breckland election which coincided with the 2015 General Election. I became the only Labour candidate elected to the Breckland District from Thetford's 8 wards, and the only Labour candidate to top the poll in the district. The second and only other Labour candidate in Breckland to prevail came second, in a two-member ward in Dereham and thus we had a Labour Group at least with the two of us. For the County election of 2017, I was taking nothing for granted and put a lot of work into canvassing residents and highlighting my work as a local Councillor. We have very few Labour members locally and even fewer activists - much of the election campaign was supported by family and friends. I was somewhat stunned to get 1,323 votes and 53% of all votes cast. One of the best results for a Labour candidate in Norfolk, and one of only five Labour candidates elected outside of Norwich. My time spent serving as the Mayor of Thetford from 2016/17 I think helped to raise my profile locally and put me in touch with a lot of people who I otherwise wouldn't have usually met. UKIP still collected 392 votes but it was the Tories who had established themselves firmly in second place with 853 votes.

The 2021 election result was hard to predict. Labour was not doing terribly well in the opinion polls, the Country was feeling relieved to be emerging from the covid pandemic and whatever concerns there may have been with the Government's early performance on this issue, there was widespread praise for the vaccine rollout, with the Government, rather than the NHS, picking up much of the praise for its success. Significant numbers of the population had been supported with furlough, or self-employment grants or other business grants. In many ways, given the levels of Government support, how on earth could the Government not be rewarded? The sole focus on Covid for the preceding 12 months meant there was little focus on much else political and Councillors and activists for much of the year had been restricted to no campaigning, certainly no canvassing, no resident association meetings, no community events or fundraisers - life had been turned upside down and Councillors had a harder job engaging with their electorate. The election came down to a test of the political 'brand' to a far greater extent. Kier Starmer who took over in the April of 2020 never got an opportunity to establish himself or his priorities and was left with the impossible task of holding the Government to account for its covid response, in a rapidly changing environment and walked a tightrope between criticising or supporting in the sake of unity.

Despite all of this, in Thetford West I was delighted to get more than 1,000 votes again - ending up with 1204 votes. Remarkably, my majority increased as the Tories dropped back to 720 votes and my share of the vote went from 52% to 57% - the highest share of the vote for a Labour candidate in Norfolk. In a market town, in rural Norfolk. Despite the absence of a UKIP candidate at all, rather than gain votes, the Tories lost them on their 2017 result. The Lib Dem candidate polled 101 votes, having not stood in 2017 and there was an Independent candidate who described himself as a true socialist and anti-austerity campaigner but polled just 91 votes. Disappointing turnout was down, at just 22% for my division, the lowest of any division in Breckland. Neighbouring Thetford East was the second lowest turnout in Breckland.

So, what lessons have I learnt from all of this about the focus and policies that Labour needs to win local elections and from there, a General Election? What lessons might there be to help Labour activists and candidates in future elections?

Well, there's two different challenges for the Labour Party. The first is very clearly apathy and general disengagement with politics. I would put money on it that a majority of those not voting would likely be inclined to vote Labour. Our voters tend to be the ones with so much else going on in their lives that voting is not seen as a priority. It is not seen as a solution to the problems that they face. It can be particularly hard in areas like Norfolk where the Conservatives are seen as such a dominant force, why even bother to vote? 

Voter apathy is very hard to overcome but it can be tackled - particularly through campaigning. I make a point of being out and about in my community, in non-covid years we have resident associations that meet in a different part of my division each Monday evening which I attend. Often I get there early and speak to people on a one-to-one basis in an unofficial surgery type environment. Chatting over a cup of tea and a biscuit! Some stay for the wider meeting to discuss local issues collectively but others drift off if they've had chance to raise their specific issue with me. 

We produce regular newsletters in Thetford - we aim for a seasonal newsletter but this is not always possible - there's 10,000 houses in Thetford so delivering to that many can be costly and takes a lot of time with limited volunteers. We're certainly the ONLY political party that puts out regular material, with others simply putting out a leaflet a few weeks before an election. This helps to get our message out there and highlights what we're doing locally. No doubt a significant majority of leaflets go in the bin but if I am to represent an area, I will tell them what I am doing as their representative - it's entirely up to them if they want to engage with that. As I regularly say to people democracy is a two-way process - I need to try to engage with you, but in order for that to happen, you need to engage as well. We maintain a presence on social media all year round, I post the text of my speeches from Council meetings onto Facebook and often onto this blog and when the technological skills allow I post video or audio clips. People have a right to hear what I am saying and know how I am voting. That way they can better judge me on my record come election time.

By far one of the most important things that we have been doing locally is our monthly Ward Walkabouts. This is where we choose a particular part of the division each month and walk about to spot particular issues such as fly-tipping, broken signage, pot-holes etc. When I say we, it is often myself as the County Councillor and whoever may be the Town or District Councillor for the area that we're visiting. Sometimes we arrange to meet specific residents to walk around where they live and they join us, sometimes we invite reps from the local Council or Housing Association to tour a certain area. People want to tell us in their own words what the issues are - where they think a new bin is needed or where there is a need for a dropped kerb. Having now done these for quite a while, we regularly get people come up to us to talk about a particular issue or ask a query. We don't always know them but they know we're "from the Council". We photograph grot-spots and issues, upload them to Facebook or Twitter and then once something has been actioned, we often share a before and after picture highlighting the difference that has been made.

I think it's important that we give people a reason to vote - particularly in local elections - they want to see a difference being made and we cannot take their votes for granted. Sadly so many votes are still cast in local elections based on national issues but if you want to buck the trend, and want to prevail, you've got to be active all year round, and you've got to tell people about it!!!

Secondly, and this is squarely something that the national Labour Party needs to take on board: We need to determine who it is that we want to vote Labour and what our offer is to them. 

I spent a fair amount of time canvassing Thetford East in this election campaign. The demographic is somewhat different to Thetford West. A greater number of owner-occupiers, family homes of 3 or 4 bedrooms, where normally there's a husband/wife/children combination. More often than not both parents are working. There are clusters of properties with a much older demographic, often groups of bungalows. In many ways this area is so very much like classic Tory/Labour marginals around the country. I've canvassed in Peterborough and Norwich North for parliamentary elections and Thetford East reminds me a lot of those places. Plenty of people that I spoke to this time were very happy to say that they were voting for the Conservatives. Not so much voting against Labour, but FOR the Tories. A lot of that will be covid bounce related but this is a longer term observation. The Labour Party has got to think about what it is offering working age people, particularly those with a family - I think this is a demographic it has lost significantly. In the 90's of course it was "education, education, education" and "tough on crime, tough on the causes of crime" - both of these resonated significantly with this demographic. What's Labour's offer now with education? with terms and conditions of employment for working families? how are we going to improve the quality of life for these people? Our offer cannot be that we're simply not the Tories.

As I was walking around parts of Thetford East delivering leaflets, I thought to myself that we must be attracting the support of the people that are happy to donate to the local Foodbank, as well as those that rely on using it. Those people that are socially conscious, who have a bit of money albeit but not a lot, but give what they can to good causes, partly no doubt as they may have benefitted from them themselves or hope that support may be there if they did need those services.

I say that as someone who was born on a Council Estate and knows what it is like to frankly have no money, to receive red-letter bills and limited opportunities. The Labour Party as I was growing up offered opportunities and a chance for people to improve their lives, as well as providing support for the more vulnerable and less fortunate. If we can tackle these two issues of campaigning against voter apathy and offer opportunities than future elections may be more positive than the last.

Statistics from Thetford Local Elections May 2021

Having had chance to sleep, here's a couple of observations on the stats from the local elections in Thetford yesterday. I think possibly the saddest statistic is that the turnout for Thetford West was just 22.18%. That's nearly 78% of all people registered to vote - not voting. The lowest of all divisions in Breckland. We've put a lot of work in to encourage people to vote, sign people up to postal votes etc and turnout had been increasing over the last few years but it's gone right back down again, sad times. Thetford East was the second lowest turnout in the District as 24%. More encouraging, my share of the vote increased, and actually was the biggest share of the vote for a Labour candidate in Norfolk at 56.9%, an improvement on 2017 and an increased majority - thank-you again for everyone's support! Lastly, so very disappointing that Stuart Terry and Susan Dowling missed out on being elected to Thetford Town Council - Stuart missed out by 89 votes, and Susie by just 43! They would have both brought a breath of badly needed fresh air onto the Town Council but were beaten by the Blue tide. They'll continue as Breckland reps for Thetford and will hopefully try again.