Reason for defeat is closer to home

From: Dick Carrington, Broad Oak Lane, Bexhill

So after 20 years in overall control the Conservatives lost 18 out of the 32 seats they held on Rother District Council, retaining only 14 in last week’s election compared to the Independents’ achievement in winning 13.

This was a devastating reversal for the Tories which I’m sure they richly deserved after the disgraceful manner in which they have failed to act in the best interests of the citizens of Bexhill for longer than anyone cares to remember.

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While I personally am strongly opposed to politics in local Government, it may well be true that the huge losses suffered nationally by both main parties were the result of what many pundits described as the Brexit backlash. But so far as Bexhill is concerned the cause undoubtedly lies much closer to home.

Having spoken with many local residents it is now clear that there were two main reasons why the Tory councillors were kicked out and replaced by Independents.

The most obvious example was the outrageous decision by the District Council, including Bexhill’s very own representatives, to totally ignore the views of 93.5 per cent of the residents who responded to a consultation in favour of having our own town council.

As a demonstration of sheer arrogance, this really does take some beating, democracy being thrown out of the window in the most blatant fashion.

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Then there was the decision to support the introduction of Civil Parking Enforcement in Rother District, which will undoubtedly have a truly adverse and chaotic effect on trade and tourism in Bexhill if parking regulations are strictly enforced in their present form. The RDC have had several opportunities in the past to tackle the horrendous parking problem in the town but have done absolutely nothing about it, for example by building a multi-storey car park in the central area when space was available.

There have also been other controversial issues, notably planning applications and money-wasting projects, where residents’ views have been over-ridden in an arbitrary way

It would be interesting to know whether the huge, and very welcome, success of the 13 Independent candidates had anything to do not only with a sense of general dissatisfaction with our RDC representatives but also with the quality of their campaign literature.

For example, in our ward, Kewhurst, the successful Independent candidates, Lynn Langlands and Brian Drayson, produced a splendid leaflet describing their personal backgrounds and candidly explaining their reasons for standing for election for the first time.

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This must have certainly influenced anyone who was undecided about who to vote for last Thursday.

In contrast to this, the leaflet put out by the two Tory councillors in Kewhurst, Brian Kentfield and Martin Kenward, who were not re-elected, was poorly written with punctuation mistakes and missing words, and it obviously failed to make a favourable impression on many residents of the ward.

So let’s hope that with 13 new and truly independent representatives in place we will now see a dramatic improvement in the District Council’s attitude towards Bexhillians, instead of us being treated like a poor relation by a politically-dominated authority that has no concern at all for the views of its constituents.

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