As the sun goes down on the four year term of the current Abingdon-on-Thames Town Council there are some names I was suprised to see missing on the list of candidates for the next four years (Julie Mayhew-Archer, Lesley Legge, Alison Rooke, Iain Littlejohn):

Standing to serve the town for the 2015 to 2019 term are:

That makes 53 candidates going for the positions of 19 town councillors:
* 18 Conservative
* 4 Green
* 5 Labour
* 19 Lib-Dems
* 3 Independents.

The development of the Guildhall as a major asset for the town centre will be very important in the next four years, and it belongs to Town Council. The Town Council, among other things, runs the museum, half the town’s play parks, the cemeteries, and Markets. It runs various Community events, and is consulted, by the district and county council, on matters affecting the town.

Thanks to Mike for this report …

The latest in the series of hustings took place in Abingdon’s Guildhall on Wednesday, 15 April. Organised by the Church In Abingdon it saw attendance from Nicola Blackwood for the Conservatives,

Sally Copley, the Labour Party candidate, Nick Foster for the Socialist, Layla Moran for the Lib-Dems, and Larry Sanders for the Greens. Harriett Salisbury did a sterling job representing her sister, Helen of the National Health Action Party who was unwell. Alan Harris of UKIP wasn’t present. Also of note was that Nicola and Sally had a pact to wear colours appropriate to their parties on the night.

Unlike the CPRE event, the Abingdon hustings were extremely well moderated by Chris Bryan who took questions that had been submitted prior to the event. These ranged from the economics of the Abingdon Hydro scheme to replacing the Trident missile system, while other topics included the need for continuing austerity and a one on the acceptability of the various parties to one another in the likely event of a hung parliament. This variety thankfully allowed the candidates’ mettle to be tested on topics other than planning and housing issues.

Despite the apparent non-functioning of the soon to be re-vamped Guildhall’s air conditioning system, the audience were extremely well behaved after Chris Bryan stated he wanted 21st century manners, and not those of the 18th when hustings began and often ended in a riot. Hecklers were threatened with a mandatory obligation to see every Oxford United match of the season which served to keep interruptions in check. However, it would have been nice to see more young people turning out.

All of the candidates made some good points although the best spontaneous applause of the night went to Sally Copley when she wished that Prime Minister’s Question Time could actually feature sensible debate rather than political point scoring.

In his closing remarks, Chris Bryan reminded the audience that it was only three weeks to the election. Oxford West and Abingdon is a key marginal and, with the polls close, the political atmosphere can only get hotter.

Nominations for the district and parish council elections closed yesterday. The Vale of White Horse District Council (VWHDC) has been using Old Abbey House for vetting nominations. Candidates, or political parties, turn up with their nomination papers, and wait to have them checked over to make sure all is correct.

Candidates for the District Council have already been published. The Abingdon candidates with known parties are:
10 Conservative
5 Green
5 Labour
10 Lib-Dem
1 NHS Action
2 UKIP

There is also one Independent. This is Marilyn Badcock who up to now has always been one of the core Conservatives in Abingdon.

But an even bigger suprise, for me at least, is the emergence of 4 ROAR Candidates. I first heard ROAR yesterday at the hustings when Peter Jay, their chairman, asked a question, and he did roar.

ROAR stands for Rural Oxfordshire Action Rally. They are ‘an independent group of residents and action groups committed to stopping the indiscriminate and speculative land grab from unscrupulous developers using the guise of sustainable development’.

However the real ROAR have just commented ‘ROAR has NOT put forward any candidates. This is a rogue organisation NOT endorsed by ROAR and using our name against our express request.‘

The Rogue roar group have 2 candidates in Caldecott where the 158 houses recently got the go ahead, and 2 candidates in Dunmore where the District Council plan to build on the Green Belt.

The full list of District Council candidates are at http://www.whitehorsedc.gov.uk/elections/elections-2015/district-council-elections.

The CPRE (Campaign to Protect Rural England) held a hustings this evening for the Oxford West and Abingdon parliamentary constituency.

The venue was the Byzantine St Barnabus Church in Jericho, Oxford West.

Bill Heine, the Radio Oxford presenter, chaired the debate which included six of the seven candidates. The UKIP candidate was not there.
Oxfordshire is still more rural than most of the South East but it appears, from figures quoted at the hustings, that a body called the Growth Board now wants 100,000 new homes to be built in Oxfordshire, with a 40% increase in population. Candidates, by and large, thought growth needed to be spread across the country not just in the South East.

Already there are not enough affordable homes for local people. So there were some big questions around affordable housing, planning and toxic developments in Oxford, Oxford’s green belt, proposed park and rides, the A34, transport generally, and the NPPF.

The coalition government introduced the NPPF (National Planning Policy Framework), which appeared to give power to developers over local communities. Appeals by developers have often been successful because local authorities don’t have a five year housing supply. Larry Sanders from the Greens said, as a result, that the coalition government had been one of the most destructive in living memory.
We heard Nicola Blackwood, the Conservative, defend the NPPF policy. It had been good in principle but it did depend on local neighbourhood plans being in place to balance the developers. Those neighbourhood plans did not happen in time – so the NPPF was out of kilter.

As a result, local communities could not demonstrate that the harm being done socially and environmentally would outweigh the economic gains. Sally Copley, of Labour, said that social and environmental factors need to be given as much weight as economic.

On transport, Layla Moran, the LIb-Dem, and Nicola Blackwood, the Conservative, agreed that a long term shift from cars to cycling and public transport needed to be developed if Oxfordshire’s roads are to cope in future.

On the green belt most candidates said that it should only be built on in exceptional circumstances. Layla Moran said a full and open review was needed, not piecemeal attacks…

Next general husting is in Abingdon on 15th and I’ve asked Mike for a report as I’ve got a School Governors meeting at the same time. Mike did say after tonight’s hustings that he was suprised there had been no questions on the countryside.