Welborne

The Conservative Party is a threat to Fareham.

November 4, 2015 — 1 Comment

For too long now we have remained complacent. We have had the wool pulled over our eyes by the smiles, the handshakes, the pleasantries and where has that left us? Losing our land and heritage to development. The argument is that this is for future generations, when? When will any of my generation, the next one and future ones ever be able to afford these so called “affordable housing”? At an average of £240k a pop, even with prospects after getting a degree, they remain un-affordable to us. This is an indictment of our society, and this is the price we are paying for it.

You can see the beginnings of the end of valued spaces in our communities. For instance, as recorded in the minutes from the last Warsash Residents’ Association meeting, it was announced that there may be a shelter built at the bottom of Strawberry Fields in Warsash. At the same meeting it was announced that the Warsash Sailing Club would be seeking to lease part of Strawberry Fields for “dinghy parking”. However it will be subject to reaction/discussion with local residents – but how will this be done? Will it be through a proper, well-advertised consultation or will it just lay dormant on the FBC website with only a few “in the know” (presumably Sailing Club members) responding? My point is this, we must be aware of  a subtle series of political manoeuvres by the Tories to divide up precious green spaces, it may be the case that they turn around and say “Well it’s been divided up so much, we might as well develop on this now!”

It was announced on Monday that Fareham must build another 2000 homes. This is, of course, on top of the (approx) 6.5 thousand homes to be built as “Welborne” (see plan here, page 5) and the perpetual building in every part of our borough. It’s not as if our roads are packed enough as it is already? When I was running to become Fareham’s MP I received countless emails about the traffic situation. I spoke to many parents who said it was frustrating to get their kids to school alone without having to get on the effective car park that is the M27. Do the Tories seem to care? All we ever hear from them are kind gestures as if to say “Oh I know it’s bad, but what else can we do?”. How utterly patronising and complacent.

Last year, I stood with residents to fight against congestion by having more bus routes. What hope we have with careless developments cropping up everywhere?

Last year, I stood with residents to fight against congestion by having more bus routes. What hope do we have with careless developments cropping up everywhere?

Yesterday I saw that the Leader of the Lib Dems on Fareham Borough Council, Cllr Paul Whittle, made the call for the “Executive” Leader, Cllr Séan Woodward, to resign following the announcement of the additional two thousand homes. I say good on Paul for making the call. We don’t often see eye to eye. There are times when political allegiances should be placed to one side for the common good of all residents in Fareham, this is now. I too am joining Cllr Whittle in calling for the resignation of Cllr Woodward.

As I see more and more of these insults to the communities across our Borough, I am finding myself with one question on my mind. Are they in it to boost their pension pots and to elevate their status within their social groups? The answer I am coming to is “Yes”. It is an utter disgrace what they have done to our home. It is a betrayal of trust to those in our Borough who were conned into believing they would look after our green spaces.

The time is now to fight for our future, to stand together for Fareham, to get the change we desperately need.

Thank you for reading,

Go Green

Miles

Fareham needs an alternative

October 22, 2014 — Leave a comment

As the Welborne hearings continue, it is becoming more and more clearer that it is completely undemocratic. As our own Prime Minister, David Cameron, said “it is up to the people of Fareham to decide” – seems to be I’ve never been asked if I wanted it!  It also appears to me that the people of Funtley and the surrounding communities have never really been consulted properly.

This time last week, I attended a demonstration organised by Jason Mudge – who is a local hero as far as I am concerned.  For the first time I  (or my family who’ve lived in the borough for nearly 60 years) can recall, there has never been such fierce public opposition to anything directly affecting our town.

Some of our councillors seem to be adamant in building Welborne, they say that it isn’t in their hands and that there is “nothing we can do” – but the last time I checked, we live in a democracy don’t we? Not some absolutist totalitarian regime that is hell bent on clogging up our roads, packing up our schools, our surgeries and destroying vital farmland. Fareham was named the most car dependent town in the entire UK, and the M27 was labelled as “the worst for traffic incidents” – what good will this monstrosity serve if we just keel over and allow these people, who are supposed to represent us, to go ahead with this?

Already we have heard of councillors in the North Fareham ward breaking their silence and saying that they are opposed to this development, and they have my respect for that – they had been effectively gagged up until this point and it’s a brave thing to do, but in my opinion – if David Harrison had been elected in May he wouldn’t have been dormant and actually spoke out about this as early as he could.

Fareham needs an alternative, this universally complacent attitude has been  going on too long, the people of our town need a brighter, Greener alternative that when chosen by the people will work for them tirelessly.

It is time we stand up for our town and take the “Green Plunge”.

Thank you for reading,

miles

 

 

 

 

 

Miles

Going Green? Go Grindey!

September Viewpoints

September 21, 2014 — Leave a comment

Well this week has been rather hectic, I think my highlight must have been when I was sat in World Development and my teacher asked me what my thoughts on Scottish Independence were and the whole class froze to listen – that was nice! However much has happened locally that needs to be talked about.

On Wednesday I attended another Warsash Residents’ Association meeting. One thing I feel I must point out is that when Cllr Keith Evans gave his report he spoke about “the top five foreign languages spoken in Hampshire” – I felt rather uncomfortable, because that part of the report just seemed pointless for a WRA meeting and just seemed to be some kind of rhetoric, I don’t know – it was just seem to just be placed there… I reckon it’s to “woo over” potential “kippers”. At the end of the meeting we were given a very interesting talk about “dowsing” (I’ll be frank, I never even heard of it till that day).

At the meeting the current Chair, Chris Bridges announced he will be stepping down in November – I wonder who will replace him?

On Thursday was the day of the Scottish Independence referendum and I had at least 30 people come up to me and ask me my views, it was rather nice of people to ask me. However there were reports of flash flooding in Fareham, and the one alarm bell that rang in my head and I instantly worried about the potential devastation that Welborne will have. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again – if you build 6000+ homes you’re taking away potential areas of land that will absorb the rain water.  The weakest drizzle could end up having the most devastating of impacts and just think about how much more that could cost local authorities, especially Fareham, in flood defence expenditure!

At my college we have had a fantastic response to our new strategy for this year. So far many people have taken a keen interest in our new committee structure and I’m very grateful for Gregory Smith (the current chair) for his support in setting this up. Our members seem much greater than they ever were last year, we better make sure we don’t let them down by getting lazy and complacent, our work is certainly cut out for us this year – it is indeed a challenge that we shall win. We are getting ever closer to joining the NUS. As my previous blog post about my visit to South Downs suggest – they have been hugely influential for how this year has begun.

And finally the local party earlier on this month began their selection process for candidates for the general election, I’m not saying anything but the thought of standing for Fareham is something that I have pondered since the last election when someone put it forward as an idea!

Thank you for reading.

miles

Miles

Go Green folks, every time.

Welborne is not welcome here

August 22, 2014 — Leave a comment

In case you didn’t know already, Welborne is a proposed development to the north of Fareham it is meant to have at least six thousand homes. Already we are seeing quite a lot of development going around the Borough, the rate at which our local green spaces are going is astonishing! I don’t quite know how long we have to wait till our infrastructure bursts and the County/Borough council have to finally take the cotton wool out of their ears and hands off their eyes so they can take some action to meet our needs – but I have a feeling they will have to listen soon.

Our schools are expanding year on year and it’s having an ever increasingly adverse effect on the future of this country, it is saddening to me that the County Council believe bigger is better when it comes to education. They seem to think it’s okay for Pensioners, that struggle to get around, to walk a mile up their road to get to their one bus an hour to a stop fifteen minutes away from where they need to be.

Fareham was already named the most car dependent town in the UK. This says quite a lot about the mentality of the Council, who are so insistent (well one Executive Leader is…) on having this development built. There are roads that are already terribly congested, where the shortest stop can create the longest queue. This development, along with the next-to-nothing public transport, could have a devastating impact on local jobs – who’d want to hire anyone in an area with terrible traffic jams and no way to get to work? The M27 was also named as the worst for delays, could you just imagine the devastation to our standards of living if Welborne is built?

There must be at least 1000-1500 empty properties in the borough that the council could be used to fill this “housing demand” rather than doing the quickest possible method to generate “positive results”.

I just think that all who oppose Welborne should group together as a show of force and remind those who we elect that they work for us. I didn’t vote for this.

Thank you for reading.

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Miles