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COMMENT
Wednesday January 24 | 2024
Richard Harrington Conservatives
Richard Harrington has been selected to stand for the Conservatives in the May 2024 elections for Tunbridge Wells Borough Council. Richard is an active resident in Tunbridge Wells and hopes to see a change in the Council’s Leadership.
It’s time for a Council spring clean EVERYWHERE I go in Tunbridge Wells when people talk about the Lib Dem-led Borough Council I hear the same message – it’s poorly led and doesn’t listen to local residents. Antisocial behaviour has risen by a third in the last year. New and increased car parking charges have been imposed. Community assets valued by
‘The arrogant attitude of this administration towards the public is shown in the farce of the traffic scheme at Mount Pleasant’ residents are being marketed. The Town Hall is like a ghost ship with the plans agreed in December 2021 to turn it into a thriving coworking hub still not implemented. Council Tax-payers’ money has been used to buy Royal Victoria Place but, scandalously, we are not told how much or what needs to be spent on its redevelopment. Talk to our sports clubs – who do such a great job with volunteers providing opportunities for hundreds of kids every weekend – and they’re in despair about the Council’s lack of interest in their
pitches and facilities. The arrogant attitude of this administration towards the public is shown in the farce of the traffic scheme at Mount Pleasant. It has become national news that the scheme has resulted in over £1.2million in fines being handed out to drivers in less than a year. We are not stupid in Tunbridge Wells – we know if you’re raking in over a million pounds in fines, then the scheme
is not working. Listen to the public and make changes. it pains me to think of the visitors to our town who vow not to return after being fined. Neither the Liberal Democrats nor Labour or the Alliance will take their fingers out of their ears. It has fallen to the Conservatives to stand up for the public. Local Conservatives have called out the folly of driving visitors away.
Greg Clark’s efforts in forcing the lacklustre Lib-Dem-led partnership to act on anti-social behaviour has already led to more police patrols and highlighted the Council’s failure to spend dedicated funds supplied by the Police and Crime Commissioner to tackle this growing problem. I have not voted Conservative in recent years but I am impressed by the way the Conservatives are actively listening to residents rather than ignoring them. Whether it is protecting community assets, working for safer streets, caring about our sports clubs, or fighting the attempts to raid the pockets of residents, I sense that the Conservatives want a council that serves residents. Royal Tunbridge Wells needs to be more energetically led by people who genuinely listen to residents and work with them. We can be a cultural, tourist and thriving hub for independent businesses that will bring people flocking here. A spring clean of our Council in May 2024 by electing Conservative Councillors can turn things around. I will not only be supporting the Conservatives in the elections but standing under their banner.