Council Elections Options

[Jayjay]

Received my first flyer for town council elections through the door today. How depressing. This is Newbury, same old parties promising the same old things, will be voted in by the same people as they as so afraid of change and then the same people will complain on this site about the party they have voted in yet again.

[GMR]

Received my first flyer for town council elections through the door today. How depressing. This is Newbury, same old parties promising the same old things, will be voted in by the same people as they as so afraid of change and then the same people will complain on this site about the party they have voted in yet again.

We will be given the chance to vote for Change... but changes never come, just different faces with the same old promises and the same old rhetoric.... but changes nevertheless!!!

[Simon Kirby]

Received my first flyer for town council elections through the door today. How depressing. This is Newbury, same old parties promising the same old things, will be voted in by the same people as they as so afraid of change and then the same people will complain on this site about the party they have voted in yet again.

There will be independents standing - I hope that you'll trust them to do a good job and give them your vote. Party politics has got us a council of yes-man who vote how the establishment tells them to vote and don't question anything. We need some free-thinkers who are brave enough to challenge the orthodoxy and hold the council to account.

This town council has spent more time discussing the hats and robes they wear than it has the monumentally inept management of Victoria Park, from the failure of the Heritage Lottery application through to the cracks debacle. The council has a £Million budget and delivers services worth a quarter of that, and they suppress any discussion of options to improve and focus the services they provide - even when they passed the Christmas Light to the BID they still kept the full-time staff position that formerly delivered that service - perish the thought that their empire would reduce simply because they have nothing to do!

I hope that you'll vote for someone who will ask those difficult questions.

[Jayjay]

I will be voting independant. But this is Newbury with its lemming mentality so I will be, as usual, in the minority. Speak to the people who live here and ask what the Lib/Con policies are. They do not know. They will vote the way they always have, because that is what they have always done. If it didnt affect me, it would be a case of Newbury gets what it deserves.

[Ruwan Uduwerage-...]

Newbury gets what it deserves.

Sadly I do not think that Newbury does get what it deserves.

It is a 'Market' Town of the 21st Century having successfully moved from agriculture to information technology, but certainly at a District Council level, the area is led in the main by people who do not even live in Newbury or any other large urban area, so have a different vision for Newbury.

What does Newbury deserve:

First class transport links - all of us who regulary stand on the delayed trains because we do not wish to contribute to our congested roads are aware of what we are missing our compared with commuters from say Winchester, Basingstoke and even Reading.

Housing - we have a crisis in our levels of appropriate housing stock, and when areas are designated, estates are allowed to built with little or no social amenities such as schools and surgeries, etc. the cost of first time homes is just extortionate, and will mean that we will lose our youth to other places.

Town Centre - we have an historic town that with a few well known exceptions such as Camp Hopson is now almost void of independent privately owned shops, because the business rates are crippling.

Youth provison - we once had the amazingly successful Adventure Dolphin operating fulltime out of the Waterside Centre, and providing the youth of Newbury and the surrounding area with a wealth of opportunities. This has but for a few services been relocated to Pangbourne, which as we know is so easy to get to, NOT! The good news is that NTC actually pay for some of the outreach youth workers that were functions of the District Council, but axed as a result of their unnecessary cuts.

Newbury deserves more, especially if we wish to attract new industry to this area, and I believe that more should be done. The town centre BID is a start, but what is the District Council doing?

Newbury Town Council is not merely about running the cemeteries, cutting the grass in the parks, and operating the market, it should be advocates for the community and challenging the District Council to be more supportive. This does not mean that NTC cannot be more efficient and effective, for I believe that it can whilst delivering even greater levels of service.

[dannyboy]

Sadly I do not think that Newbury does get what it deserves.

It is a 'Market' Town of the 21st Century having successfully moved from agriculture to information technology, but certainly at a District Council level, the area is led in the main by people who do not even live in Newbury or any other large urban area, so have a different vision for Newbury.

What does Newbury deserve:

First class transport links - all of us who regulary stand on the delayed trains because we do not wish to contribute to our congested roads are aware of what we are missing our compared with commuters from say Winchester, Basingstoke and even Reading.

Housing - we have a crisis in our levels of appropriate housing stock, and when areas are designated, estates are allowed to built with little or no social amenities such as schools and surgeries, etc. the cost of first time homes is just extortionate, and will mean that we will lose our youth to other places.

Town Centre - we have an historic town that with a few well known exceptions such as Camp Hopson is now almost void of independent privately owned shops, because the business rates are crippling.

Youth provison - we once had the amazingly successful Adventure Dolphin operating fulltime out of the Waterside Centre, and providing the youth of Newbury and the surrounding area with a wealth of opportunities. This has but for a few services been relocated to Pangbourne, which as we know is so easy to get to, NOT! The good news is that NTC actually pay for some of the outreach youth workers that were functions of the District Council, but axed as a result of their unnecessary cuts.

Newbury deserves more, especially if we wish to attract new industry to this area, and I believe that more should be done. The town centre BID is a start, but what is the District Council doing?

Newbury Town Council is not merely about running the cemeteries, cutting the grass in the parks, and operating the market, it should be advocates for the community and challenging the District Council to be more supportive. This does not mean that NTC cannot be more efficient and effective, for I believe that it can whilst delivering even greater levels of service.

you have highlighted some areas which you feel need effective solutions. Do you have any?

[Biker1]

you have highlighted some areas which you feel need effective solutions. Do you have any?

Whether he has or not the provision of rail services to Newbury has nothing to do with either council.
Winchester & Basingstoke have electrified railways and benefit from new, high capacity rolling stock.
How he can say that Reading fares better than Newbury regarding overcrowding and delays beats me!!
Major investment is being made in Newbury's train services.
The electrification project which, in turn, will bring faster, quieter and higher capacity trains is already under way.
Reading station is being re-modelled which, when finished, will eliminate most of the congestion problems there which cause so many delays at Newbury.
Major investment is being made in signalling and infrastructure between London and Newbury (and many other routes) which will further improve reliability of services.
This all costs a great deal of money and will not happen overnight, but those who say nothing is being done to improve rail services in Newbury are wrong.

[dannyboy]

Whether he has or not the provision of rail services to Newbury has nothing to do with either council.
Winchester & Basingstoke have electrified railways and benefit from new, high capacity rolling stock.
How he can say that Reading fares better than Newbury regarding overcrowding and delays beats me!!
Major investment is being made in Newbury's train services.
The electrification project which, in turn, will bring faster, quieter and higher capacity trains is already under way.
Reading station is being re-modelled which, when finished, will eliminate most of the congestion problems there which cause so many delays at Newbury.
Major investment is being made in signalling and infrastructure between London and Newbury (and many other routes) which will further improve reliability of services.
This all costs a great deal of money and will not happen overnight, but those who say nothing is being done to improve rail services in Newbury are wrong.

that is partly my point.
I'm sure RUP knows full well that the local councils cannot influence Network Rail and that the railways in Newbury are about to recieve massive investment anyway.

it is all well & good to come up with a list of things we are not happy with, but that is only the start of the process. Having a workable, affordable plan of action to bring about change is the main part of improving any local services.

Simple point scoring for the sake of it is unproductive.

[Andy Capp]

Whether he has or not the provision of rail services to Newbury has nothing to do with either council.
Winchester & Basingstoke have electrified railways and benefit from new, high capacity rolling stock.
How he can say that Reading fares better than Newbury regarding overcrowding and delays beats me!!

He only mentioned delays, he didn't mention overcrowding. Although overcrowding on the Newbury service is notoriously bad.

I wanted to go to London on a Sunday a while back and the paucity of service compared to the Basingstoke service was stark. But you are right, this has nothing to do with Newbury Town Council.

[Biker1]

He only mentioned delays, he didn't mention overcrowding. Although overcrowding on the Newbury service is notoriously bad.

I wanted to go to London on a Sunday a while back and the paucity of service compared to the Basingstoke service was stark. But you are right, this has nothing to do with Newbury Town Council.

"all of us who regulary stand on the delayed trains"

[Andy Capp]

"all of us who regulary stand on the delayed trains"

Being without a seat is not over crowding. However, the more important point I made is that the Sunday service from Newbury is poor (actually I'd say it is rubbish) compared to Basingstoke.

[Ruwan Uduwerage-...]

In order to improve the efficiency, effectiveness and economy of the Council in to improve its quality of service, it is beneficial to challenge, consult, compare, and compete re the current services provided. The reality is that there will be functions that NTC by law has to provide, but there will also be functiions such as the Xmas lights, etc that others may be more appropriately suited to doing.

I would suggest that an audit is undertaken together with surrounding Parish Councils, and WBDC to assess whom is best to provide the current services. The methodology that I would suggest is that of 'Best Value' that was introduced into the public sector in the late 90's, but was never allowed to deliver the goods, as it became yet another buearocratic inspection process. The process was sound, but the application was questionable.

The process is driven by the 4C's: Challenge, Consult, Compare and Compete.

· Challenge
This involves challenging the way that councils have traditionally approached their services. Councils have to ask themselves whether they really need to underake or provide certain services and identify customer needs for each activity..

· Consult
Councils have to show that they have consulted local people and key local stakeholders as part of their best value reviews, and they need to monitor customer satisfaction on services. But council staff also need to be involved in the consultation process, for improvements are often identified from within.

· Compare
Councils should benchmark their services against other councils, and private and not profit service providers, for there may be others who are doing things better. We can always learn from others!

· Compete
This is the ominous C for councils, partly because it is the aspect of best value. Councils should be able to show that in-house services are the most cost effective by subjecting them to external competition. If in-house services are more expensive councils should consider alternative providers of internal and external services, provide by perhaps the private or volunatry sector, or even another Council.

If NTC subjected themselves to such an evaluation process, I can assure you that it would identify savings, whilst improving its overal service.

Apologies for any typo's I am currently on one of the unreliable trains, but on this occasion I have a seat, which will not be true in about 4hrs time when I return.

I would appreciate your thoughts on the above.

[dannyboy]

So basically no actual change at all then. I'm pretty sure thast before any decision is made any council will ask itself the 4Cs. What I was looking for was ideas, not middle management corporate spiel.

Increasing the audit & paper trail in any institution increases cost & does little but to provide back up & proof for those who should be making decisions without the need for 300 pages of A4 to exonerate thmesleves.

This reminds me of the time a Lib Dems came knocking at my door & their bumpf was generally centred around how moving the tip from Pinchington Lane to the A339 was a bad idea. The chap gave a very good talk about why the tories had it wrong, but could not answer the basic question 'So where would the Lib Dems relocate the tip to then?'. I told him that he could have my vote if the Lib Dems could answer that question in 48 hrs. I never got a call. An utter waste of time.

[Andy Capp]

If we had the best performing council in Newbury, I doubt very much we would see a big difference.

I think the council is only as good as its constituents. The only thing I have seen which I think is appalling, is the waste of money spent on 're-shodding' the town centre (around £2,000,000.00). And both main parties endorsed that. Oh, and Greenham depot. That was bad too. Again, both parties presided over that.

[Ruwan Uduwerage-...]

So basically no actual change at all then.

If NTC had historically followed this methodology, I suspect that you would be praising it, and would not be so disillusioned with local politics.

Sadly councils historically have not always been: Attentive, to the publics needs/desires and wishes; Reliable in engaging with the public and acting upon the messages received; Responsive to the needs; nor overly Competent.

Change though can be embedded through the development of structures, however galling management speak may be, there can be positive outcomes.

[dannyboy]

If NTC had historically followed this methodology, I suspect that you would be praising it, and would not be so disillusioned with local politics.

Sadly councils historically have not always been: Attentive, to the publics needs/desires and wishes; Reliable in engaging with the public and acting upon the messages received; Responsive to the needs; nor overly Competent.

Change though can be embedded through the development of structures, however galling management speak may be, there can be positive outcomes.

I've yet to see a positive outcome from any form of management.

Good to see that you'll be standing & we can expect a complete change down at the Town Hall.

I'm realistic enough to understand that given the finite resources available no-one an can make a blind bit of difference to the way things are locally.

[dannyboy]

If we had the best performing council in Newbury, I doubt very much we would see a big difference.

I think the council is only as good as its constituents. The only thing I have seen which I think is appalling, is the waste of money spent on 're-shodding' the town centre (around £2,000,000.00). And both main parties endorsed that. Oh, and Greenham depot. That was bad too. Again, both parties presided over that.

The market place does look better now the cars & kebab vans have gone.

The space should be used far more though. A cheaper & more vernacular form of paving should have been employed as the surfacing.

[Andy Capp]

The market place does look better now the cars & kebab vans have gone.

The space should be used far more though. A cheaper & more vernacular form of paving should have been employed as the surfacing.

It is still an appalling waste of money (in my view).

[Exhausted]

Newbury Town Council is not merely about running the cemeteries, cutting the grass in the parks, and operating the market, it should be advocates for the community and challenging the District Council to be more supportive. This does not mean that NTC cannot be more efficient and effective, for I believe that it can whilst delivering even greater levels of service.

A proportion of the NTC councillors are WBC councillors as well so the discussion doesn't need to be too complicated.

[Ruwan Uduwerage-...]

I've yet to see a positive outcome from any form of management.

Good to see that you'll be standing & we can expect a complete change down at the Town Hall.

I'm realistic enough to understand that given the finite resources available no-one an can make a blind bit of difference to the way things are locally.

Dannyboy,

I appreciate your comments, and yes I will endeavour to shake the current establishment up a bit, for the Council exists to serve the public, and if there are better placed organisations to fulfill functions, and if these can be more accountable, and effective then surely these should be given an opportunity with the resources to do so.

As for making a difference, perhaps one person alone cannot do this, but they can influence others, and all it takes is for a critical mass of thought to be established to do amazing things.

On a side issue, as predicted I am now having to stand in a congested rail carriage en route back to Newbury. Clearly the train companies do not need to adhere to basic health and safety rules.