My Saturday in Norwich

It was a glorious day in Norwich today and almost perfect campaigning weather; warm enough to be very pleasant but not so hot you collapse of heat exhausion.

The round-the-clock leafleting and door-knocking meant that our campaign team meetings have now been shifted to breakfast time. Somehow election planning was more pleasant when accompanied by coffee and eggs; a change we may have to keep even after the by-election!

And so the day began delivering Chloe's latest election offering to the good people in Hellesdon. Walking around and talking to local people you get the real sense that Hellesdon is ready to vote for change. Most people were Conservative supporters, but those who were not were quick to tell me that they wouldn't vote Labour. The overwhelming majority said they are yet to hear from any party other the Conservatives so far. Again the office was packed and there was a buzz about the campaign. It's a fun place to be at the moment and because of the weather (both politically and literally) there is a great sense of purpose and unity.

A sausage based lunch - and time for the Norwich South team to re-group - was the perfect time to swop canvass stories and discuss the issues that people were raising.

In the afternoon it was back to my own constituency - though my endeavours took me less than a couple of miles from where we had been in Norwich North. I wanted to speak to some residents who were having problems with permit parking (the abuse of, should I add) in their City Centre road. Despite cmplaints to both the council and to other parties nothing has been done. They were very appreciative of the time taken to visit them and some suggestions for moving forward.

I also stopped in to see a new party member who wanted to talk about how she could contribute to a Conservative victory at the next election! There's plenty to do on both sides of the City and lots to get involved in!

Finally a stop off to see some people about a planning application that has been made which could make life very difficult for them. This is a tough case - the current structure is unsightly and covered in grafitti (not great to live with) but the proposed new use could generate more use for the area and thus more cars and movement which they don't want either. The residents want a third solution, which would be good but isn't even on the table. They recognise the problem and realise the difficulty both they and the planners are in. This was one of those cases where I offered impartial advice on the pro's and con's and was clear and realistic about what would happen. I think people really appreciate honesty in such cases.

It was a fine day in a fine City!

Parking, Planning and Protests

I spend a week last Wednesday at a residents meeting in New Costessey and last Thursday at a similar one in Chapel Break, Bowthorpe, both about the same issue - parking. Now I've done a lot of public meetings in my time and very few issues, outside of election time, get anywhere near a crowd but both of these meetings were very well attended. I had done the week before a public meeting about the bus service in the West of the City with considerably fewer people. (Off the point, but it is a shame that people don't make more of an effort because all the meetings I have done have seen good debate and an excellent array of public speakers.)

Both Costessey and Chapel Break have blocked roads, inconsiderate parkers and issues wth blocking roads and driveways. Each time all the authorities can say is that neighbours should work together (this was nearlly word-for-word the answer that came back from the Labour executive when I raised the issue in Full Council some time ago). Sadly though, relations are not what they could be, and these residents need help to work through their differences including influencing the planning process and designing out some of the problems. One of the great tings about the SNAP is the fusion between the elected councillors and the police. Being able to help shape police priorities has been a great way of affecting change in our areas.

In both cases, the police are now working high profile shifts to help the situation. A senior council officer is persuing the adoption of some of the roads in Chapel Break to make enforcement easier and we as Councillors have been able to bring together different groups of people and different councils to get a result.

Parking is clearly a big issue and we have to sit up and listen to the concerns of local people.

Norwich Tories Cut Crime!

In my second bizarre incident of the week (I may tell you about the first later on), we managed to get caught up in an attempt to defraud Norwich City Council of a car parking fee.

I have attended the farewell party for the outgoing Lord Mayor, Cllr Roy Blower, and on leaving headed to the St. Giles Car Park to give a lift home to my new ward colleague, Niki George.

As we got out of the barrier, the car behind shot out under with us. I thought this was odd, and looked in the mirror to see him waving at the security guard; but on second glance the security guard was chasing him as he had just got out without paying. I did an emergency stop to block their exit; the security guard finally caught up with them. Now that might have been the end of it ... so we went to pull off again and the car behind shot around St. Giles Street, trying to pull around us. It takes more than that to stop a pair of Tory Councillors, so we pulled across the single lane road to block them. Luckily, the bollard on the other side of the pavement stopped the other escape route.

Finally, having been blocked for a few minutes, they got their number plate taken and it all finished. The easy thing would be to drive off and let it happen; he could have got stroppy with us and the whole incident. It could have been nasty. But we couldn't let people get away with ripping off the people of this City and I am glad we did our small bit to do that.

I still wonder what will happen to that motorist. Does anyone know the penalty?