On 8 May 2013 at 7:01pm Fairmeadow wrote:
Past suspicions were that the East Sussex Tories dumped the disastrous parking scheme on Lewes because they had no votes to lose here.
Now they do need a partner if they are to continue to rule East Sussex. While UKIP uld appear the most obvious partner on policy grounds, personal issues could easily get in the way. Might we instead also see a Con-LibDem coalition at a more local level? And, if so, might the price of LibDem agreement be a revision of our unloved parking scheme? Over to you, Cllr St Pierre?
On 8 May 2013 at 7:13pm The old mayor wrote:
Yeesss . If Ukip can get us out of Europe and destroy the parking stranglehold on the town, that would be a double whammy for us. Win Win I'd say. Can't trust the LibDems to do the job. Otherwise they would have bloody done it already!
On 9 May 2013 at 9:58am Realist wrote:
Never forget, the lib-dems were enthusiastic collaborators with the Tories when the scheme was being planned, and stayed as devout quislings for the first few disastrous years. Not one libdem, on either county, district or town voted against it. Once it's harmful and aggressive nature became obvious to all, one or two councillors crossed to the resistance, a little like the French after the liberation of Paris! Only a complete change of councillors at all levels will be able to sort this mess out, but it is now too late for the county, but we still have future district and town elections to elect a few more independents.
On 9 May 2013 at 5:20pm Merlin Milner wrote:
You are incorrect when it comes to the Town Councillors. I for one has been against this ESCC instigated scheme. Perhaps you have forgotten the survey we (LTC) did with the Sx Exp and the chamber of commerce, an interview with me in the Independent. Not to forget many posts from me regarding this scheme on this forum
I suggest that you research your facts before posting.
An apology would be welcome.
On 9 May 2013 at 5:26pm Merlin Milner wrote:
Also I chair the traffic working party at LTC and we have had meetings with ESCC and the consultants to try and get improvements to the scheme. At one meeting I had a very robust discussions with Cllr Lock regarding this poor scheme.
I am now chasing ESCC to find out why the improvements have not been instigated.
On 9 May 2013 at 6:40pm spare part wrote:
Sadly Merlin, you may well be doing your bit, but your Lib Dems colleagues have not been. Especially on the County Council. You probably do not realise that many of us have given up contacting a Councillor, because their ineptitude and lack of persistence just makes matters worse.
The reason you are having to chase ESCC Officers is that they do not take Councillors seriously, and so you are experiencing the level of contempt that the rest of us get. It is appalling isn't it?
Until Councillors start managing Officers, and not the other way round, we will get nowhere. Even Norman Baker (what a silly letter he wrote to the paper last week) does not understand that we are reliant on Officers, what they tell us , and what they do with our hard earned money, regardless of the party we prefer. Parties may tinker with budgets and policy, but the parking scheme was the result of a national trend cooked up between parking businesses and Council Executives, not politicians. Its sole purpose was to generate cash to use to relieve transport budgets. The LGA has been allowed to become an unelected policy maker, and the gritting scandal is a simple example of the kind of mess that gets us into.
Parking schemes and pothole repairs are conceived and carried out by ESCC employees, It is they who create good, or inept schemes , save or waste money, and spend time convincing (mostly)naive Councillors that what they are doing is appropriate to get it approved. Councillors predictably come and go, but Council staff do not.
It would be nice if more of your fellow Councillors supported you, but they do not, which is also why ESCC do not take you seriously and you are left chasing improvements like the rest of us.
However, the idea that UKIP might assist us in improving our parking arrangements is completely and utter laughable. They are too busy trying to give pub employees cancer from passive smoking.
On 9 May 2013 at 6:54pm my town wrote:
I said a few years ago when the parking scheme Came into lewes .That it would kill the towns business ect . Well its on its way to doing that .
Sum peolpe . time will tell
On 9 May 2013 at 9:48pm Ed Can Do wrote:
Whilst your own efforts are great Merlin, never once has Ros StP publically denounced the parking scheme and the one time I tried to get her involved, when the idiots at ESCC wanted to extend the scheme into Malling, she wasn't interested. It seems incredible to me that parties other than the Tories aren't desperate to tell the people of Lewes how much they oppose the parking scheme, given how badly thought out and unpopular it is but they would rather send out leaflets telling us how they're opposing the Hastings bypass that has already started being built and that nobody here cares about.
Now we've got a bunch of new yellow lines in the Spences Lane area which have achieved nothing in terms of traffic safety and made it harder for everyone to park, no doubt as a pre-curser to trying to introduce the parking scheme in Malling again and nobody thought that the money spent on that might have been better spent on filling in the foot-wide holes in St John's Hill for example. We also have a ridiculous new zebra crossing three feet from an existing one, a change of road priority which was proven to be a terrible idea when it was trialled and a pointless 20mph limit across town along with a forest of road signs, the cost of all of which could probably have patched up most of the county's ailing and pitted road surfaces.
As what amounts to the public face of your chosen political party on this forum at least, can you let us know what the LibDems on ESCC are going to do to bring the culprits for this insane misuse of public funds to justice? Someone at County Hall signed all this rubbish off and that person needs identifying and sacking, any idiot can see that.
On 9 May 2013 at 10:31pm Cul de sac wrote:
I can confirm Ed that you are not the only person Roz St Pierre has failed to assist in addressing a problem with the parking scheme. I did it myself instead, with considerable success. It is very disappointing , and just a little bit patronising.
On 9 May 2013 at 10:35pm Cul de sac wrote:
oh and by the way. since ESCC cannot maintain, let alone repair a road, do be careful going up Station St where the kerb has collapsed into the road. I would tell ESCC , but they clearly prefer to pay compensation, and let someone be injured instead.
walks off, head in hands
On 10 May 2013 at 6:56am theory wrote:
So the Tories dumped the parking scheme on Lewes as they had nothing to loose? Tosh!
Anyway, what Lewes needs is free parking with enforced limits with the enforcers paid from the fines. Might kick-start the local economy and save on buying new machines which I understand tend to self-destruct from time to time anyway!
Me, I park in Tesco - it's free and it blocks a space in their carpark!
On 10 May 2013 at 10:56am my town wrote:
What lewes needs is more car parks. we lots a car park when the sh#t hole of a ploice station was put there . was of tax payer money
On 10 May 2013 at 10:57am Realist wrote:
You are right, Merlin, you do deserve an apology. Consider it offered. My mistake arose because your generally sound opinions and high profile in Lewes led me to assume that you were an Independent town councillor. An easy mistake given the determined anonymity of the majority of your political colleagues. Under the DiVechi terror, very few LibDems put their head over the parapet over parking, or anything else for that matter!
On 10 May 2013 at 11:50am Merlin Milner wrote:
Apology accepted thanks.
I will let you know what I glean from Rupert Clubb.
On 10 May 2013 at 1:05pm Vic wrote:
Merlin for Independent!
On 10 May 2013 at 2:28pm Bored of local politics wrote:
If Merlin was an independent I'd vote for him, and he'd be the only one I would vote for but I think it would be a bad move for Merlin as Lewes independents look as if they are on a decline in popularity.
On 10 May 2013 at 3:07pm voter wrote:
My impression is that Independents are generally on the increase as we all get fed up with national party politics, and a failure to address local issues. . Take a look at the Isle of Wight, for example. or nearer to home, in our recent ESCC elections, Polegate, Bexhill, Lewes.
Like many I am unlikely to ever vote Lib Dem again, and the longer Merlin sticks with that party, the more it concerns me.
On 10 May 2013 at 3:28pm Bored of local politics wrote:
Both Lewes independents in the ESCC elections scored lower votes than they did in the town council elections 2 years ago, but the ESCC elections covered much wider electoral areas so you would expect them to score higher, ergo independents in Lewes at least are losing favour.
On 10 May 2013 at 5:48pm voter wrote:
personally, I don't think the comparison is the best because the two elections are completely different, involve different issues, and people chose more than one candidate in a Town Council Election. It does not mean however that you are wrong, but I think it would be better to compare the next Town Council Election with the last. If you compare the latest County Election with the last, the number of indy Cllrs has gone up, although i have no idea how many votes they got. Statistics are a minefield, and I do not profess to being an expert.