Am I being too ambitious?
I’ve seen the campaign leaflets shared by the 2 major parties and if I’m really honest I’m staggered at the lack of any kind of tangible or exciting plan for the future of our area, and for at least one party it was just pointing back at the ‘achievements’ of the last few years. And a commitment to ‘carry on looking at a problem' thats existed for years.
And then I look back at my list of commitments and I wonder if I could be accused of ‘dreaming’. Lets explore that list;
Potholes - I’ve already created a facility to allow residents to report potholes more easily than you can with the Council. The difficulty in then actually reporting them to the council has prevented me from developing that further - but you have my full commitment that wll be done in the first 6 weeks following the election. We simply MUST improve on that - we can’t accept the ongoing damage to our vehicles. And its not just the roads - the pavements are terrible especially for those with poor mobility.
Our Green Belt & the Local Plan - I will be urging the Council to revisit the Local Plan they forced on us all which removed so much of our local Green Belt. Nowhere in the whole of Rotherham has grown as fast as Aughton & Swallownest and I will be pushing back hard (with your help) at any further local developments. They won’t happen without you the residents knowing about it in future. Better communication is the key.
Treeton Crossroads and the Robin Hood - Both road junctions are horrendous and have been for over 30 years. It beggars belief that there has been no campaign locally (that I’m aware of) from our councillors in all of that time to fix this problem - and its been left to the local MP to raise it in recent years. I fully support the moves to fix both junctions and will continue to push for this at the Council.
Crime and Anti-Social Behaviour - I live in the village. I hear about the burglaries, I hear the illegal motorbikes racing up and down our estates, everybody knows the local hoodlums that bring the area down. I will be working with the Police and the new Police & Crime Commissioner to push for improvements to the presence on our streets. We can’t let the actions of a few cause misery and worry for so many.
Local Transport Links - Our bus services are a joke and have only got worse in recent years. The local Mayor cannot be allowed to spend (literally) hundreds of OUR £millions on tram services that don’t give anything at all to our local residents. We need more buses more often. And we need local Councillors that will demand that of him - rather than cosying up to him. I will work with anybody who is working hard to improve our area for its residents.
Banking in the Ward - Since the RBS closed in Swallownest there has been nowhere for our residents to do their Banking. I’ve seen the campaigns for Banking Hubs in Dinnington and Maltby - and I question why we’ve not seen a similar campaign locally? Are we assuming our residents who can no longer get a bus to Crystal Peaks are happy that their nearest bank is in Crystal Peaks? I’ve already made Barclays aware that we would welcome a Mobile Bank in our villages and we are in discussions to bring that to fruition.
Cleaning up the streets - The streets of our villages until recent years were kept clean by our very own roadsweeper - Pete. Since Pete was ‘let go’ a few years ago there has been a noticeable increase in the amount of litter that isn’t getting placed in the mega expensive SIM card bins that lets the council know they need emptying. We need another Pete - and I’ll be campaigning for that to happen.
Derelict property and eyesores - Similarly I will campaign for something to be done about the growing amount of derelict property in the area, the old Swallownest Inn, the derelict house round the corner, the overgrown land next to the Peking chinese.
More investment in the area - Local people won’t have missed the stories about £millions being found for High Street investment in Maltby & Dinnington - and if you’re like me I often wonder why Swallownest is always missing from that list? I think Swallownest (and the other villages in our Ward) need stronger representation than it gets - a true advocate who can speak passionately about the area and the benefits of investing more in it and its people. I am so passionate about this aspect especially. We ALL deserve better.
Reading through that list - I don’t think any of it is particularly ambitious. I think its the absolute minimum requirement for a hard working local Councillor and advocate for the Ward. And that has been missing for far too long. Having councillors who represent the same political party as the controlling Council doesn’t mean we get any favours from the Council - quite the opposite - it means we don’t upset the apple cart by speaking out and demanding positive change.
You might be asking ‘so where is your ambition then?’
Improved Sports Facilities - This one is especially close to my heart as in recent years I’ve regularly attended local sporting events. Our local pitches are horrendous, either flooded, vandalised, not maintained sufficiently or spoilt by irresponsible dog-owners not picking up after their pets. There are 3G/4G facilities in Kiveton, Dinnington and other surrounding areas. Why not here?? There are over 18,000 people living in our area and I would love to work with whomever is elected to serve Aston & Todwick Ward to attract the investment that is required to deliver a pitch we can be proud of that allows our youngsters to develop to their full potential
A station in Swallownest - Its not as crazy as it sounds - in fact we even had plans in place for exactly that in the early 1990’s. The old Brookhouse Colliery sits bang alongside the railway that takes commuters from Kiveton and further afield into Sheffield. A station on an existing railway shouldn’t cost too much - and weren’t we all told that there would be investment in local transport links with the cancellation of HS2? I doubt the current Mayor knows anything at all about the possibilities for Park & Ride in Swallownest - and if elected I’ll be writing to him very early on to hopefully get the ball rolling there.
Summary
Ive just read that all back and I can see why it might look ambitious. Some may even say ‘Pie in the Sky’. But is that because your expectations have been set low? Lets BE ambitious. Lets reach for the stars in our Ward. This Thursday you can be ambitious by voting differently and tasking an ambitious hard-working passionate advocate for the area with the job. Or you can vote for more of the same.
I hope you’ll do the right thing for us all.
If you made it this far - thank you for reading. And thank you EVERYBODY for your support so far.
Nigel
