Susan Gaszczak was at the hustings at Sweyne Park School on Thursday, together with Mike LeSurf the Labour candidate and a chap from UKIP.
Hullbridge housing came up, and Susan said we’d scrap centrally imposed targets and let local people decide where to put houses, and how many we need. Also that the name Watery Lane might suggest that’s not a very good place for building!!
I’ve got to say how bitterly disappointed I was to see on my postal ballot paper that Ms Gaszczak is actually based in Watford. Considering how much weight this site puts on “local” actually meaning “local” I was dumbstruck…
I was squarely behind the Lib Dem campaign led by Nick Clegg but as the general election is for a party and a local candidate not a President I am having serious second thoughts.
Yes, Susan lives in the next county to here.
In local government I always think its a big advantage to have a Rayleigh councillor living in Rayleigh, a Hullbridge councillor living in Hullbridge etc.
And its certainly a critical problem if for example you end up with a Hullbridge District Councillor who lives in Hockley and is also on Hockley Parish Council, or a Hawkwell District Councillor who lives in Rayleigh and is already on Rayleigh Town Council – because you can get a clash of interests between the two different lots of residents they represent. (if those councillor choose to stay on both councils) That’s something I’m bitterly against.
At parliamentary level, though, there have been cases of people standing from way way outside the local area , moving to a constituency after being elected and becoming well respected for being good local MPs. Teddy Taylor, who came from Scotland to be MP for Southend East, is a shining example of this.
Yes, it would have been ideal to have a high calibre, local person stand for us. However we didn’t have that possibility this time. So we have a high calibre person from the next county.
Susan has pledged to move to the constituency with her family if she wins. I’m personally very pleased to have her as a candidate and I was very keen to personally sign her nomination paper, because I like her and I see her as someone that us ‘local guys’ could work with very well.
The extra thing she brings to the table is a background of working with the senior people in the Lib Dems and very good skills for being an MP. She actually sits on our party’s Federal Policy Committee with people such as Nick Clegg and Evan Harris, so if she was elected she’d be able to work very effectively for us in Westminster from day one.
I am glad that this general issue has come up in discussion of the district elections.
(The situation in Parliamentary Election is different.)
It is up to each voter who they choose and the personal address of each candidate is on the ballot slip.
But how many voters realise that and check before voting? If voters generally prefer NOT to vote for a candidate who does not actually live in their Ward then this can be motive enough for candidates who do not live in the Ward not to reveal this explicitly in election leaflets. It is certainly not a simple mistake that such information is not given.
There is no obligation to do so but in the pursuit in transparency and the call for the highest levels of honesty in politics then perhaps Mr.Cameron could look at this?
Only one of my opponent candidates has, so far, issued election leaflets.
Like Chris Black I believe in Localism and that only councillors who actually live in the Ward that they serve can truly deliver this without a conflict of interests arising in the future.
The post here https://www.onlinefocus.org/?p=4308 refers to the feelings of a web site owner in Hullbridge.
I share those feelings and as the defending candidate in Hawkwell West I have included information in a leaflet about two of my opponents which I believe that voters should know before they go to vote. What Chris says above I concur to be correct for Hullbridge and Hawkwell West.
Chris – I had already asked this question on the “Ask Susan” page and had not,as yet,received a reply. I have to be honest here – you guys have always,in my opinion, played a straight bat but the picture of Susan and her children standing in front of the windmill gave the impression of somebody living locally. This is not the case.
RR, I take the point, and its good to see we are getting more scrutiny these days.
I chose the photo,I wanted to use one we hadn’t used before. Susan had given me the OK to use any photos from her Facebook albums and I chose the one of her and her family outside the Mill, just before they went to have a look round the museum. It’s an attractive photo and seemed suitable.
Perhaps I should have used this one instead, but I’m not nearly so photogenic!
Hi everyone
Just wanted to address the question of where I live. Currently I live in Watford. I have made a commitment that if I am elected my first job will be to move to Rayleigh and Wickford, as I had planned to 7 years ago. Unfortunately my then partner lost his job two days before were due to exchange contracts on a house we were buying in Wickford.
The reason I was selected was because I am, and I hope Chris will agree with me, a person who is good a standing up and representing people.
I hope that addresses your questions
Kind regards
Susan