Thank you for giving me your thoughts on the issue.
The reason I have “gone political” is largely because of the Residents Association and the need for us as a community to have better representation within Gloucester.
Whether we like it or not, as soon as the association started lobbying for improvements, we became a political group (with a small p). When I was given the opportunity to stand, it was because of Kingsway that I agreed, not because of my own personal political views.

The issue of being chair and a Labour Councillor has been discussed with the committee, as I agree that the RA should be as politically neutral as possible. To that end, I instigated the discussion at the last committee meeting about how to deal with standing and how to move forward. It was agreed that I would remain chair, but the committee would keep an open watch as to their feelings and air them appropriately. This is counter-balanced by having a committee member who is a City Councillor and able to utilise the help that brings.

As to the approach, I have tried to keep my feelings on here as neutral as possible, and only raising issues like in my last post when I thought something needed saying. In Mr Grahams article, he has already sidelined and belittled the work we have done, and the Village as a whole. In essence, they have just been taking credit for the work that we have been doing as a community. So I do not really see my approach as adversarial, but just holding them up to account, IE: If they are going to publish stuff, then it should be accurate and correct.

I am one of the first to applaud when people do good stuff, no matter what “colour”. Take for example, Jackie Hall, the Conservative County Councillor, she has done fantastic things for this village and continues to do so (and long may her work continue), and indeed Fred Wood has had a number of successes in terms of the barbed wire by the school and the cleaning up of the area by Dominos. I have seen more of Freds work in Kingsway, than the current Fieldcourt Councillors.

As for sidelining the Village in the Council, we are part of Fieldcourt Ward, and that has 2 council seats on the City Council. Kingsway now makes up a good proportion of the population of the ward and therefore cannot be ignored without serious dereliction of duty (and ensuring that they only last one term on The Council)!

In a long-winded and waffly way, I hope that gives you my views on my motivations for what I am doing. The agreed fallback plan is that if things do get “too political” after the election then I will stand down as Chair and be a normal committee member. Up to the election, there are going to be lots of issues and everybody will be our best friend, but it’s after the election that counts, and who still has the motivation when the dust settles.

Your blog post (which rightly can be political) seems to be pitting the conservative candidate against the Residents Association. Shouldn’t the Residents Association be politically neutral? I am not sure an adversarial attitude will help achieve anything and may even hinder things as people may block things for political reasons.

I am just unsure if being a labour councillor is compatible with being the chair of the Residents Association.

If the Conservatives are in control of the City Council – couldn’t they use this as an excuse to ignore what the Residents Association has to say?

If you have not had it, or want my thoughts on it, please have a look here.

Barry

Thank you for your kind words
We hope to keep the meetings as informative while keeping them relaxed as it seemed to work. I look forward to seeing you at the next one.

Cheers

Barry

Good for you, you will have my vote.

Great meeting on Friday, keep up the good work.

Good luck

Good on you for taking the challenge.
But… if you take on any more you won’t see the kids until they’re all grown up

Good Luck