Parish poll proposer says, "administration will be held to account"

Although the turnout was low, Darren Jennings sees the result as a strong message to the Liberal Democrat, Labour and Independent administration currently leading Salisbury City Council.

The current administration, led by Councillors Ian Tomes, Victoria Charleston and Annie Riddle, sees the poll as "unnecessary" and says they will continue to work hard to manage public services and to communicate with residents.

Less than 4% of the eligible voters registered a vote in the poll, with some, including Cllr Elanor Wills, blaming a lack of engagement from administration councillors.

Result:

As the proposer of the Parish Poll, I feel that it’s only right to provide a response in relation to the outcome of the Poll.

Firstly, an overwhelming 83% are in favour of capping the City Councils precept rise, and if they wish to raise by a higher amount, the council should consult the parish first, this in any language is a landslide victory and it’s demonstrated the strong feeling of the public and local democracy in action.

I would also like to address the misinformation provided by the Mayor, Cllr Tom Corbin from the very start of this process. He has stated from the very beginning that this has been Tory led with political intentions, he as well as the administration from the start have totally missed the point of this process and I fear that they still will not listen, going against the very mission that they advertise, to the people who they are supposed to represent.

From the outset, this has been resident led, the residents have appreciated information provided to them by Cllr Wills and Cllr McGrath who have facilitated a very strained dialogue between residents and the administration but ultimately it has been the residents who have taken this forward, the proposer, myself has no political allegiance whatsoever, it was irrelevant who provided information and facilitated the interactions between residents and the administration.

This has had absolutely nothing to do with politics, at this local level I and many others believe that politics should not come into the decisions made and the interests of the electorate should be put above everything else, sadly the administration have demonstrated the opposite.

The purpose of this Poll has been to make the administration sit up and listen, the electorate will not simply tolerate any more, the lack of financial management which has and still is happening, the figures in the budgets are an astounding demonstration of public money being spent and not being scruitinised, there appears to be no accountability and the council are ignoring the glaring inefficiencies within its own organization which could have led to a considerably lower precept rise this year.

The administration should now sit up and listen to the people of Salisbury, this Poll has come at a considerable cost of which it’s liable, it can be absorbed without any effect on services the council provide as it has a budget for public consultation, which it didn’t spend a penny of in the last financial year and its forecasted figures for income of the guildhall and other initiatives were double, if the administration say the money is not there, they are simply misinforming the public yet again.

It's also worth noting that the administration could have contacted Wiltshire County Council and requested minimal staffing for the Poll, WCC received no such requests from the SCC administration.

In relation to the low turnout, 4% is low, but this was due to many factors including the lack of voting facilities, the lack of advertising, certain councilors apathy to the poll which saw them not even inform their own wards it was happening and a serious road traffic collision on the ring road which gridlocked Salisbury. In any case this was a conclusive snapshot of the feeling of the public and was certainly worth every penny going forward.

This has highlighted that the public will ask questions and the administration will be held to account by the electorate, the current administration will now need to consider their options very carefully in the future. We, the public now know the process for a parish Poll and now that history has been made in Salisbury, I suspect that the public would be willing to call another one in the future should the administration continue showing the electorate the apathy they have demonstrated. If the administration, apparently led by Tom Corbin persist in declaring this to be political posturing then the administration has learned nothing and continues to be apathetic.

While the process is not legally binding, it’s now up to the administration to decide whether they will honor their mission statement where allegedly ‘residents voices are heard’ which will reflect on them as individuals as well as a representative body for the public.

The joint leaders of Salisbury City Council (Annie Riddle, Ian Tomes and Victoria Charleston) also provided a short statement: "This unnecessary poll has sadly cost Salisbury taxpayers thousands of pounds and the extremely low turnout speaks for itself.

"Our joint city council administration will continue working hard to manage public services and to communicate with our residents in as cost-efficient a manner as possible.

"We have already indicated that we will begin public consultation over next year’s budget in the autumn."

Leader of the local Conservative group on Salisbury City Council, Eleanor Wills, also said: "There is much that can be improved about local democracy in Salisbury and the parish poll was the first step towards this.

It was a resident-led movement which we were proud to support. For too long, residents have not been able to be part of the decisions that impact their lives and to see the Guildhall filled twice over with residents at both parish meetings demonstrated the strength of feeling. I’m disappointed that further steps were not taken to increase engagement in the poll: no polling cards, no written communication and just two polling stations. Despite all this, over a thousand residents came out to have their say.

Disappointingly, none of the administration councillors promoted the poll or advised their residents which way to vote. This was an appalling attempt at voter suppression. The administration should also have consulted with residents before originally increasing their portion of council tax by 44% during a cost of living crisis. Lessons have got to be learned by those in positions of power.

"So yesterday it was encouraging to see a resounding 83% of those casting their ballot vote ‘yes’ for a 5% cap on council tax rises and public consultation if the proposed increase was greater. I now hope that councillors across the political spectrum will do their duty to protect these green shoots and make Salisbury a more equitable place where everyone feels that their voice can be heard.”