In Full: Independents for Frome Responds To Attack From The Leveller

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with Electoral Commission

We reported on The Leveller Editor Andrew Lee's bizarre attack on Independents for Frome (IFF).

Scott Ward who ran the campaign for IFF has responded. He told us:

"I'm no longer an ifF Councillor but was involved in running the ifF Campaign. [In the letter to the Leveller], I am speaking for myself rather than the current group of ifF Councillors."

And below is his response to Andrew Lee of The Leveller, in full:

"Hi Andrew,

I'm no longer a Frome Town Councillor myself but I am still involved with the wider group.

With regards to the article and specifically the situation that the ifF candidates found themselves in during the election with no opponents standing in the majority of wards, I can tell you that the ifF candidates were all as disappointed as residents were at the lack of choice many people found themselves facing on polling day. The candidates put themselves forward with the understanding that they would get to share their message of why they were standing and what they wanted to achieve but the lack of appetite by any of the Westminster parties meant that they were denied that opportunity and it took several days for them to digest that disappointment and move on from the feeling of a hollow victory.

Primarily, I have to say that ifF is not responsible for other parties standing candidates and any disappointment felt by voters should be directed towards the Lib Dems, Labour, Conservative and The Green party. We didn't have any deals in place with any parties for them to stand aside and a 'long standing agreement' that has been hinted at by The local Green Party is something that may have happened during the first iteration of ifF by I can say with confidence that no agreement was ever reached with the generation of ifF that I was involved with.

However, it is important that ifF evolves over time and meets the needs of the people of Frome and to do that we need to learn from things that have happened, in this case the lack of choice for voters. At the moment, the new council is finding it's feet but in due course there will be conversations around how ifF provides a greater choice will sticking to the principles of the the ifF ways of working. One idea put forward has been to allow any prospective candidate that meets the requirements to stand, regardless of the number of seats available but then there is a real possibility that we end up splitting the vote between candidates, allowing political parties to take those seats with a smaller share of the votes collectively. There is no simple answer but the work will be done in an open and inclusive way which has always been the ifF way.

One other thing of note regarding your article is the mention of Eve Berry standing as an independent candidate. It's well known in Frome that Eve is a member of the conservative party and like others have tried in the past, stood as an independent to hide her political loyalties.

I hope that answers any potential questions you might have had and feel free to contact me directly (email address redacted).

Hopefully that gives you an idea of our thoughts when we found out that nobody but Eve was standing against ifF in Frome. The candidates just had to play the hand that they were dealt and I think they did so fantastically. They could have sat on their laurels but after processing the disappointment they felt, they re-focused their energy on communicating with residents to be better informed about the issues the town faces and in supporting myself and Steve in our campaigns to stand for Somerset Council.

If you have any further questions, feel free to ask."

We have still not received any response from The Leveller.

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