UPDATE: Mendip, SWT, SSDC, Sedgemoor plus County Councils Must ALL Be Abolished!

 

Lib Dems or Fib Dems?

UPDATE (14/4/21): We will be speaking at all four district councils over today and tomorrow to ask them to adopt the idea that we proposed last September - a Modern Committee System (MCS). There is a Referendum on this in Sheffield happening right now, and our article on it from September has been updated.

UPDATE (15/4/21): We now believe that all four districts should be abolished, and the county too. But whatever happens must be voted upon, with a "no change" option for residents to vote for.

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(11/4/21): In just a few weeks, and as reported by us, the Mendip Liberal Democrats have:

• lost a councillor on Mendip District Council
• lost control of Mendip District Council
• bungled the paperwork of their chosen candidate
• have no candidate in the by-election for Wells
  

And as there are no other elections for Mendip, because they are done in "all out" elections every four years, they have no way of getting control of the Council back!

Leader of Somerset Independents, Andrew Pope, says:

Andrew Pope
Leader of
Somerset Independents

"Somerset Independents has proved that Mendip Lib Dems are not fit to run Mendip Council. 

They are just as bad as the Tories before them, despite all the Lib Dems' fake promises before the 2019 council elections, and all the untrue claims and rhetoric spoken since then by the Leader of the Council, Lib Dem Councillor Ros Wyke.

Mendip Lib Dems are amateur. They are ignorant. They are incompetent. They do deals behind closed doors.

We have proved it with our formal challenge to their accounts. Their property deals on the Asset Management Group and Phoenix Sponsorship Board, were done without proper scrutiny and without any openness or transparency. The minutes of the meetings did not even meet the law. They showed nothing, in fact, about the content of the business of the meeting.

The External Auditor Ernst and Young has now agreed with our Formal Objection and told them to change their ways.

Mendip is so bad that they even allowed a councillor to be elected as Chair of the Council's Scrutiny committee, and to preside over his own election. After our challenge, that has had to be done properly now. Meanwhile, the Scrutiny Committee did not properly scrutinise the Budget of the Council and our council tax has gone up!

I know of gardening clubs that are run more professionally than Mendip Council. Mendip Lib Dems could not even run a gardening club.

In fact, residents have commented to us that (Vicar of) Dibley Parish Council seems more professional than Mendip!

They couldn't run a bath, let alone a council that is in charge of millions of pounds of public money.

If they can't even get the paperwork right for their Wells candidate, how can they pretend that they can preside over millions of pounds of public money, and tell us all to pay our council tax?

The Lib Dems have no credibility left. The Council has no credibility left.

The residents of the Mendip area live in a great place, but Mendip Council is a disaster and must be abolished. 

There is widespread knowledge by residents of the corruption and incompetence at Mendip. Former clerks of parish and town councils, and serving councillors, have made such comments to me about Mendip.

Even Private Eye agrees, and the local media reports of Mendip Council are embarrassing, such as the November 2020 Scrutiny Board meeting where the Chair resigned due a lack of scrutiny.

The former Chair, Tory Councillor Philip Ham, is a local land owner who we now know from official documents that we have obtained, used his position as a councillor, and his contacts, to get planning permission through for a development near Sandys Hill Lane in Frome! Then when the new Chair was elected, Councillor Chris Inchley (a former Labour member but fake "Independent") presided over his own election.

How can this be allowed to happen? Why didn't the councillors and officers stop it from happening?

It can't. It shouldn't. It won't. Somerset Independents won't allow it to continue.

Somerset Independents is appalled that it has had to expose Mendip District Council. We are volunteers and residents that care about the direction of Somerset.

What comes after Mendip District Council is abolished must be decided by residents in a Referendum, with the option of no change on the ballot paper. 

I am pleased that finally, after ignoring us for months, district councillors now agree with the Somerset Independents campaign for a Referendum.

But even now, they don't really want to listen. Because they want to restrict residents in the vote to One Somerset or Stronger Somerset, with no other options.

There must be a "no change"/"not now" option on the ballot paper.

This cannot go on."

UPDATED (2/5/21): PCC Candidates Respond to Our Questions - Avon and Somerset Police and Crime Commissioner

 

 

The Current PCC Sue Mountstevens
Is Stepping Down

UPDATED (2/5/21): We have now received answers to our questions to all 5 candidates. 

The questions that we asked to all 5 of them are here.

Please click the links on the menu for our website to see their responses, or click the links below.

Kerry Barker's Responses are here.

Cleo Lake's Responses are here.

Heather Shearer HAS NOT RESPONDED, although we have chased. UPDATE: We gave her until 9pm on the Eve of the polls opening. She STILL has not responded. So here are the questions that she failed to answer.

Mark Shelford's Responses are here.

John Smith's Responses are here.

To say again - Somerset Independents is not standing a candidate. Please read below for more on that. 

We leave it to residents to make up their own minds based on what we believe is our fair challenge to the candidates. 

And leave it to residents to decide whether to vote, to not vote, or to register a "NONE OF THE ABOVE" on their ballot to send a message of protest. 

ITV West Country have published their guide to the candidates here.

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UPDATED (25/4/21): Following requests from residents, more information has been added on the candidates, plus information on the stance from Somerset Independents on the candidates.

Somerset Independents has submitted questions to the candidates. We are waiting for answers from 3 of the 5 candidates. Sadly there was not even an email address for Kerry Barker or Heather Shearer, so we have had to use their "Contact Form". We await responses.

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The candidates have been confirmed for the election of a new Police and Crime Commissioner for Avon and Somerset.

They were announced today (9th April 2021). The poll will be held on Thursday 6 May 2021 between 7am and 10pm. You can vote by post if you register in time.

The Candidates in Alphabetical Order Are:

Barker, Kerry - Address in Bristol - Labour Party

Lake, Cleo Alberta - Address in Bristol - Green Party

Shearer, Heather - Address in Wells - Liberal Democrat

Shelford, Mark Grosvenor McNeill - Address in Bath - The Conservative Party Candidate

Smith, John - Address in Bristol - Independent

 

You can access their campaign websites by clicking the links under each candidate. Their website will open in a new browser window or tab.

Residents have complained to us that they either did not know about this election, or that they know nothing about the candidates. So we are trying to provide information to residents. We are trying to be as fair as possible to the candidates.

More information on the candidates is available elsewhere on the Somerset Independents website, with responses by our Spokeperson for Police and Crime Andrew Pope. Just click on the "Police and Crime" tag or this link here and scroll down to view the articles.

 

Local Media Reports

Below are the local media reports that we are aware of. If you know of more, please get in touch using our Contact link at the top of the page.

Stephen Sumner of Reach/SomersetLive has produced this article on the candidates. The article has the candidates in alphabetical order and has Q & A's with each candidate.

Jessica Chaffey of The County Gazette has published this article on the candidates. The candidates are not in alphabetical order and not all candidates have photos. There are no explanations for these oversights. But there is a photo of the Chief Constable, Andy Marsh, who is "stepping down" later this year.

The local BBC News (under Bristol, not Somerset) has published this article on the candidates.  This is a very poor attempt by the local BBC. As usual, there is no author willing to put their name to the article. There is no explanation for the order in which they showed the candidates on the article. They are not alphabetical, as they will be on the ballot paper. Worst of all, there are no photos of two of the candidates, Cleo Lake and Kerry Barker.

The local BBC Bristol also put out this report on the BBC TV "hustings" with David Garmston. For the Bristol protests, this may seem appropriate but there is often a Bristol bias in the local BBC's reporting. Somerset is barely mentioned. The Bristol BBC News, sorry "regional" BBC News, do not seem to have reported on the other part of the hustings, only the part relating to the protests. Somerset Independents has repeatedly complained about the Bristol bias.

 

Which Candidate Is Somerset Independents Supporting?

None of them!

We are holding all candidates to account by asking questions and providing information to Somerset residents.

This is so Somerset residents can make their own decision on who to vote for, or whether to put a large cross through the ballot paper to lodge a protest vote that none of the candidates are suitable, with "None of the above" written on the ballot paper.

Why Isn't Somerset Independents Standing A Candidate?

 

Somerset Independents were involved in several discussions with residents of Somerset about standing a candidate.

It was suggested that our Leader Andrew Pope should stand. We also discussed other people who could be a good candidate.

Andrew explains:

Andrew Pope

"A former member of the Police and Crime Panel suggested that I would be a good candidate. I am the Spokesperson for Police and Crime for Somerset Independents too, as well as my other experience as a councillor and campaigner.

I was not keen, as I have too many other commitments.

But I agreed to discuss my potential candidacy with:

• Somerset residents

• a former PCC candidate

• other members and supporters of Somerset Independents

• current and former police officers both here and elsewhere in England, and 

• with the Nominations Officer for Somerset Independents, Denise Wyatt.

We decided between us that there were many reasons why Somerset Independents did not wish to stand a PCC candidate.

These included:

1. Somerset Independents does not campaign in Bristol, Bath or South Gloucestershire. We focus on Somerset.
   
2. Somerset Independents does not have the funds to put in the huge £5,000 deposit that all candidates have to make. In fact, some of our supporters were incredulous that it is such a large amount of money. Only national political parties like Labour, the Lib Dems, Greens and Tories can find this money.
   
3. Somerset Independents is only a year old and is run by volunteers.
   
4. Somerset Independents does not have the money for the campaign costs. We are volunteers and do not have the massive money that the national parties have.
5. We have made it clear that we believe that the May elections should be delayed until they can be conducted safely and democratically. Neither are possible while the National Emergency continues. We will not put people at risk.
   

Maybe next time, we will have a PCC candidate. But not this time.

We agreed instead that we would hold the declared candidates to account.  That process has already begun."

 

Somerset's Chief Constable to follow PCC and to go in July

Sue Mountstevens is the outgoing
Police and Crime Commissioner

Reacting to the news that the Chief Constable of Somerset Andy Marsh is stepping down in July, Leader of Somerset Independents and Spokesperson for Police and Crime Andrew Pope says:

"It must have been hard for Andy Marsh to be used politically by the Police and Crime Commissioner. Hopefully it won't happen to him again elsewhere. 

As it was with the Budget and with the appointment of John Smith as Deputy PCC, Ms Mountstevens has politicised the Chief Constable on multiple occasions. He should not have had to suffer that. She should not have put him in that position.

PCC's are political roles and the Chief should not be commenting on any such appointment or presenting the Budget. Indeed, the PCC is there to hold the PCC to account, so any comments on appointments would be entirely inappropriate. When I spoke against the Budget, Ms Mountstevens did not present her own Budget, despite it being her job to do so.

Despite being put in that position by the PCC, Andy Marsh made every effort to respond to my points on the Budget. I was the only member of the public to turn up at the meeting.

So I wish Andy Marsh well and hope that the next Chief is not politicised by whoever is elected to be our new Commissioner in May when Ms Mountstevens goes.

Perhaps it is for the best that Mr Marsh announces his departure now, as the new PCC has the power to appoint and remove the Chief, as Ms Mountstevens did during her nine years as PCC. It seems to be an honourable thing to do. The new PCC might have removed him.

The timing is strange though, as we are in the middle of the election campaign for the new PCC. Despite the Statement of Persons Nominated not being issued until tomorrow, the starting gun has already been fired. Let's hope these changes are a sign of a change in how Somerset is policed."