1. I am sure they mean what they say and they have good intentions but they won’t be getting my vote. I’ve had enough of this two party system and the silly ‘whataboutery’ between the two main factions. Meanwhile our local and national services are deteriorating. It annoys me how these councillors expect to do the same thing but get different results. We’ve heard it all before. Both locally and centrally Labours track record is just as bad as the Conservatives, if not worse. It is clear we need real change locally and nationally. Time to Reform. Saddlers of the world unite
  2. @Pete: Scapegoating minorities and promoting xenophobia are not untried solutions. They were tried in Germany in the 1930s and led to world war and extermination camps. Nigel Farage/UKIP/Brexit Party/Reform have already done enough damage to this country with Brexit and their attacks on the European Union, weakening Europe at a time when it is facing an existential threat from Russia. No problem for Nigel, who simply switched his propaganda shows from Russia Today to GB News. Reform is not offering solutions, it is offering chaos and destruction of democratic values. Don't be fooled into voting for them. Carl Sholl
  3. It will be interesting to see if Reform UK Limited candidates oppose the Climate Emergency policies of Staffordshire County Council and Lichfield District. Reform’s stated opposition to Net Zero will leave the UK reliant on imported natural gas rather than making way for British manufacturing is not very patriotic.  In fact, some of the measures that Reform has pledged to introduce could actually increase energy costs in the short term! Their Deputy Leader, Richard Tice (who like Trump rejects the scientific consensus on the cause of climate change) has talked of a “generation tax” for renewable energy companies. This would… Steven Norman
  4. It is not a precept to habitually raise costs just because you can. Just wanting more money is no justification in situations where services are poorer. It adds to the ever growing burden to the financial pressures being felt in households. We are a cash cow without resistance or redress. By dividing the demands into different categories it enables each one to be increased individually. In the substantial fire near the station the fire brigade came from elsewhere because ours was closed! Typical of the services we are getting. Philip
  5. Graham was a kind and generous man who saw the best in people. He gave me my first job as a teenager despite having no experience whatsoever other than I knew how to build and maintain bikes. He gave me a chance to prove myself when most employers would've just seen a young person with zero experience and promptly shown them the door. I wasn't the only one, around the turn of the millennium he employed several of us who desperately wanted to work in the shop because we were obsessed with bikes. We learned quickly from Graham about how… Alex
  6. It's not about Dave, it's about the legions who helped put him there: people noticing what's wrong and not being afraid and *voting*, people volunteering to push leaflets through letterboxes, people forming local party infrastucture, microdonors/big donors putting their money where their mouth is and refusing to be cancelled, national politicians actually representing concerns of voters. Canary in the coal mine moment for the Uniparty (Labour=Conservative) and the out of touch elites who milk the country that they actually despise… Patrick young
  7. The City Council was re-established in 1980 following 'letters patent' from the late Queen. It is effectively a parish council serving the city. As such it has limited power and to some extent plays a ceremonial role. While it is supposedly consulted by LDC on infrastructure and development policy it is rarely influential. I don't know if it will continue to exist following the unitary council implementation (we don't get a say in this! Democracy?!) later this year. It is likely a new county Lord Mayor with extended powers will take its place. This City Council election is probably short… Philip
  8. Imagine living in a city centre amongst buildings that have been in situ for centuries and then complaining when a proposal to use those buildings for what they were built to do in the first place is submitted. It’s like living in the countryside and complaining of the smell of manure and the noise from a field of sheep. This building is a pub. Has been a pub for 100’s of years. So let’s use it as a pub. A pub where people also live. Folk have been living above pubs relatively unscathed for a very long time. Saddlers of the world unite
  9. If people think the current system doesn’t work, and that councillors don’t listen, then just imagine what will happen when the councillors making the decisions come from a very different area of the County, and have very little knowledge, or much care about Lichfield or what the people living there want. All of the people stating ‘it can’t get worse’ – I think it can get a lot worse, with very little prospect of it getting better. You may not think the current district council listens, but at least we as people living in the district have a better opportunity… DJN
  10. Yes but Heseltine wanted rid of DCs in 74 and then again in the 1990s only to get this kind of response. Business investors, firms, builders don't want to deal with a myriad of different organisations every 6/7 miles. You could argue Little Aston is Sutton concentric, Fazeley Tamworth and Stonall Aldridge. I would hardly call the boundaries well thought out. Helsaltine openly admits he looked at maps and flew in a light aircraft drawing lines and that today the process would have fallen foul of a judicial review. You can have local area planning sub committees within a Unitary… RFW
  11. When Dug Pullen says the present system has worked 'relatively well' that means is has worked relatively unwell too. I am sure many citizens of Lichfield bemoan the Districts deaf ear approach to local concerns. I was at one meeting when councillors declared a petition as outside their remit for consideration. Certainly, had the council been less party political we might have seen more equitable results. I do not like the new unitary proposals. It will create less obstructions for government proposals but do less for local concerns. But there was a time when local people were passionate about their… Philip