General Election: All 5 Tatton candidates to take part in hustings this Sunday

Unfortunately I will not be able to attend tonight’s meeting as I have a poorly son but here is what I would like to hear about from my candidates.

I am very much an undecided voter. I have become disillusioned by my representation by the Conservative party both locally and nationally. I have experienced several issues and have felt the Tories were slow to react or haven’t responded at all.

Let me firstly introduce myself, I am 36-year-old of mother of two young boys (aged 1 and 3), I run my own Marketing Communication consultancy. I have previously worked as a Radio presenter and for some large advertising agencies in Manchester. After the birth of my first son I set up my own Marketing Communications consultancy as I was finding the commute to Salford Quays with a young family and husband who often works abroad impossible to maintain. Working for myself offers many benefits I can pick my son up from school at 3:30pm and can be active member of the school community. Although it is also tough with no guarantee of income from one month to the next. However these are the most important years of my children’s life and I can enjoy them. Now onto the policies;

*30 Hours Childcare
This was a great idea put forward by the Tories at the last GE and I must admit this did swing my vote in their direction. My son now qualifies for the free childcare but its only 15 hours not 30. I feel disappointed that this policy has not yet come into fruition. What are your thoughts on this?

*Spring St Car Park
This car park was built roughly 8 years ago; it was a joint venture with Jones Homes who have an allocation of spaces. I have experienced several years of problems with it which I am not able to comment on publicly at this stage due to an investigation by the Local Government Ombudsman. Before the car park was built I had views of the Edge now I have an ugly grey wall.

The secondary issue is that at the last local election the Tories used Spring St as part of their campaign telling residents that they would get commuters to park in there. This now means there are hardly any free spaces for shoppers. I believe as this is a town centre car park it should have a maximum stay of 4 hours so it can be used by shoppers. Wilmslow town centre is far from its former glory it was prior to Grove St being pedestrianised it’s now a depressing walk with chuggers and dreary music with empty shops everywhere you turn. It is also much more expensive to park there than many of our neighbouring towns which I think puts people off when they can visit Handforth Dean and park for free. There are several other car parks on the outskirts of the town centre which would be far better suited to commuter parking. Why does the council not turn one of them into a multi-storey? This would be a great help for people who drive to the train station to travel to London for example.

*Hawthorn Road Park
This is my nearest park and as I live in apartment (due to the unattainable property prices for a house in the same location) I tend to pop to this park when I have 30 minutes to fill with the boys. No-one ever uses it because the apparatus is old and uncared for. There is a lovely grassy area there too which would be brilliant if it had some park benches for people to picnic. The trees along the path are totally overgrown and cast shade on the play area. I wrote to Cheshire East Council with a suggestion that this should be made into a skate park to divert the ASB caused at Spring St car park but was told this would not be an option. I think its location in-between the police station and fire station would make a fine venue for this type of activity. Ruth Morgan from ANSA told me they would not consider this. I subsequently wrote back to her to suggest that some improvement be made but guess what? I’ve had no response to date.

*Local Bus Services
This is a massive catch 22, the services particularly the 130 can be quite unreliable I had to use the 130 for approximately a year when I worked in town and there was major work happening on the trainline. The service is slow and unpleasant. There is also not enough publicity of other services such as the 88 which runs from Knutsford-Wilmslow-Altrincham. Incidentally Altrincham town centre is booming Wilmslow should be aspiring to be more like that. I was talking to my neighbour about the 88 service and she had no idea it even existed. Rather than making cuts to local bus services why not invest in them properly so more people can use them? If there were better bus services, then more commuters wouldn’t drive into town and this would also alleviate the issue with parking.

*The Job Centre
Some time ago I read an article that said the Job Centre was going to close. I suggested that this could be made into a business hub for people like me who work from home to network and sit and do some work. I think this would be a great opportunity for people to network as it can get quite lonely working as a sole trader. Again, I have received no response.

*Wilmslow Town Council
I have attended several town council meetings and have noted that Councillor Gary Barton has not or has arrived late. If I understand correctly, he is our representation at Cheshire East Council. If he does not have the time to represent the people of Wilmslow properly he should follow George Osbourne and stand down. I have also noted that Wilmslow Town Council has very little power to steer policy and these are people who live and love Wilmslow I think this is wrong.

Cheshire East Council is spending a fortune on their Communications and have many positive incentives but for some reason Wilmslow is always left out. Something has gone wrong.

I would be happy to meet with any of the candidates for a chat and have already messaged them individually with my contact details. I don’t want to hear anymore empty promises to win my vote I want representation by someone who is sincere, will follow through on their policies and will listen to the voice of local people. Surely that’s what our MPs and local councillors ought to do?

Kiesha what a great comment. I am still undecided on who to vote for next week. Your views on local issues are great and I would really like to vote for someone who could deliver or deal with these issues. I agree that Wilmslow is starting to look very desolate and dreary compared to places like Altrincham which also once looked like a town about to disappear with empty shops etc. A business hub would be a great idea as I see many people working in coffee shops who obviously run their own businesses. I have commented on this newsletter many times about bringing some 'normal' shops to Wilmslow as I see to often the closing of many businesses which look great at the beginning and then only last around a year. Even the established shops like Jaegar and Fat Face are now closing. Why cant these be replaced with high street stores like Top Shop, Oasis etc. To have a candidate who would be able to make changes at Council level would be so good. Now George Osbourne has gone maybe its time for a change.

There are a number of interesting comments raised above. Having read both the main party manifestos and looked into the candidate background I feel the conservative candidate Esther Mcvey (planted as the conservative Tatton candidate after losing her seat in the Wirral) is liked by the conservative party and highly likely to tow the party line so they have placed her of a seat considered to be safe. I feel there will be a slim chance of increase to child benefits under a future conservative government as they continue to make cuts, savings and sell off state assets owing to a weak economy. In my view expect very little will from a conservative candidate to act towards reversing the current poor transport service situation - if you recall most of the privatisation of rail and bus happened under conservative governance. Bus services are run by privately owned companies and can be pulled-out of service at any time if they are unprofitable. High street retail decline has been caused by many reasons, such as changing consumer habits, but high rates are a main cause. New laws to help high-street retail survival are needed and have been discussed within the Labour party as a Five-Point Plan- therefore transport and retail issues will be better supported by Sam Rushworth the Labour candidate in my view. Parking is a local issue to really be taken forward at CEC level as it should be within the councils remit to create a travel and parking management plan for the area. This really is a case of lobbying your local ward councillor(s) and Town Council to create a better solution.

I read the manifesto's as well... strangely despite Corbynista's verbal admissions prior to release there is nothing about re-nationalising Train / Mail / etc... and Scotland own Crankanista's avoid reference to Independence referendum.... Its as if they are all trying to hoodwink the voting public !! surely not !!.. I suppose if they dont mention it they wont have to cost it....and its our taxes that will fund this.. Perhaps fiscal guidance could be proferred from those masters of fiscal chicanery at CEC whose inverse mathematical comprehension has been demonstrated many times on these pages !... Make sure you vote !

We may have opinions on a particular Party/Candidate but there are legal constraints on what may be published/reported.
My final voting decision, after exposure to available info, is mine alone.

I would urge all Registered electors to cast their ballot on 8th June and "may your God go with you". (Dave Allen).

@Dave Cash: - I am not sure what you mean by 'legal constraints on what may be published/reported'; but certainly in forming a judgement any such written material should be apprised for bias.

@Nick Jones:- Renationalisation could be cost beneficial straight into the short term since private operating companies create profit which significant amount is paid to shareholders of those companies in the form of a dividend. Certainly in the case of railways between 2007 and 2011 for example the five main operators made £506mil of profit and 90% of that was paid to shareholders. That equates to a saving to the UK tax payer of £126mil a year after any costs connected to revoking the operating licences etc.. Such funds could be taken as savings or redirected into better services or lower fares.

@ Robert .. The problem with your utopian Republik .. will be that you will soon run out of other peoples money !! now when you find that money tree !!

I would like to know who is responsible for choosing polling Booths. For many years we were lucky enough to vote at Ashdene Primary school. The school was not closed, they managed to find a room we could use. I can understand that it may be disruptive for schools to be used in this way, but I guess a donation or charge would make it worthwhile. In the last couple of years we have been asked to vote at Lindow Cricket club. While this is much further away for us, maybe it is closer for others.
My problem is that there is no parking anywhere near. My husband has MND and, although he is able to walk a little, it was not easy. We managed to get a lift to be dropped outside, then picked up again afterwards. Upcast Lane is too narrow to linger in a car and the fact that it is a dead end makes the whole thing very difficult.
Maybe the local powers that be don`t want disabled people to vote. I know he could have a postal vote, but he likes to go and cast his vote with everyone else.

Sally - unless part of the school can be completely isolated from the school to be used as a polling station (separate entrance, teachers or pupils not needing to access that part of the school to get to other areas of the school such as toilets, offices or other classrooms, having separate toilets for electoral staff, etc, etc) then it isn't very safe for the school to have all kinds of people wandering in and out unchecked while the children are there.