In the run up to the local elections on May 2nd I will be publishing brief interviews with each of the candidates - standing for seats on both the Town Council and Cheshire East Council - that respond to my request, in the order in which they respond.
To read interviews with other candidates you will be able to click on the tags at the bottom of the article. For example, pieces on the other candidates for the Wilmslow Town Council election will all be tagged 'Wilmslow Town Council 2019 Election'. Candidates representing the same party or group will also be connected via the tags, candidates competing in the same ward will be connected by tags as well and all articles will be tagged '2019 Local Elections'.
Mark Goldsmith is a Residents of Wilmslow candidate for the Wilmslow West ward on both Wilmslow Town Council and Cheshire East Council.
Mark moved to Wilmslow 20 years ago with his wife and has stayed here ever since. Working as an international marketing director for several large consumer goods companies, he has an MBA from Manchester Business School. He has recently taken semi-retirement to take on property renovation with his wife.
Mark told me "I am learning new skills to undertake much of the work myself, such as plumbing, plastering and tiling, so am not afraid to muck-in and get my hands dirty.
"I also really enjoy walking even though I only started doing it two years ago. Up till then, my only experience had been an occasional short walk to a country pub. But as a complete novice, I solo walked the full 270 miles of the Pennine Way. This is widely regarded as the UK's toughest walking route and I quickly found out why. It was a gruelling but, in the end, a highly rewarding experience. Encouraged by this, last year I walked all of the 570 mile Camino Way from southern France to the west coast of northern Spain. It was a brilliant experience from start to finish and it showed me how great things can happen just by continually taking small steps in the right direction."
Are you a member of any local groups or societies?
I am already a Wilmslow Town Councillor and also mentor overseas students at the Manchester Business School. Now I have more free time, I want to enrol on some more of the brilliant Wilmslow Guild classes as I believe in life-long learning and have really enjoyed the few short courses I have already completed there.
Why have you decided to stand for election as a ward councillor and re-election as a parish councillor for Wilmslow?
I have enjoyed my time on Wilmslow Town Council and have made a strong contribution to how it operates and want to continue this work. However, I share the widespread frustration with how Cheshire East Council ignores Wilmslow. With my business skills and passion for the town, I now have the time for a Cheshire East councillor role to make a bigger contribution to improving Wilmslow.
How long have you been a councillor?
Almost 3 years now, as I joined in August 2016 by winning a by-election after a previous Conservative councillor stood down.
What do you think have been your biggest achievements as a councillor in the past 4 years?
Probably getting Cheshire East to create a £2 million fund for local communities from the £30m it gets in New Homes Bonus, a government grant to encourage housing developments. The government set up the scheme to ensure local communities get some benefit from large scale house building. However, instead of local towns deciding how they spent the money, Cheshire East quietly kept it all. This meant large windfall sums have not made any improvements for Wilmslow. I challenged Cheshire East on this and with the help of Toni Fox (RoW's Cheshire East Councillor for Dean Row) they created the £2m fund for the borough. However, Wilmslow will still only get £80,000 of the £7 million it will generate in New Homes Bonus over the next few years. At least several groups in the town will now benefit from this money but there is much more to be done, if I am elected to Cheshire East Council.
Another of my achievements has been to ensure Wilmslow Town Council speaks out when Cheshire East fails the town. Our local council was very reluctant to publicly complain about Cheshire East in case it looked like they were criticising their fellow Conservative party members. I successfully argued that the biggest reason for creating our local council was so it would speak up for the town at every opportunity. Thankfully, Wilmslow Town Council is now far more vocal in doing this, especially in the key areas of parking and planning. Whether Cheshire East listens much is a moot point though, but at least we are now asking them the right questions.
Finally, I instigated the town councils new web site, so it is now much easier for the public to find key information, especially for mobile phone and tablet users.
Currently, we may only have a small number of Resident of Wilmslow councillors on our town council, but the fresh mind-set we bring really does make a big difference.
What have been your biggest disappointments as a councillor in the past 4 years?
Probably there are two of them. Neither of them are Wilmslow Town council's responsibility, but I got involved to add weight to the residents campaigns.
Firstly, not being able to resolve the parking issues on Leaside Way. Residents of Wilmslow tried to help those living on the estate who are blighted with parking problems. However, Cheshire East councillors and the Highways department stonewalled our proposals, despite having a signed petition by almost everyone living on the estate. The council was happy to let them suffer rather than move the problem to a new area and give themselves a new problem and new work to do. We protested that this was grossly unfair and pushed for a town wide parking review. We are now 18 months into this parking review and its progress is painfully slow with still no end date in sight. One of my tasks if elected is to ensure this speeds up and is implemented. Cheshire East seem very good a promising things but very bad at actually making them happen.
Secondly, the bulldozing of the Energi gym for the new Lidl. There were a dozen very good planning reasons not to allow this to happen and only one minor reason to allow it. So how this was passed is a scandal and Wilmslow has now lost a great community asset, while the local residents now look onto an imposing, ugly warehouse style building. It highlighted to me many problems with our planning department and its total lack of governance by Cheshire East council. Something that I also want to work to change if I become elected.
What do you consider to be the important issues facing Wilmslow?
Wilmslow has suffered a serious lack of investment across the town for years. Even Rachel Bailey, the Conservative Leader of Cheshire East admitted to us that "Wilmslow has been starved of funds". Our local Conservative councillors never challenge this though, because it makes their party look bad.
Cheshire East Conservatives have agreed to massive house building schemes because it's their national party policy. But they have not created any additional infrastructure to support the towns rapidly growing population. When the inevitable happens and our local services fail, the huge sums of money Cheshire East has gained from allowing these developments will be long gone. There will be nothing left to fix the problems, so we need to invest in Wilmslow now. We need to build more long-term car parking capacity, more high school places, more GP surgeries and to revamp the town centre using the Wilmslow Neighbourhood Plan as the blueprint.
What do you hope to achieve and how in the next 4 years?
We need to finish and implement the parking review. We can start the process of yellow lining around the streets to ensure they are safe, while creating temporary car parks near the town centre to ensure commuter cars have somewhere else to go. This would give the council a few years to build extra permanent parking capacity within the town. The additional parking fees would also make it self-funding as Wilmslow already provides £1m a year to Cheshire East in parking charges.
Also, I want to help drive the Wilmslow Neighbourhood Plan forward. This is a great blue print for the improvement and development of the town centre. However, it will need considerable funding from government and business to make it happen, which will need full council support. Achieving this would give the town centre a desperately needed make-over and ensure it becomes a vibrant hub for the community for years to come.
What experience and personal qualities will you bring to the role?
Over the last few years I have met many residents and fully understand their concerns, which will help me ensure they are addressed by Cheshire East and Wilmslow Town Council.
My work experience includes running large teams, working within big corporations to get things done, negotiating major business deals and communicating with the public. All of which seem relevant to this role. I also have a Master of Business Administration from one of the UK's top business schools, so know the organisational theory too. Something that I feel could be very handy within the dysfunctional Cheshire East Council.
Why should Wilmslow residents vote for you?
If they want action, not promises, if they want their local councillor to stand up for their local wishes and not be gagged by their party and if they want to see meaningful change for Wilmslow, then please vote for me.
Comments
Here's what readers have had to say so far. Why not add your thoughts below.
Sadly Summerfields residents saw CE Planning ignore the huge opposition to the demolition of a community recreational asset for a instead, a huge, ugly, woefully inappropriate Lidl (that resembles a warehouse) being built right up to existing homes.
With their desire to push this application through as Mark says against all the odds, CE also interestingly ignored the advice of their own in-house Urban Design Team to tone the look down.
Although we failed to defeat Cheshire East Planning & Lidl, Summerfields residents are truly grateful for the never failing support from Mark Goldsmith and the other Independents.
So, vote Independent & get some common sense and equity back into local politics.
Good luck to Mark on Wilmslow West.
the Leaside Way parking issue has not been resolved as the residents do not have a consistent, cohesive view about the solution. Those in Leaside Way and the southern part of the development clearly want restrictive parking arrangements. Those to the north of the development, unaffected by commuter parking are unwilling to 'yellow line' their part of the development. The Petition process triggered the third Survey of this question and the answer was the same as the previous two Surveys. CEC Highways and the local CEC conservative councillors will always follow what the local residents want cannot act if there is no clear majority.
-what criteria would you use to select roads to 'start yellow lining'
-where is the space to create 'temporary car parks near the town centre'
You say in your comments to Independent Clr Mark Goldsmith :
"CEC Highways and the local CEC conservative councillors will always follow what the local residents want cannot act if there is no clear majority"
Have you missed a word out? It doesn't read correctly.
Let me remind you what happened. Leaside Way residents wanted Restricted Access to control who parks there. Just like other roads in Wilmslow where it works very well.
However, your response was:
a) Deny they wanted it. So, we then got signatures from 99% of households saying they did.
b) You said no, it wasn't council policy. We said "change the policy"
c) You then claimed they couldn’t have it because the estate is not a cut-through. We showed cul-de-sacs that have it eg Windsor Avenue in Wilmslow.
d) Highways then ran a survey but never gave the residents the option of Restricted Access.
e) Eventually the Highways Officer admitted they wouldn’t do it "because we would just be chasing the problem all round Wilmslow".
f) You then said the police wouldn't support it but never offered any proof of this. Nor did you ask the Police and Crime Commissioner to help, as you did over the Alderley Road yellow line fiasco (more later).
It was at this point we started to lobby for a Wilmslow wide parking review instead. Two years on, this review is still ongoing, with no end point in sight, despite the Conservative Leader of Cheshire East promising it would be done by Christmas 2018.
Yellow Lining Criteria
I suggest the same policy you used to get yellow lines installed outside your house on the Thorngrove Estate. This was done in record quick time, so why not go back to that?
Car Park Sites
In Autumn 2017, I met you hand delivering the Conservatives “In Touch” magazine that said, "CEC will also work to identify possible sites for private car parks".
So why do you need me to tell you where temporary car parks could be placed?
The Head of Highways confirmed in January that CEC have done nothing on this. There are several sites identified in the Wilmslow Neighbourhood Plan though, a private individual has already offered a town centre site and/or a temporary mezzanine floor could be built on South Drive car park. That you need to ask me any of this just highlights your empty promises.
Cones on Alderley Road
The latest Conservative “In Touch” magazine claims “Thanks to the efforts of Conservative Councillors, a temporary solution of traffic cones has reduced the on-street parking…” for Alderley Road.
Please tell me what the Conservative councillors did to install these cones?
All the public bodies deny doing it because it is illegal. However, we have spoken to the concerned individual who did put them out and they have no association with the Conservatives at all.
Therefore, this seems to be another of the many, many lies the Conservatives are telling to hide their abject failure. Thankfully, people are now realising this though, which is why so many of them are telling us they will vote for Residents of Wilmslow next week.
Lyme Green and the meaningless doctored report demonstrated Cllrs conduct breaking planning rules.. “…everyone will agree, has been a wholly regrettable incident and one that has caused the reputation of the council to be called into question.. I cannot though, in all conscience, ignore the fact this situation arose on my watch ..” Just how much has this all cost??… Volunteer a full and frank disclosure. How much have your mistakes cost ?
Martin Bell uniquely stood as an uncontested Integrity candidate at the General election, and when you review what is going on at CEC today( Well documented on these pages) … there is a good case for Wilmslow Residents to have someone of a similar reputation and independence today to stand and represent residents in the forthcoming Local Election. Fortunately we do with Mark Goldsmith, David Jefferay, Toni Fox and others.. Vote Residents of Wilmslow !
Thank You for pointing out another of Rod's lies. There are so many, it's hard to keep up.
Oliver
We claim that RoW is a politically independent group. We have no allegiances to any political parties, no central office to tell us what to do and no conflict between local and national policies.Our only ideology is "to do what is best for Wilmslow". We work with the Independent Group of Cheshire East Council, which is now the largest opposition group to the conservatives. More and more Cheshire towns are reject national parties and voting in their local groups. The Conservatives only need to lose 9 seats out of 83 for them to lose overall control of Cheshire East. Wilmslow alone could provide 4 of those 9 seats.
We recently registered RoW as a political party, mainly so we get our name printed on ballot papers. That way we can differentiate ourselves from any individuals who may also be standing.
Therefore, I will leave it up to voters to decide how independent this makes us at RoW.
It is a matter of some urgency that "Due Process," as is often quoted has to be followed, is somewhat speeded up, and it is apparent from his WTC record so far that Mark Goldsmith is just the calibre of person we need to do this.
I am a founder member of Residents of Wilmslow (RoW) and am not the least bit interested in politics, at least not so much as to join a political party. I regard myself as being someone seeking change so am happy for my organisation to support Independent.minded people who will work to make the differences those within a party cannot bring.
I would have thought that the "Wilmslow Vision" gave a pretty clear majority steer that we did not want Green Belt protection removed from the fields around Wilmslow. But you and your fellow Conservatives voted to do exactly that during Local Plan fiasco (£3m was it to do the job badly, twice?).
This had previously been deliberately hidden, under the CEC "open, honest and accountable" regime.
Thank you - between want cannot the word 'and' was omitted.
Mark Goldsmith
Your selective memory is one thing but your manner of expression and choice of words are totally unacceptable. Your accolytes have already agreed with you as they always do but those who just read these threads must be wondering what sort of person you are. You may be proving to them as your own words are demonstrating that you are not a fit and proper person for the position you seek. How you conduct yourself over the next 9 days will tell.
Leaside Way - I personally spoke to the police re Access Only for Leasideway estate. They said if we can muster over 90% of householders in favour they will certainly consider supporting the survey. In fact RoW spoke to EVERY person over 18 living in all the properties - we gave them a choice of 1)single yellow lines; 2) double yellow lines; 3) timed parking bays & 4) Access Only. They opted or no 4 with 93% of those living therein in favour. (Access Only is a Road Traffic Order allowing only persons with lawful reason to be within the area to park their vehicle - householder, visitor etc - unlimited parking allowed.)
Then Cllr Menlove convened a meeting with two Highways chaps & residents held in the open on Leaside. The result, as mentioned above by others, was that Highways said it would be yellow or nothing, ignoring the wishes of residents. At the same public meeting CLL Menlove attempted to discredit RoWs involvement by saying "They (RoW) are politicising the issue" And that was the last of the matter, which still persists.
Re the wanna-be-East ward councillor has made great play of his & the Conservative's solving the Alderley Rd parking mayhem by claiming he & his party had solved the issue with cones. Again, I spoke to the police to "congratulate" for placing the cones. "It wasn't us",I was told.Nor was it CEC Highways, RoW has since learned of individuals who have done the job the now discredited Highways should have done; also we hear that the United Reform Church has lost some of its cones.Could it therefore be that the Conservatives have been the real villains behind the wave of cone nickin' ? They've admitted they were responsible - putting 2 + 2 together = Very dodgy ground. Maybe Cllr Menlove & his wanna-be successor will supply the truthful answer to this mystery.
The lesson - ONLY ever claim credit for what you know you've done or said.
I am the sort of person that will hold public officials to account when they lie to me and the people of Wilmslow. I find the casual deceit by you and other Conservative councillors deeply offensive, so make no apology for challenging it.
Therefore, I ask you again -
1) What did the Conservative Councillors do to put out the cones on Alderley Road (In Touch, Spring 2019)?
2) You promised the town that CEC would identify possible sites for private car parks (In Touch, Autumn 2017). Why was this not done?
3) You just said "CEC Highways and the local CEC conservative councillors will always follow what the local residents want and cannot act if there is no clear majority". However, RoW presented you and CEC Highways with a signed petition by 99% of Leaside Way residents asking for Restricted Access for their estate (I still have the original if you want it). So why did you ignore their request? Why did you block it at every opportunity? Please tell me how my memory of these events is "selective"? Then please tell me why you felt able to make your above statement and consider it honest?
Innocent people are happy for the truth to set them free, so here is your opportunity.
However, I believe people will see from this who is fit and proper to represent them at Cheshire East and who is trying to fool them with throw-away statements and casual lies.
RoW has no knowledge or connection with anyone vandalising cars. Nor do we approve such behaviour, which is clearly wrong.
We just spoke to someone who took the passive step of putting out cones to avoid the clear possibility of accidents and congestion in the town. Although we cannot say for sure because we didn’t ask them, we think it highly unlikely they are responsible for damaging any cars though.
Is this the new way of doing politics?
It is possible that the perpetrator/s did not think that the cones would damage the car in question, but cones will damage paintwork. That then makes it not just illegal but criminal. The question is, where does it stop? If you can't answer that, then please think about what you are condoning and condemn illegal acts such as this.
The safety issues can be sorted out but it needs to be done through democratic and lawful means. Its possible that some of us will be serving together on Wilmslow Town Council after the elections. Whilst not battling out over politics, which can bring out the best and worst in people, we are all reasonable people.
I am calling on all parties and/or candidates join me in condemning illegal interference in the highway and criminal damage to both lawfully and unlawfully parked vehicles?
As I have stated earlier, the police knew nothing about the cones & the police were at pains to say that CEC have so far refused to get involved.
If it wasn't the police nor CEC, how does the Conservative candidate justify the cones as a "Conservative solution"??
Has he & his party placed the cones, illegally? Have they "used" other peoples cones? If so, from where? Or, as we have seen so often over the tenure of Conservative dictatorial control in CEC, is this yet another of their misrepresentations on the basis they can fool some of the voters some of the time? But they will not be doing that for much longer.
The answer to all the Conservative CE obfuscation is clearly to vote RoW for all 4 candidates (Toni Fox -Dean Row; David Jefferay -East; Mark Goldsmith & Iain Macfarlane - West) - this may well go all the way in destroying the Conservative hegemony over CE. RoW is the only group in the Wilmslow elections that will place the ward voters concerns at the forefront of councillors intentions, i.e. returning power to the voters. This will be a new concept for voters used to their Conservative councillors consistently ignoring their concerns,
In one place I suspect the motorist concerned carries cones in his boot so as to guarantee the parking space the following morning. What next? Free parking for life in Wilmslow?
Again I call for all parties and candidates to condemn illegal behaviour.
All those cones may make a handful of ROW people happy but they are an eyesore and reduce parking space in the town.
ROW seem to be obsessed with parking, but support illegal reduction in parking spaces and criminal damage to lawfully parked vehicles.
ROW doesn’t own the roads in Wilmslow but they act like they do. It’s just the sort of ‘I know what is good for you’ arrogance people expect from the local Tories. But with ROW people are also threatened with vigilante and criminal acts. Even the Tories are too scared to condemn this behaviour. Not sure which is worse scared Tories or angry ROW.
Martin: thanks for your input your views are always welcome even if we don’t always agree.
I will clarify things in the hope it will stop you from wandering off into the realms of irrelevance.
Cheshire Police, the Police and Crime Commissioner, Esther McVey MP, Cheshire Highways, Wilmslow's Cheshire East Councillors and Wilmslow Town Council all say yellow lines should be put on Alderley Road ASAP. Both for safety reasons (something you lightly dismiss) and for the traffic congestion the parking causes there.
However, it has not happened because Conservative run Cheshire East is totally incompetent. So, a concerned citizen decided to act instead and put cones out to make the area safe. They did not benefit from their action, so it was done only for the benefit of the town. Yes, they committed a very minor traffic offence but they could easily of saved a child's life. The fact the cones have not been removed shows the above authorities all tacitly support this person's actions.
The Conservatives though, having caused the problem have lied that they fixed it. They did not. I find that very concerning. You don't. The voters can decide who of us is right.
Instead you seem to want to raise a posse to track down the criminal behind the cones and bring them to justice to avoid anarchy. I think we should thank them for their public benevolence instead.
Now, does that mean everyone can do the same? No, because other roads do not have the universal support for yellow lines on grounds of safety and congestion to a major town thoroughfare.
Therefore, I hope this makes things clear. Perhaps, you can now dig deep to add some common sense to this debate instead of straining to manufacture political points against RoW.
PS Cllr Menlove.
I am still waiting for you to tell Wilmslow that the Conservatives are not liars and
actually did put out the cones as they stated. Your silence though says everything.