I attended (OK - helped organise) our Melksham and Devizes Parliamentary Hustings on Wednesday evening, with a climate and nature theme. I am not associated with any political party - will (and do) work with any, so may be considered to be a floating voter. I have a strong interest, and some knowledge, of transport, which accounts for around a quarter of CO2 emissions in the UK and emissions in that sector are stubbornly not falling, and asked a question on that topic. How will I vote? Scroll down to the end of this article to find out.

Candidates:
Jump to Labour
Jump to Green
Jump to Liberal Democrat
Jump to Reform UK
Jump to Conservative

And also:
Jump to Conservative Record
Jump to and to conclude


We have five candidates. Here are their answers / approaches (with my comments) on them, starting with those present in the room.

Labour, for whom we were joined by Kerry Postlewhite. Kerry started on transport by telling us of picking up a friend from Belgium who arrives at Swindon Station, and how that friend was shocked at the car park full of cars there, where in Belgium it would be full of bicycles. Agreed but how, Kerry, would / will a Labour government encourage / make us make the transition? She also spoke of Melksham Station, and how people travel to other stations in the area because the local service there is so poor. Sadly, I agree. Policy: Buses are uncool and should be made cool. Buses and public transport don't run at all times they are wanter and are expensive. Take rail back into public ownership. Melksham trains "always late". Reference to Louie Haigh document.

Green, for whom our candidate is Catherine Read. I had met Catherine previously at our ClimateFest, and I admire and cherish the Green presence of Caroline Lucas that we've had in parliament - not necessarily agreeing with some of the more general left wing policies, but delighted that they are expressed and promoted to a degree in parliament. Policy: Make public transport easier and cheaper. Bring back buses that have been cut locally, and there is is not enough public transport. Under 18s go free. Invest £10 billion. Rapid electrification and reopening of stations. Safe streets.

Liberal Democrat for whom Brian Mathew is standing for parliament. Of the three candidates present, I knew Brian the least. I was not his liaison person for the event, and although the name was familiar our paths hadn't crossed prior to the evening. So let me say that I am relieved at how Brian came across, his manner, his experience, and his good knowledge on the subjects that came up. Policy: Keep £2 bus fare. Cheaper to South West. Electrification. Intro grants. 2030 zero for transport. More money any authority to spend locally. Simplify tickets. More station re-openings on existing current main lines (mention Devizes). Make bus franchising easier.

Reform UK - not present and I have no prior experience of them. But I have been in direct correspondence with our candidate, who sent his apologies. He had prior appointments for all three dates we were able to offer, and they checked out and were no doubt a genuine part of a program. Policy ... ... He sent a statement which I read out to the meeting and in it he spoke of scrapping net zero on the basis of "what difference can the UK make" - while making a point of not denying climate change. The general statement did not reference transport [fair enough - wasn't asked to]; looking through the party's headline policies, I see they want to cancel net zero, and also cancel the remaining section of HS2. I have got on well enough in exchanges with Malcolm Cupis - as a person happy to sit down with him over a pint, but his views including many wider topics than transport are such that I could not personally vote for him.

Conservative - not present. Michelle Donelan has represented Melksham in parliament, as part of the Chippenham Constituency, for nine years and I know her on a "business" level and work with / to inform her on public transport matters. She (and her team) have been responsive locally, and as a constituency MP - especially over the last year - she has been very visible indeed. I will confess to having misgivings as to whether certain things said by/for Michelle, while true, are misleading. That's not just a one-off; an example is her apology for not being able to make the hustings where she writes "Due to the snap election and the very short time frame between now and the election - I am already fully booked up with hustings right across our area" - odd really, as there were only two hustings in the area, taking the electoral commission's definition of a hustings as "Hustings. A hustings is a meeting where election candidates or parties debate policies and answer questions from the audience". Michelle has been very visible meeting with people and asking for their votes and was probably out doing so on Wednesday evening - and that might be considered "husting" people by debating people on their own doorsteps and answering questions from them. I can understand why she may find that a more effective way of increasing her vote, but her explanation just felt dishonest to me.

Policy ... So what can I tell you about Michelle and the conservative's policies on transport? Well - I can look at what the government has done and past record in the absence of big headline policy changes proposed.

As I write this, a promotional video for Michelle popped up ... "Don't trust me for what I say - judge me for what I have done". So these are the sort of things she wants to be judged on ...

Recent years with Michelle

Bradford-on-Avon to London trains. Popular / useful / busy / low cost services lost in spite of a petition with 6572 signatures asking for it to be retained. London travel now involves a change of trains and usually a long wait. Ironically, 18 months after the service was withdrawn to "remove duplication", extra trains were added back in to the paths occupied by GWR, except that they just miss the London connection at Salisbury. Broken for no gain - why? At the time, Michelle wrote to me that she had gone to see the minister and had spoken with him about it. Nothing in what she wrote convinced me that she had made a strong case, and in hindsight it's quite possible that she and the minister agreed that the problem would blow over long before the next election.

£2 bus fare. Yes, this is a good one. Hugely sensible to be encouraging people to use the bus, with fares slashed temporarily to market buses to people after covid, and now extended until December (i.e. after the election). £6 down to £2, Melksham to Devizes single, makes a huge difference. I think I saw a manifesto (or other) promise to extend the £2 for at leat 5 years, and stable public transport pricing (as seen Bristol to Avonmouth and Severn Beach rail line) has made a huge positive difference there. More of this needed.

Rail Franchising and government micro-control of the railway. Rail use has doubled since privatisation and franchising - arguable whether it was the right approach or not, but commonly accepted that significant changes are needed - wheel out the William report and Great British Railways which feel like they have been going on for ever. And in the interim, the Department for Transport has been micromanaging the rail system to the intense frustration of the professionals - "can't let the experts use their expertise"? That said, financial support through Covid gratefully received. Industrial relations have been abysmal, with the passenger feeling, perhaps, like a punchbag between government and unions, at the long term expense of damage to use and development of a rail system fit for the 21st Century.

Open Access rail operations - trains run commercially to fill network gaps - run on the east coast but not at present in our area, although there has been a proposal around for a decade to run Open Access through and serving Melksham. Tory proposal "big" the retention and perhaps growth of Open Access, but I have never seen or heard Michelle comment on it locally. It could make a huge difference at Melksham - positive or negative depending on how it's done

Fare System. Generally acknowledged as being too complex for purpose, and high fares; the proportion of rail costs paid for by the passenger in the UK, and the need for ever-more safety and red tape hasn't helped. And all parties know that simplifying the fare system while maintaining income levels on same passenger levels would result in winners and losers, with winners quickly forgetting and losers remembering at the next election.

Melksham station progress. When Duncan Hames was our MP, services stepped up from 2 to 8 each way per day, and as a result passenger journeys rose from 3,000 to 75,000 per annum. And there it has stuck. Technical work suggests that a service of 16 reliable trains per day would bring passenger numbers up to around 250,000 per annum; as it is, we are now up to 9 (7 at the weekend) and that is too thin for most people. Disappointing that during Michelle's time and with the local Community Rail Partnership having an absolute majority of Tory current and past Unitary councillors on its board that service remain as poor as they do.

BBB - Boris's "Bus Back Better" was / is a wonderful review post-covid. Huge amounts of hard work put in locally - what a pity that it was bid funding and for high profile new stuff. Initial bids - shire counties in the Western Gateway got nothing for all that work ... WECA got £100 million and have spent a lot on WestLink demand responsive transport for three years with many teething problems reported and a difficult future to see.

New stations - Corsham and Devizes - in her old constituency that included Corsham, Michelle has been promoting a re-opening of the station in Corsham. Very popular, but it hasn't happened and there seems little immediate prospect. In Devizes, in the new constituency, there is logic for a "Gateway" station 2 miles from the town on the main West of England line, though the business case for that has just failed.

Electrification - was supposed to have been completed through Chippenham to Bath and Bristol and a lot of money spent on scheme that's been stopped. No electric trains or buses in the Melksham and Devizes Constituency, and no suggestion that a conservative government would electrify any railways here during its next term. Still all diesel, including the heavy freight that pass through and where a real difference could be made.

Reliability - trains, awful, Melksham over 10% cancellation where 2% should be the absolute limit. Lack of staff, lack of working trains. Both issues utterly frustrating to rail management, and IMHO the failure can be largely laid at the feet of the government in which Michelle has been a minister.

Fuel Duty - how ungreen (and populist) to freeze fuel duty in successive budgets and keep stepping up rail fares. Hardly going to help the climate, but it will help maintain the votes of those wealthy enough to afford a private vehicle.

Town Bus - service halved during this parliament, and just re-tendered at what was the "temporary" covid level. Looking very personally at the stop outside my home, around 20 town bus service a day down to 5. And many are empty because it's no longer a service that runs when people want it, nor does it actually connect with (for example) the train or go to the Campus. It goes to the supermarkets, which these days are doing a lot of their business through home delivery

HS2 - continuing with the southern section and cancelling the northern section - a disjointed decision that for the most part gives us the worst of both worlds.

None of these are easy matters, but Michelle does ask us to judge her on her record, and her lack of availability on any date for the hustings has left me with just her statement and that record.

---

And to conclude

You can watch back the hustings and hear all five statements at
https://www.facebook.com/noel.woolrych/videos/1013704943601722?idorvanity=1589423811847101
also at https://youtu.be/AlyV1nwOvNA?si=uXeqRD_hj4KZ9mD8 if you're not a fan of Facebook


I said at the start of this article I would tell you how I am voting. It's a slight cheat, isn't it, to tell you that I have a postal vote that will be going off tomorrow (Saturday) morning to arrive in good time for next Thursday.

As to which candidate to select, I wish I could mix and match policies and personalities. And I wish I could first and foremost vote for whoever I felt would do the best job, even if that person has no realistic chance of being elected in Melksham, and my vote for [him/her] takes what could be a key vote away from a second choice who has better prospects. I am also aware that it making my decision, I've never met one candidate, have little more that proposals and talk fro three more, and I have deep experience of living in the constituency of the final one, who has been busy for this past year (prior to purdah) paid from the public purse to fulfil her role, which has included being paid to look after her constituency. These factors are far from unique to Melksham; all over the UK they make for a very unlevel playing field. And I then have to guess as to the nationwide result and perhaps consider how we will do hear if our MP is part of the government party, part of the official opposition, part (perhaps) of a coalition if no-one gets and absolute majority, or part of a minority party or grouping.

Unlike so much publicity I see around, I am not suggesting who you vote for. I AM suggesting you vote, and you give serious thought to your vote and cast it with seriousness and care. If it turns out you get the person you wanted as MP, good news for you and the more votes that person has the stronger place they will be in. If the candidate that the vote for does NOT get elected, it is not a wasted vote. That person has your support, and a strength in numbers to carry on within the community with the good work they do.

I could work with any of the four candidates I have met in my community area of interest and look forward to doing so positively into the future. The environment is key to me and within that transport in many ways - be it carbon emissions directly, or by providing better, cleaner, healthier, more efficient ways to get around if, indeed, we need to get around as much.

I will leave with some thoughts of things that did not crop up on Wednesday evening, but may well in the next decade, and I wonder about the position each candidate would take on them.

* Ride Sharing - less than a third of car seats are used - inefficient or what?

* Electric Scooters are illegal in Melksham - and the most friendly powered transport mode that there is.

* Carrots are needed to help encourage the best use of mass/public transport with integrated information, fares and network, and with reliability that has been lacking. Going where people want, when people want, at a price that can be afforded.

* Railway and bus electrification is "obvious" - but electricity is just a means of transmission of power and we have to ensure it comes from sustainable.

* Did anyone mention the Lime Farm solar farm, or the Melksham Bypass?

This time next week, we should have some idea of the shape of our new government and whether our prime minister is Rishi Sunak, Keir Starmer, Ed Davey or Nigel Farage, or if we are in for a period of horse trading to go between them to establish a government. And we should know if Michelle, Brian, Kerry, Catherine or Malcolm represents us in parliament. That will, perhaps, be time for a further update.

Jump to Article Top