We hope everyone had a good Christmas – even if their water had to be trucked into Tesco’s carpark for collection…
Water played a big part in shaping a year that most people would like to put behind them, with lack of it causing wildfires in the hottest summer since 1976, followed by winter weeks of pouring rain, and then snow – but the snow didn’t stop our campaigning in December (see picture)!
Meanwhile, TWBC produced a couple of chestnuts just before Christmas.
Firstly, a Council meeting saw the LibDems lead rejection of the opportunity to change to “all-out” elections every four years, ignoring the public consultation’s 2:1 vote in favour – what happened to “listening”? This shut out the possibility of the Boundary Commission’s current review allowing some 1- and 2-seat Wards to be retained. As a result, illogical Ward splits are likely to be made in Southborough and around Goudhurst , Rusthall will be absorbed into Speldhurst, an arbitrary slice of Paddock Wood will go into Pembury, and large rural Wards will be cobbled together in the east.
Then, a couple of weeks after Levelling Up and Housing Secretary Michael Gove announced new laws that make housing targets “an advisory and non-mandatory starting point” for planning, and not using the Green Belt, TWBC published its Initial Reaction to the Planning Inspector’s initial rejection of the concepts for Tudeley and Paddock Wood with a proposal for months of work to polish the flawed Local Plan, which puts 50% of new houses in the Green Belt – a recipe for more waste, and ultimate disappointment.
Whilst many people will be glad to put 2022 behind them, there are reasons to be cheerful; for a start, neither Boris Johnson nor Liz Truss is Prime Minister any more, and the next General Election is coming closer.
But perhaps the most significant occurrence last year was the growing public awareness that things are not as they should be; there is a sense that our country is falling apart.
Brexit, far from being the promised nirvana, has shrunk incomes and opportunities, and polls show majorities around 56% to 32% in favour of rejoining the EU. After twelve years of the “smaller-state” approach, starting with Con-Dem austerity, we see failures of privatisation in the NHS, the railways and throughout the water system – when the supply fails due to leaks, or when we have to choose carefully which beach to take the children to, in order to avoid sewage outfalls.
The Green Party has long believed that we need a fairer society and economy, as well as solutions for the climate and nature, if we are to thrive as a country, and the social and climatic events of 2022 have made that case even stronger.
There will be an opportunity for people to vote for change in May, when the local elections take place across sixteen Tunbridge Wells Wards.
Meanwhile we send our Best Wishes to everyone for a fairer and Greener year in 2023.