West Devon Borough Council Election 4th May 1995
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Roger Mathew's Election Address
May 1995

In 1987, you first elected me to the Town Council. In 1991, you re-elected me, and also elected me to the Borough Council. To help you decide whether you want me on the council for another term, here are some of the things I have done. I have:

• Continued my vigorous campaign against the County’s plan to close Brook Street to shoppers’ traffic and remove parking from Bedford Square. With the support of most of the Tavistock Members, I have been successful in changing some of these plans for the better, but the battle continues.
  
• Brought about major repairs to the decaying fabric of the Town Council’s heritage properties. This has been the largest single project ever undertaken by a third-tier council.
  
• Served on the Borough Council’s Information Technology Management Group, a key feature of the council’s ability to deliver outstanding value for money in providing effective services for the people of West Devon. I chaired part of the first Teleworking Conference in Devon and continue to work towards establishing a teleworking initiative in West Devon to bring high quality jobs into the borough.
  
• Strongly supported the controversial case for a supermarket at Crowndale, which promised extensive sporting facilities for the town and borough at virtually no cost to the taxpayer. Sadly, I was not supported by enough borough councillors to bring this about at a single stroke, but we now have a supermarket at Brook, and I am still hopeful of bringing about the Crowndale sports facility by other means.
  
• Fought resolutely against further politicisation of the Borough Council. I formed an Independent Members’ Group to prevent undue influence by party political zealots, and have spoken out to expose political manipulation whenever I have seen it. Are you fed up with politics? See overleaf.
  

If you want me to continue this work, please vote MATHEW for Tavistock Town and West Devon Borough Councils on 4th May.

Published by R W Mathew, Willowby, Down Road, Tavistock, Devon

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FED UP WITH POLITICS?

Join the club! Political parties want to use your local councils as a political campaigning platform. West Devon Council is Independent, with roughly equal numbers of broadly left-wing and broadly right-wing members. As a result, it has:

• always kept within spending guidelines (keeping your Rates/Community Charge/Council Tax as low as possible);
• never had to cut services.

Don’t take my word for it. Look for yourselves. Have you noticed the huge number of fairly minor, but very disruptive road-digging schemes, like the awful chicane in Horrabridge, forced through by a LibDem Borough Councillor, that have sprung up all over Devon in the last month or two? Ask yourselves how many of these are really essential. Could they be using up spare money which ought to have been given to schools? On 16 February, the controlling (Lib/Lab) group at County Hall voted AGAINST taking £1-million from the minor highways budget and £3-million from other discretionary activities to give to schools. That’s a FACT, and a matter of public record. Now they will use the education crisis which they have themselves engineered as a major part of their campaign to gain votes.

Independent councils, like West Devon, achieve things quietly, and reject politically-motivated tactics.

And Finally ...

Both LibDem and Labour Groups will pedestrianise Tavistock and remove parking from Bedford Square: first Brook Street, then West Street, then Bedford Square. NONE of the sitting Independent councillors have supported this. If you want to keep Tavistock free for shoppers’ traffic

Vote Independent - Keep Tavistock Free
Vote Independent - Vote MATHEW
on 4 May 1995

Published by R W Mathew, Willowby, Down Road, Tavistock, Devon

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More of Roger's 1995 election blurb - the Horrabridge chicane.
What actually happened in May 1995.