By Hook or Crook
It's that season when the first cuckoos call. And sweet-talking people one hasn't seen for a year appear on the doorstep, smile charmingly, decry their rivals and promise the Earth. These are candidates of the political parties seeking a leg up the Greasy Pole of Politics. Then they disappear for another year, or more. I've become cynical about their adversarial approach, which divides the community rather than uniting it.
I am not alone.
I moved to this area years ago to find that here was another group, civic and not party-political in nature, that not only vests effort in the interests of the community as a whole, but actually consults us many times throughout the year to see what we want, and acts in our support. It has a long record of very substantial achievement for the locality. Successful conservation against adverse - often major - development interests such as links to Heathrow across the commons of Weston Green or monster supermarkets on Giggs Hill Green. Securing positive evolution of the former industrial sites of AC Cars and the MMB. Campaigning to retain our small shops. The Residents' Association also shows commendable energy in nurturing a spirit of community in these villages.
Unlike some such associations in more distant parts, this one has teeth. Over decades it has found the politicians to be unreliable in defence of local amenities and pursuit of civic concerns. So it puts to you candidates for the Councils, and gets your adopted candidates elected: seasoned people, chosen on merit not party, with a record of real service to our community, able to devote time to representing us properly. What's more, they have to be persuaded to stand. They don't thrust themselves forward egoistically. I think that's a good sign. The Residents' Association has no national structure, nor wants one, so there's no question of political careerism. It adheres strongly to a non-party-political ethos although recent legal requirements mean it must register with the Electoral Commission to continue to back your candidates.
The Association is for everyone. It doesn't ask what political party you favour. It doesn't carry ideological baggage. It is inclusive. It doesn't promote one narrow set of interests, and devil take the others. It's staffed voluntarily by people like you and transparently funded by you, and retains the wherewithal for the next time you want to fight off some new unwelcome threat to the amenities of Weston Green or Thames Ditton from an unheeding developer or the Government. Its growing membership of more than a thousand households, its active volunteers numbering well over a hundred, its magazine and website, are the envy of the politicians who therefore try to do it down.
The local Councils don't always decide things as you or I want, but we have a real voice. The Association keeps you informed, and offers you full, frequent consultation in working hard for love of these villages. It's democratic. Open. Treats you with respect. That's why I set aside cynicism and am happy to help.
Keith Evetts