Although it is tempting to crow about national politics right now, I want to use this column to focus on an issue literally close to my heart.
That’s the state of Shaftesbury’s high street.
Before all non-Shastonians turn the page, stick with me please. What the town is going through and the lack of action on the issue from Dorset councillors should strike a note of concern all through the vale.
As you may be aware, the Shaftesbury high street is really struggling. There have been nearly a dozen shop closures this year. Whilst the town thrived during the Covid-enforced pedestrianisation, trade has collapsed since this ended last summer.
The town council voted in favour of permanent pedestrianisation in June 2021. Like many residents, I wanted to know why nothing has happened on the matter since. So, I sent a Freedom of Information request (an FOI) to Dorset council to ask them what meetings the person responsible for Highways, Travel and Environment, Councillor Ray Bryan, had on the matter since June 2021.
The answer? No meetings on pedestrianisation. And therefore – unsurprisingly – no action.
What is interesting, though, is that Councillor Bryan did have three meetings on the town’s Thursday market between August and November 2021. Yet he didn’t invite either the Shaftesbury Mayor, Councillor Brown, or the town’s two Dorset Councillors Cook and Beer. Curiously, the meetings were attended by councillors from Blandford and Purbeck. He even held one of the meetings in Shaftesbury and didn’t invite anyone from the town.
What we are seeing here is local democracy failing. It’s often been suspected that the unitary administration out of Dorchester has little time for what town and parish councils have to say. We have proof of that now. Not just in the FOI response, but in the inaction concerning the number of shops closing on the high street, and the deferral of any further consultation until the summer of next year.
Other towns and parishes should take note. Don’t expect Dorset Council to act on anything you vote for.
Criticism is not just reserved for the Tory administration in Dorchester though. What have the Lib Dem county councillors achieved on the issue, on behalf of the town they represent? By the looks of it, they’ve not even secured a meeting with Councillor Bryan.
Labour is committed to handing real and lasting economic and political devolution across our towns, communities and to people across the country.
And we would at least be banging the door down in Dorchester to make sure we got a meeting.
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