"Icklesham Parish Council has been considering if it should turn off footway lights in Winchelsea from 12 midnight to 5.30am for some time now. If this were to be done it would save energy costs and reduce the Parish Council's carbon footprint. But opinion varies as to whether the saving was outweighed by possible safety and security issues.
"Even the 'experts' the Parish Council
consulted were not sure if this would have any impact on crime and personal
safety. A survey carried out in 2011 was considered inconclusive so the Parish
Council decided to conduct its own poll to find out, hopefully, more clearly
what residents wanted. A few residents were proposing to call for a formal
parish poll so the decision was made by the Parish Council to conduct its own
'local poll' based on the principles of a formal parish poll.
"The poll was arranged for 30 August
2012 and Rother District Council helped by providing a ballot box and set of
polling booths. A flyer was delivered by the Parish Clerk to every home in the
Ward of Winchelsea giving details of the poll and encouraging people to vote.
Notices were also posted up and two weeks clear notice was given before the
poll was conducted. In line with a formal parish poll only those registered to
vote in a local election were asked to express an opinion.
"The poll was held from 4pm to 9pm at
the Court Hall, Winchelsea, which again is similar to the times used for a
formal parish poll with the Clerk and Deputy Clerk presiding over proceedings.
113 of the 401 registered electors turned out to vote (28% turnout) and, of
those voting, 63 said they did not want the footway lights turned off. Given
the result, the Parish Council has decided it will not turn the lights off and
the matter has now been finally settled."
As readers of this blog will realise, there is a great deal of spin here (to put it politely).
1 The parish council consulted no "experts". The local police were
asked but they are not experts (thus, their equivocal answer).
2 The article says, "A
survey carried out in 2011 was considered inconclusive so the Parish Council
decided to conduct its own poll to find out, hopefully, more clearly what
residents wanted." The implication is that the survey was some casual exercise conducted by a body other than the parish council. But it was entirely a parish council exercise. In this survey, there was a clear majority in favouring of turning
off the footlights but the result by the council because those who lost were "unhappy" with the result (to quote the chairman of the council), criticism of the conduct of the exercise, defamatory claims by Jurat John Spencer that Cllr Comotto had entered a vote by his underage daughter and because it was claimed that a turnout of 24% too low. The turnout in the latest poll was announced as 28%. But,
as the parish council could not confirm who was a registered voter, it asked
voters to confirm that they were, and only 26% did so. But 28% or 26% is
insignificantly different from 24%. After the 2011 survey, the council deferred
the matter to the Annual Parish Assembly. This voted to turnout the lights, but
the council decided to go for a third ballot.3 The third ballot has been heavily criticised for giving only two weeks notice, being held in the August holiday period, not being able to confirm that voters were eligible, excluding the disabled and not offering postal votes for those on holiday or the 20% of second home owners. Many felt that all residents should have been eligible to vote.
It is definitely
not the end of the saga.
RC
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