That was quite a day!

Well, it has been an exciting day for the Conservatives in the Council Elections, right the way across the country. We’ve overturned hundreds of Labour and LibDem majorities, and taken control of more than half a dozen more councils.

Unfortunately, we didn’t manage to win in Kings Hedges but I’d like to thank everyone who took the trouble to go out and vote for me. We’re neck-and-neck with Labour now, and I’m very proud of what we’ve managed to achieve.

Even more importantly, we’ve now moved up into second place in terms of the votes cast right across the City. With your help, we’ll be able to build on that and really change things next time around. You deserve a voice in Cambridge’s government, and there’s no better place to make that happen than here in Kings Hedges.

It has been a privilege to meet so many of you over the past few weeks. I look forward to seeing you again, hearing your ideas, and persuading you to come out and help us to take the next steps on this journey.

The signs are all there!

Even the park & ride signs are encouraging us to go and vote.

You can also hear (excerpts from) an interview I did with 209radio here.

Tomorrow

So, election day is nearly upon us.

In Westminster, the government continues to descend into chaos.

But! I hope that won’t put you off going out to vote in the local and Euro elections. It is even more important that we all go and make ourselves heard. The County Council has a significant budget, and our schools, roads and social services are all dealt with at County level.

For too long, the City of Cambridge hasn’t had an effective voice. The Conservative team has been doing a great job, improving services and getting national recognition for it, but it will be that much better if we have one or two or three (or more!) representatives from the City too.

Don’t let people take your votes for granted. And don’t stay at home!

If you come out tomorrow and lend me your vote, I’ll do my best to make sure the issues you’ve been bringing forward get the attention they deserve.

Thanks for all your kind words over the past few weeks (especially those of you who might consider helping the Conservative team a bit more over the next few months and years; you’ll be hearing from me soon.) However the election goes, there’s a lot of work for us to do in Kings Hedges.

Let’s make June 4th 2009 the day we start to vote for change.

Bins…

The issue of bin collections has come up on the doorstep again…quite literally! The alternating fortnightly bin collection has not been a complete disaster. And once we get proper bins to replace the boxes that cause us to accidentally litter our own streets, there’s a clear benefit to the recycling scheme (notwithstanding the problems residents have had with the relocation of those recycling centres).

It doesn’t take much of a walk round, though, and a chat to people, to realise that the fortnightly collection of the green bins works just fine if you’ve got a garden, and perhaps room for a composter. If you’re living in a flat or a smaller property, the bin is on the little piece of ground at the front door; people rightly complain that the smell is awful, and the flies are worse, after only a couple of weeks of summer weather.

I think we need to get together and rethink this. We need a scheme that will work for everyone, that we can afford, and that won’t discourage recycling. It may be that we just need to look at the schedules and frequencies of the different types of collection.

I know this comes up for discussion regularly, and I’d welcome your ideas.

It must be election time…

…because we’ve just received another of those highly misleading graphs that show you that “X or Y can’t win”.

Don’t forget, the only way you can be sure of getting a Conservative at the Council or Euro elections is to vote for your Conservative candidate.

In the Euro election, the (rather peculiar) PR system means that every single vote has to count if we’re to get as many as Conservatives elected as possible; and the more Conservative MEPs we have in Brussels, the more chance we’ve got of implementing some of the same kind of reform we need over here in Britain, over there in Europe.

And in the County Council elections, there are only ever a few hundred votes in it, either way. We might have been in 3rd place in Kings Hedges last time, but if only a couple of hundred people switch, we’ll win through!

I know you probably don’t feel much like lending your support to politicians of any kind at the moment, but don’t let recent events get in your way.

Take a walk down to the polling station on Thursday, and put a cross in the box. It is only a small thing, but you have the power to change the way our whole country is governed; here in Kings Hedges, in Cambridge, in Europe, and eventually in Westminster.

And don’t let anyone tell you that you can’t win! Together, we can change things.

More on cycling

I had an opportunity to comment on some questions from the Cambridge Cycling Campaign. Although I don’t agree with absolutely everything they suggest, I think they do a lot to promote responsible cycling in our City.

You can read my comments, and those of the other candidates that have replied, here.

On a related note, I see that the Labour Party are still claiming that we support the Congestion Charge (rather than the more subtle but interesting point that the County Council are being held to ransom by the Government on this issue).

If you see the Conservative team out in the City Centre, don’t forget to sign the petition, if you don’t want to see this unfair tax introduced.

Parking and people

If you think that there isn’t much in the way of space for car parking where you live, then you’re not alone!

One thing you notice when you walk around Kings Hedges is that most of the new building has woefully inadequate parking; people end up putting their cars on verges (where there are any) or across the pavement – not because they want to, but because they have nowhere else to go. And woe betide you if you should have the misfortune to have guests!

This is inconvenient for pedestrians like me, and downright dangerous for children and those who have difficulty walking, or are in wheelchairs. Not to mention people with prams and pushchairs (who suffer from the same accessibility problems, and are often forgotten).

Believe it or not, it turns out that a lot of new developments are actually planned this way, in a somewhat misguided attempt at social engineering. They seem to think that if there aren’t any car parking spaces, the cars will miraculously disappear!

I don’t own a car myself, and I depend on good public transport, but even then I can see that this is another of those ideas that seems great in a planning meeting, but falls flat when real people come into the equation.

Out and about in the sunshine

It is definitely easier to get out and deliver some newsletters when it is a beautiful sunny evening. If you’re one of the people who’s been kind enough to chat to me on the way around, then thanks very much indeed – it is really useful to know what’s on your mind.

One issue that’s come up several times is the problem with vandalism of our recycling facilities. This has become even more of an issue for residents since they were moved from their previous location near the pub.

The City Council have promised to do something about it; which is good, not least because it is costing us tens of thousands of pounds that would be much  better spent elsewhere. As part of that, the police are “considering” using mobile CCTV to see if they can catch the culprits.

Your Conservative team will try and keep the pressure on to make sure that this gets resolved.

Meanwhile, if you spot anyone vandalising our community facilities, then you can help to stop it by calling the City Council team on 01223 457532, or Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.

Westminster and the June 4th elections

The unfolding events in Westminster make most of us angry, disappointed and frustrated in pretty much equal measure. Even though most people would agree that David Cameron is personally taking a lead on cleaning up the Westminster system, the behaviour of some MPs from all parties certainly doesn’t help those of us trying to make a difference at the local or European level.

This afternoon, though, it has all been brought into focus for me by the fact that I’ve had a BNP leaflet stuck through my letterbox.

Even if you want to register a protest against the behaviour of MPs at Westminster, I would ask that you do not do so by voting for a party that represents a racist, violent past of which most people are rightly ashamed.

Our political, social and parliamentary problems will not be cured by singling out one or more groups of people based on the colour of their skin, and using them as scapegoats, as the BNP consistently ask us to do.

We are better than that.

We know that we have many practical problems with the way we manage our economy, our public services and our relationship with our European and Global partners.

But we have always stood up for the vulnerable, the rights of the individual and personal responsibility, regardless of our religion, the colour of our skin, or the country in which our ancestors were born.

I would, of course, hope that you would vote for your Conservative candidates, and help us to kick off a much needed change in our politics; first in Kings Hedges, in the European Parliament and then in Westminster.

If you do not agree with our approach, then take a look at the other parties, and see who has the positive policies that you think will take us forward.

But please, don’t vote for people that offer nothing but negativity, division and intolerance.

We can do better than that.

Cyclists - take care out there!

I've just received the latest newsletter from the Cambridgeshire police, and it seems that there has been a spate of bike crime in the last few weeks, so be sure to lock up your bikes properly (and out of sight, even if they're on your own property).

If you haven't already, you should also get your bike marked with a security code, so that it can be returned to you if it is recovered.

I had a friend who had his bike stolen the first week he arrived in Cambridge, the day after he had it marked. It was ultimately recovered from the Cam and returned to him several years later, in the same week that he discovered his job was taking him away to Wales (and he didn't fancy riding up and down the mountains). So you can't guarantee that it'll be useful, but it certainly increases the chances of you getting your property back if it is stolen!

There's a lot of other useful information on cycling in Cambridge here.

If you want to get information and updates from Cambridgeshire police yourself, you can subscribe to their email newsletter here.

Welcome

Hello, and thanks for stopping by my new blog.

My name is Matthew Adams and I'm the Conservative candidate for Kings Hedges in the upcoming county council elections.

I've lived and worked in Kings Hedges for the last 11 years, and, together with my partner Una, we've been in Cambridge for nearly 18 years now. I've founded a couple of local technology businesses, and for my day job I create software that helps doctors to manage the care they give to patients with long term chronic illnesses like cancer and heart disease. If a problem looks really, really difficult, but solving it could have enormous impact on the health and quality of life of millions of people, that's the kind of thing I like to get stuck in to!

Over the past few years, I've become increasingly concerned about the way things are going in our country, and their impact on our City in particular. What brought me back to the Conservatives, though, was not so much a negative response to Gordon Brown, and Labour's terrible incompetence, but David Cameron's energetic leadership of a reinvigorated Conservative Party.

I've been especially impressed by the way in which he has faced up to the consequences of Labour's economic mismanagement. He's taken some difficult decisions in the face of strong criticism from the press, and been proven right more often than not. Not every time, of course; it would be a rare person indeed who was right all of the time; but on those occasions when he has made a mistake, he's seemed to me to have been willing to face up to it, listen to criticism, and to steer the right course in the face of fast-moving global events. That seems to be an all-too-rare quality in politics today.

That said, politicians of all parties often seem to me to forget that those global events that make the headlines every day have real local significance. In Kings Hedges, we're one of the most diverse communities in the whole of our region; people with good jobs in a vibrant local business community live and work side-by-side with others who need real help to overcome hardship and inequity.

As Gordon Brown's recession bites deeper, Cambridge is fighting hard to buck the trend; but everyone is feeling the pinch, and we need to do all we can to help each other through the difficult times, and to prepare for the future.

There's a lot for us to do in Kings Hedges: from making sure our public transport is available and affordable to everyone (you'll see me on the Citi4 most days!), to road traffic safety, especially around our schools. For those who do drive, or work in city-centre businesses, the congestion charge being foisted on us by the Labour government is something else I know people feel strongly about, and we're campaigning hard on that; and, of course, the problems with the A14 affect many of us every day.

I want to do my bit to make sure that the people in government - City, County and Westminster - are doing all they can to help protect our jobs, spend our taxes wisely and help the businesses and entrepreneurs in our region to create more, new and better jobs even in the present circumstances. I know what it feels like to lose your job, and how difficult and embarassing it can be to have to ask for the help to which you're entitled - even if you know where to go; so I want to do everything I can to make sure that everyone has access to the help they need.

Cambridgeshire County Council is actually doing a pretty good job already - as you'd expect from a Tory council. I hope! The Audit Commission, which is the Government's watchdog for these things, recently recognized it as the most improved in the country, but that doesn't mean to say that there isn't more we can do to help the vulnerable, provide for our children's education and protect the environment - and to do as much as we can without spending more than we can afford.

Now, I'm only just getting started with this whole business, and I'll need your help too. If there's anything that's worrying you, or that you think I should be doing something about - or if you've just got a good idea for how we can improve our community, feel free to leave a comment, or email me on matthew.adams.kingshedges@googlemail.com.