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.