Tuesday 26 January 2010

LYME MATTERS with Philip Evans







First of the big election hitters

YOU know there’s an election just around the corner when the political parties trot out the Big Hitters.

There was one in town on Friday - Nick Harvey, the Lib Dem’s Shadow defence spokesman. He was accompanied by Dr Sue Farrant, the Lib Dem’s Prospective Parliamentary candidate for West Dorset. They visited the Woodroffe School in the afternoon to speak to sixth formers and then attended a dinner at the Woodmead Halls in the evening.

In between, I was given an hour or so to fire a few questions at the MP for North Devon, a constituency not too dissimilar to our own with low wages and high property prices.

I have interviewed many politicians over the years, the first one ironically being Jeremy Thorpe who once held North Devon for the Liberals before his fall from grace in the Norman Scott affair.

Last year was a bad one for politicians with the expenses scandal having caused more MPs to quit parliament than did in 1945 after the war.

Nick Harvey came through the expenses scandal relatively unscathed (claiming for hanging baskets and Sky TV being his major indiscretions) and he’s much respected by the Libs Dems, having held a number of shadow portfolios before taking on defence in 2006, a role he describes as the “most challenging and interesting” in his political career.

He’s also well respected among the political commentators. “Cerebral and sane” wrote Jonathan Freedland in The Guardian. “Clever, inscrutable and deep” was how The Times sketchwriter, former Tory MP Matthew Parris described him. “Shrewdly sensible” was Andrew Roth’s assessment.

Before interviewing Nick, I sat in on a session he had with Woodroffe sixth formers and they certainly gave him a good grilling. Both Nick and Sue were impressed by their political awareness and bravado in asking the awkward question.

I had a long chat with him about the issues particularly relevant to the West Country, one of them being his concern over the future of the search and rescue helicopter services at Chivenor in his constuituency and also at Portland.

There are plans to bring in commercial contractors in 2012 with a cut in operational hours. This is a subject which should concern the electors of West Dorset as much as it does in North Devon as Culdrose at the far end of Cornwall could end up as our nearest rescue operation for part of the day.

We went on to talk about defence issues, Iraq and Afghanistan, the pain which the next Government will inevitably inflict upon us to get us out of this currrent financial mess - and, of course, the coming general election.

They are gearing up for a May 6th election and believe that West Dorset, where Oliver Letwin has a 2,000 majority, is a winable seat.

“I certainly would not be here today if I did not think we could win it,” admitted Nick. Having served in the Armed Services for five years, Sue Farrant was delighted to bring her party’s Defence expert to the constituency.

A few more Big Hitters are likely to follow in the coming weeks as we endure a marathon run-in to May 6th.


Grahame's made his mark

NEW harbourmaster Grahame Forshaw has certainly made his mark since taking over the job at the end of last summer. He has introdued a number of improvements, including a pontoon which proved to be extremely popular and well used and increasing the number of moorings.

There’s also been a general tidy up around the Cobb and Graham has quickly won the respect of the harbour users.

Mr Forshaw was given the opportunity to outline what has been achieved during the past year and what he wants to do in the future when he was invited to speak at the town council’s Community Plan Implementation Committee.

This is the committee which monitors the progress of Lyme Forward, the blueprint for Lyme for the coming years, to ensure that the town council and Lyme Regis Development Trust are singing from the same hymn book.

At least, I think that’s what its all about but there’s always been some slight confusion over the exact role and purpose of the committee. It started life as a working group but became a committee in its own right, presumably so that it carried a bit more clout.

Some councillors are very sceptical about the CPIC and on occasions show very little interest in what is being said, especially when representatives of outside bodies are invited to speak.

I thought Mr Forshaw’s presentation was excellent - concise, precise, professional and honest. It cleared up a number of points over which there has been some discussion in the town and councillors were left feeling, I hope, that the harbour is in very good hands indeed.

I also liked the way he involved assistant harbour master Mike Higgs in his deliberations and he ended up telling the committee they had the best interests of the harbour at heart and that was good for Lyme.

I’m not sure whether this committee has a future. Without a more enthusiastic approach from councillors one wonders whether it has become just another pointless talking shop?


Eyebrows raised about town clerk's deputy

THERE were a few raised eyebrows in Lyme when the town council announced the appointment of a new deputy town clerk.

“Does a town the size of Lyme need a town clerk and deputy?” was the question being asked.

The new role was created after a thorough review of the council’s staffing structure which coincided with the retirement of the works manager. So there was no increase in staff numbers.
The post was duly advertised and attracted a good calibre of candidate, I am told. Simon Ratcliff, married to a local girl, the former Sam Norris, worked at the Woodroffe School’s St Andrew’s boarding establishment in the late 1980s and took up his new duties at the beginning of the month.

I had the opportunity of interviewing Simon last week and I think he will quickly prove that his role will genuinely play an important part in the the challenging times that Lyme council face in the coming years.

With such strong family ties with Lyme, Simon and his family are delighted to be living in the area again, being part of the community. He is relishing his new role and seems quite capable of dealing with the goldfish bowl that is local politics.

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