Political Viewpoint

BY James Miller Leader of Southend’s Confelicity Party.

With the Leigh By-Election Coming Up: What Does Confelicity Offer the Residents of Leigh and Southend?

With the Leigh by-election coming up, I thought it would be the perfect opportunity to talk about Confelicity and what we offer the residents of Leigh and Southend.

I would start by saying that we are neither right-wing nor left-wing. We have members ranging from former Greens to former Reform supporters, and they continue to hold those views. So, the question is: how does that work?

Well, the easy answer is that we are a vote-by-issue party. Anything we cannot agree on remains a matter for individual members, who are free to continue believing and expressing their views as they wish.

The key point of difference is that we focus primarily on how local and national policies impact local people in Southend, and we look to do something about it.

As we approach our fifth birthday, I am proud to say that we have made a difference in a number of areas. Saving Southend’s Green Belt stands out as an issue in which we have been integrally involved in a cross-party campaign that is still ongoing.

Confelicity has pledged never to build on the Green Belt. As much as the Government wants to use every mechanism and law at its disposal to bully Southend and the country into submission, we will continue to resist at every turn.

It is quite wonderful that the Conservatives, Greens, Reform, and many non-aligned Independents feel the same way and are making great strides to defend us against the Labour, Liberal Democrat and Independent Group administration’s incessant desire to concrete over the whole town.

We are currently campaigning to save Southchurch Library from the administration’s plans to demolish it. Their argument is that it is economically unviable and that moving the service provision into Southend Adult College solves that problem.

You wouldn’t believe how many issues have emerged from this library!

Firstly, the principle of moving libraries and using their buildings or land for other purposes means that every library in Southend is potentially under threat. To clarify my point, I am not saying that this administration has earmarked any other libraries, but the question is: if they have done it at Southchurch, why wouldn’t they do it elsewhere?

The other major issue that has emerged is the eye-watering estimates for repairing the building. According to the 2023 Condition Report, it will cost £30,000 to replace a few fluorescent lights with LEDs; £30,000 to fix six slabs of pavement; £20,000 to replace a few fire doors; and £75,000 to repair a roof that has only recently been repaired!

Either the estimates were deliberately inflated to sell the story that the building was effectively a write-off, enabling the provision to be moved and the land used for something we don’t yet know about, or the council is being severely ripped off.

To compound the problem, the public consultation omitted Option 1, which was to rebuild the library. How can you run a legitimate consultation if you don’t give residents the opportunity to select their preferred option?

As a result, numerous questionable and potentially defamatory comments have been made throughout this saga, alongside some blatant mistruths.

One example was a Cabinet member stating that they were saving Southchurch Library by moving it into Ambleside College. They then retracted this statement 30 minutes later, claiming it was a “typo.”

The campaign to save Southchurch Library continues, with the next protest arranged for Tuesday, December 1st, at 5.30 pm outside the library.

With such highly questionable repair estimates, we have also started the “Show Me the Money” campaign.

We keep being told that we have no money, but I can assure you that we do. The question is more about how our money is being spent.

The council currently only publishes details of spending above £500, despite the Government recommending a threshold of £250. In truth, we should know about everything, and I have submitted an e-petition calling for this to be changed.

Did you know that more than £8 million worth of payments made by the council have been redacted?

While I respect GDPR legislation, there must be more that can be done to help us understand why such a large amount of spending has been redacted. When you go through the figures, some companies are receiving enormous sums of money, yet there is very little detail explaining why.

Confelicity is currently developing an independent website where residents will be able to search council spending and see market-price comparisons.

The naysayers will immediately scream that it is impossible to do. However, it is time we stopped swallowing £30,000 price tags for LED lights!

We are paying more than ever for less than ever – lest we forget our fortnightly bin collections.

Our council tax has increased by the full 4.99% almost every year for the last ten years. Given that this is a compounded figure, the overall increase is significantly greater than the annual figure suggests.

Our candidate, Tyler Tobin, is young, intelligent, locally minded and passionate about Leigh and Southend.

If you want a local democratic party that takes every issue seriously, and a councillor who is ready to put in the work, then the Southend Confelicity Party may be the party for you.

Picture: James Miller.

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