My commitments to you

by adamboyden on 25 April, 2022

When you cast your vote on 5th May, please ask yourself, you will stand up for our community? Since I was first elected to Mendip District Council here 11 years ago, I have worked hard with others to improve the local area, making sure local voices are heard by those in power and being a strong advocate, representing residents’ needs. Some successes include getting local control of the Old Showfield and other green spaces so they can be improved, securing a pedestrian crossing at the top of Bath Road, and new disabled Changing Places facilities, getting action on flytipping and fly nuisance, saving valued wildlife habitats and green spaces, opposing harmful developments and cuts to family support, and helping save local bus services. My record of action can be seen here.

If I am elected to Somerset County Council in Frome North in May, promise to work with as much determination for you on county issues and new areas of the division. My fellow Lib Dem candidate Christine Cockroft is equally committed, with a solid record of public service which includes 4 years as a Mendip councillor. By voting for both of us, you will ensure you have a strong councillor team who will work hard on your behalf.

Our Somerset Lib Dem manifesto is available at www.somersetlibdems.uk/plan.

My priorities include:

  • To make your Council responsive, open, and accountable and serve people with dignity, compassion, and truthfulness.
  • To improve and protect our environment, resist inappropriate development, secure investment into our communities, improve local services and meet local needs.
  • To stay connected and work hard for you positively and proactively, all year round.
  • Climate and ecology: As a ‘Green Liberal Democrat’, I recognise we must reduce our impacts on the climate and the natural environment. Key to that will be working to insulate local homes so no one has to choose between heating and eating and supporting local groups on local initiatives.
  • Localism: working to ensure decisions on services are made as locally as possible through the Local Community Networks, avoiding over-centralisation in Taunton in the new Somerset Council (something the Conservatives are imposing despite the public voting 2 to 1 against).
  • Putting the heart back into Somerset: We need to make social support services more caring and responsive to better meet the needs of vulnerable residents, including more support for carers and people struggling with mental health.
  • Good engagement and communication between residents and their Council is essential. I already keep local people in my ward informed with a monthly newsletter here at www.adamboyden.mycouncillor.org.uk. Anyone can sign up to this by emailing cllrboyden@gmail.com. If elected in May I will ensure that county issues and local issues across the whole division are fully covered.

Some local priorities we would work on are below:

  • Bus services: To protect and improve bus services so your villages and towns remain connected with Bath, Frome and Wiltshire towns. They provide vital connections but are underfunded and will need both protecting and improving. A few years ago, I worked with Town and Parish councillors and the FAVBUG bus campaigners to help save your evening bus services to Bath and Frome. I am happy to support the Somerset Bus Manifesto to improve bus services for all our communities in Somerset through meaningful increases in funding.
  • Planning of new development: No to over-development, yes to sustainable development which protects our local green spaces. With a work background as an environmental planning consultant I will pay close attention to the impacts of development proposals on Frome and the villages. I am fully aware of concerns about the Local Plan Part 2 allocations for Norton St Philip and Beckington. I will always respect residents’ reasonable concerns about planning applications, as I have done in the Coalway Lane and Packsaddle areas.
  • Supporting Norton St Philip Parish Council in working towards an amended Neighbourhood Plan.
  • Open spaces: Protect and improve local green spaces. Welshmill Park, the Old Showfield and Packsaddle’s parks have all been transformed by more local ownership and greater inputs from residents, so I have encouraged Frome Town Council to take on more spaces from Mendip before the new Somerset Council forms, including Selwood Crescent Green, the small play areas at Acacia Drive, Cheddar Close and Blackbird Way, and the Hawksworth Close play area where my consultation last year found parents want more play opportunities for their children. The Town Council has also applied for the Brunel Way open space, the green corridor off Mendip Drive, and land behind Sycamore Drive. I will continue to lobby for more local control and protection of our green spaces.
  • Flytipping: Making the lanes north of Frome safer and more pleasant to live in and walk and cycle by tackling flytipping, including through the proposed pedestrianisation which is now out for consultation here.
  • Fly nuisance: I am determined to challenge Wessex Water to do more to control the fly nuisance that residents living around Frome sewage works are experiencing, to end the problem once and for all.
  • Improving road safety and reduce the impact of traffic on our town and villages:
  • To work with local residents and all parties to reduce speed limits to improve road safety, including to 20mph in residential areas wherever it has community support, such as at Fromefield and Farleigh Hungerford.
  • Rode: action on reducing accidents on Bradford Road at both the Rode Hill and A361 junctions, which is long overdue. We also need to implement the promised 20mph zone for Rode.
  • Beckington: reducing speeding around the village and on the A36 to improve safety.
  • Norton St Philip: Continuing to reduce speeding and HGV traffic through the village and improving safety for pedestrians and cyclists in the village centre and close to the school.
  • Supporting the proposed extension of the 30mph speed limit around the Bath Road, Oldford Hill, Cuckoo Lane and Gypsy Lane junction.

These are our ideas but please let us know what your priorities are by emailing cllrboyden@gmail.com or writing to FREEPOST SFLIBDEMS (no stamp required).

Thank you,

Adam Boyden

Lib Dem Mendip District Councillor for Frome College ward, and Somerset County Council candidate for Frome North division

Published and promoted by Grahame Baker on behalf of Adam Boyden (Somerton & Frome Liberal Democrats), all at 5 Church Street, Yeovil BA20 1HB.

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