This webpage
contains the 'election address' of Dr Stephen WOZNIAK.
It is an experiment in electronic electioneering and a first for Sidmouth!
I am standing as a GENUINELY INDEPENDENT candidate.
Some of my old election leaflets dating from 1998 are also available on this website. Happy reading, and please turn out to vote!! It is no use moaning about the quality of local government in Devon if you are not prepared to spend an hour every three years deciding how to vote, and then bothering to do so. If you are reading this on a library computer, you may wish to print it out before your session ends - ask the staff in good time.
This is a combined leaflet for the Town and EDDC elections, May 2003.
WOZNIAK Remember 1 May - use your vote. X
Dr Stephen Wozniak, photographed by the
Sidmouth Herald during folk week 2002.
A word about tactical voting: if you really want me to be be elected and are not too
concerned who else is, vote ONLY for me. That will increase my vote over everyone else's.
The multistorey car park.
I thought this had died a death in 1999/2000 after the campaign I waged against it over nearly 3 years, but our Chamber of Commerce have resurrected it. Over my dead body will Sidmouth be ruined by any type of multistorey car park on the Ham where it will drag yet more traffic through the town centre. The proposal to dig under the cricket pitch is not quite as daft. See letters published about it in 2001 cricket_davis.htm and cricket.htm. The major problem with this idea is that so much traffic would be attracted down Station Road, but it does have the advantage that the Esplanade could still be made 'traffic free'.
Much more use needs to be made of Manor Road car park, and with some 'out of town' parking. Park and Ride needs to be put back on the agenda. Given the 'social and environmental' problems being created by so many cars on our roads there is a good case for making public transport free at the point of use. This would really encourage people to use it. The benefits would be felt most in towns such as Sidmouth that were never designed for large numbers of cars. No-one charges you each time you choose to walk on a pavement, cycle down the Byes or borrow a library book. These services are provided 'for the general public good' much as are street lights along main roads. Treating each bit of railway line and each bus route as a cost centre and expecting it to pay its way is absurd.
I would like to see an experiment in 'free' public transport undertaken in Sidmouth.
WOZNIAK Remember 1 May - use your vote. X
Road alterations in Sidford.
Do you remember what the village centre was like before Devon County Council fouled it up with far greater levels of pollution and noise than we ever had before? Read trafficsignal.htm for all the past history of the traffic lights. If anyone has some better pictures of the demonstrations in 1999, could I copy them please? Read what Mr Wale said about Sidford in cricket.htm.
More recently, the amateurs at County Hall have approved speed humps on roads that have very little traffic and where (I predict) they will be an unwelcome nuisance. Also, we are to have a 20 mph speed limit on a major route. None of this is a priority - what we really need is the A3052 made safer for pedestrians at a very dangerous pinch point (Porch Cottages) by reprofiling and some EFFECTIVE means of keeping traffic speed down to a reasonable 30 mph. For more on road humps, including how some are being removed in other parts of the country because people came to their senses, see roadhumps.htm.
In a 20 mph limit it would be entirely reasonable to drive at 15 mph. No-one could accuse you of deliberately holding up the traffic! Just try doing this throughout the length of Sidford and see how silly it is under most road conditions. See how many accidents are nearly caused by irate drivers overtaking. Introduction of the 20 mph limit on 14 April 2003 resulted in some drivers trying to observe it for about a day. After less than a week in operation, the novelty value is already wearing off. A survey of measured traffic speeds will be published within a few months to counter DCC 'propaganda' that the scheme is working splendidly. Don't blame me for wasting so much public money - I didn't vote for Hughes and Wale.
WOZNIAK Remember 1 May - use your vote. X
Accountability.
A subject dear to my heart - see accountability.htm, I much favour more open government especially in DCC where secrecy and incompetence go hand in hand. Read what happened when I insisted on my rights as a taxpayer to ask awkward questions of DCC. It is all on my website and start at top_of_library_dispute.htm. DCC's behaviour continues to be a disgrace. Because of the inept way they handled my questions about library computers and electronic snooping (questions that even their Chief Executive had to admit could be seen as being in the public interest), what could have been a small local spat is rapidly turning into a major website that will soon be known around the world. One benefit is that tourists may come to visit, just to see what all the fuss is about!
The behaviour of local government at all levels in covering up incompetence and refusing to answer a straight question with a straight answer is a disgrace. Robust and independent councillors are needed to deal with this problem - not party poodles. The extent to which Ministers and Officials try to avoid awkward questions asked in the public interest may be gleaned from my analysis of the People's Network. (see peoples_network_computers.htm elsewhere on this website). You should read the absurd claims made for that scheme!
WOZNIAK Remember 1 May - use your vote. X
Tourism.
Like it or not, tourism is vital to Sidmouth. It is not as important as 'pension' income flowing in and enabling all manner of spending on local services, but it is essential. A pity therefore that the discussions I have witnessed in the relevant Town Council sub-committee have been so pathetic. More English people must be encouraged to holiday at home. One way of doing this would be to press for punitive taxes on aircraft fuel (at present there is no tax). We would lose a few foreign tourists and gain probably more home-grown ones. The environment would benefit too. Critically, we need more 'wintertime' tourists and maybe fewer in the mid summer. How to do this? Using the Ham as some sort of 'centre' for promoting the Heritage Coast is one idea mooted long ago by one of the more intelligent members of the 'true blues'. It is about time she did something with the idea.
But the interests of RESIDENTS must be uppermost in planning matters. We live here. Tourists merely come to spend money, and we should be inventive in thinking of new ways to relieve them of their surplus earnings. Because of the small town centre we need more 'quality' tourists and less of the 'fish and chips' variety. Snobbish? Yes, and correct too!
WOZNIAK Remember 1 May - use your vote. X
Those lovely red cliffs that keep falling down.
I am unconvinced that the major problem is erosion by the sea - it looks more a case of weak 'seams' having been exposed and washing away rapidly under the action of rain and gravity, neither of which will be lessened by sea defences. The proposal to 'slope' the cliffs at the top (often cited in the Sidmouth Herald) seems loopy. The material at the top is so friable that (like a sandcastle) it would be washed down all the more rapidly if exposed to the full force of rain. Damage by frost would also increase. I regret I have been too busy to delve deeply into the technical reports that have been produced - and the fact they cost £100,000 is no guarantee of worth.
I should have paid this issue more attention - if elected I shall make it my priority to study the papers. We need to see a proper marginal analysis of projected rates of erosion before and after the proposed scheme and the benefits that might (if we are lucky) accrue.
WOZNIAK Remember 1 May - use your vote. X
Folk festival.
Absolutely marvellous, despite the increasing numbers of 'hangers on' who spoil the atmosphere with their excessive drinking on the seafront. Let's have some proper enforcement of laws on alcohol - not only in Sidmouth but elsewhere. Alcohol causes a huge number of social and other problems.
While I am at it, a big "thumbs down" to the publicans of Sidmouth who make huge profits during folk week yet apparently give virtually nothing to support the festival. I was told by 'someone who should know' that last year, in total, two pubs gave £10 each, less than some small shops gave. If true, it is shameful. Most towns would give far more support. A pity that relations between the festival and the Town Council have become soured by petty squabbles and point scoring.
WOZNIAK Remember 1 May - use your vote. X
Cycle path to Sidbury.
Excellent idea, and we need more cycle storage spaces in Sidmouth too. I would favour a wider combined cycle/walk track rather than a dedicated separate track simply because when I cycle (illegally!) down the Byes from my home it really is pleasant to be able to stop and chat to walkers and their dogs. If the cycle track is made separate, we will have two cultures - walkers who can stop and pass the time of day and cyclists who just have to keep on cycling. The other idea (which in effect is what we have in the lower Byes now) is a fast dedicated cycle track and a slower combined track. The problem is that we get people and dogs on the express lane!
WOZNIAK Remember 1 May - use your vote. X
Traffic off the Esplanade.
I retain my position: what I would like to see in Sidmouth is a traffic-free Esplanade in summertime especially. In winter we might revert to the present arrangements. Think about it - Sidmouth by the sea and no traffic fumes or speeding cars along the Esplanade. I hope you agree with this vision. I wrote pages about it in the Herald several years ago.
WOZNIAK Remember 1 May - use your vote. X
"Affordable housing".
I do wish that local politicians would stop making promises they cannot keep about supplying 'affordable' homes for local people. The statistics are simply that the demand outstrips the maximum possible supply - unless we are going to ruin Devon by building huge estates and (in the process) destroying the tourist industry. Selling off council houses was probably a bad mistake - but given the appalling way much of the stock was managed 20 and 30 years ago by local government, it may have seemed like a good idea at the time.
Nothing will be solved in the UK's housing market until we have politicians able and willing to 'think the unthinkable' - to talk openly about the fact that the UK is a small island, already overpopulated and with infrastructure at breaking point. Don't believe false promises from people who cannot deliver, except in such small quantities to make really no difference.
The last 'major' politician who was told to go away and 'think the unthinkable' was the redoubtable Frank Field MP, an expert on social security and pensions. He did as he was asked and produced such an honest report that Blair took fright. The report cost Frank Field his job. We need more people like him in politics, in all parties. Honesty and competence have been replaced by mediocrity and pretence. No wonder so many people no longer bother to vote.
WOZNIAK Remember 1 May - use your vote. X
Britain in Bloom.
Oh, what a glorious fuss! If ever there was an example of people with fixed ideas needing to be encouraged to think, this is it. Read all about it in the gardening section of my website. Congratulations by the way to notable characters such as Sir Roy Strong and Germaine Greer who recently have both denounced the rash of prissy flowers spreading like cancers across once pleasant buildings. I like flowers, but I dislike being told by local officials and third rate councillors what I can and cannot grow in my own garden.
Read all about it here bloomers.htm or read all the gardening section starting here top_of_gardening_and_sustainability.htm. Roll on the next TV programme.
There is little doubt my views on gardening lost me the last election and they will probably lose me this one too. Unlike most people involved in politics, I am not prepared to compromise principles just to get elected.
I have written quite a bit on my website about what is wrong with government generally. You can read these pages by clicking on top_of_govt_incompetence.htm and following the individual links.
WOZNIAK Remember 1 May - use your vote. X