(http://www.talkswindon.org/politics/2008-sbc-elections/parks%20logo.png)
"The Curious Case Of The Absent Councillor" or "Watch A Ward Bleed To Death (Politically) In Front Of Your Very Eyes!"
An independent view of the 2008 local election result in Parks Ward.
A bitter political battle has been raging through Parks over the last couple of years, not that too many people would notice of course, but it's certainly possible to draw a comparison with the Battle of Waterloo. Yep, Parks has become the 'Belgium' of Swindon and the competing Labour and Conservative political armies have decided to slug it out on someone else's front lawn. "Someone else's front lawn?" I hear you ask... "wasn't Parks a Labour ward anyway?"....well, yes it was, although I think there was another battle being fought across the streets and lawns of Parks which was being fought purely within different factions of the Swindon labour group itself.
It has been said of the 1815 battle that no one can be sure exactly when it began....and the same is true of the battle for Parks, but we can give it a good go, can't we? So, if you're sitting comfortably I'll begin after I've introduce the main players before leading you on a guided tour of Parks Ward's recent political history and having a bash at untangling, straightening out and explaining this particular part of the twisted spaghetti knot that is Swindon local politics.
The Absent Councillor: Barrie Thompson (Lab)
(http://www.talkswindon.org/politics/2008-sbc-elections/oasiscount/thompson.jpg)
The 2008 Candidates: Claire Ellis (Cons) Graham Cherry (Cons) Steve Allsopp (Lab) Mark Dempsey (Lab)
(http://www.talkswindon.org/politics/2008-sbc-elections/oasiscount/clareellis.JPG) (http://www.talkswindon.org/politics/2008-sbc-elections/oasiscount/GrahamCherryParks.jpg) (http://www.talkswindon.org/politics/2008-sbc-elections/oasiscount/steveallsopp.jpg) (http://www.talkswindon.org/politics/2008-sbc-elections/oasiscount/dempsey.jpg)
The Sitting Tenant: Fay Howard (Lab)
(http://www.talkswindon.org/politics/2008-sbc-elections/oasiscount/fayhoward.jpg)
The Leader Of The Labour Group: Kevin Small
(http://www.talkswindon.org/politics/2008-sbc-elections/oasiscount/small.jpg)
Parks ward has been represented by Labour Councillors for a long, long time. I don't know exactly how long, but certainly long enough that, when the cosy and familiar relationship between Parks voter and the Labour Party began to sour, it was as obvious as a patch of black mould in the corner of an otherwise spotless white tiled shower cubicle. Something was rotten in the State of Denmark, ward of Parks and many interested noses turned into the wind, caught further whiffs of decay and wondered what could be causing it. Others put their boots on and went looking. This is what they found.....
Cast your mind back to May 2006. The local elections are over, the Conservatives remained unchallenged as the dominant force in the Council Chamber, Labour have survived by battening down the hatches in their strongholds of Parks , Gorsehill and Western wards. The Lib Dems remain solidly entrenched in the political ghetto of Eastcott.
Are the Labour strongholds as strong as they appear?. Even back in 2006 cracks were starting to appear in the plaster and although it is often said that "a week is a long time in politics", it's also true that sometimes a minute can seem like an hour and that you do indeed "reap what you sow". I usually take a more holistic view of things. I think that events usually happen at their own pace in politics, but I do pay particular attention to seeds that are carefully planted and those that are carelessly dropped by politicians and activists alike....and I take some pleasure in guessing when and where they will burst forth again.
Jean Saunders, Swindon staunchest defender of Coate and a member of this very forum, had this to say in her letter to the Swindon Adver following the 2006 Parks election result. (http://www.swindonadvertiser.co.uk/search/display.var.767782.0.voters_show_their_feelings.php)
It seems that Coun Barrie Thompson (SA, May 10) has been somewhat humbled by his election result in Parks. This ward is a Labour stronghold and this was not reflected by the votes.
The councillor only polled 694 votes, while the Conservatives got 580 and the Green Party 355, with just a 24.96 turnout.
While Coun Thompson still supports the Coate development, his faithfuls obviously withdrew their vote for him, not able to stomach what would happen to their favourite beauty spot. When our Save Coate petition was studied in the early days and analysed on the area where those signing lived, more than 20 per cent came from Parks, by far the highest percentage.
Barrie had annoyed a sizeable percentage of his own ward prior to his re-election to it in the 2006 local elections....and then he appeared to carry on ignoring and annoying people in his ward, particularly with anything concerning the proposals to develop land adjacent to Coate water.
I've met Barry Thompson a couple of times, the first time being in July 2006 at the 'Let's Talk' (http://www.talkswindon.org/index.php?topic=618.0) meeting organised by Anne Snelgrove and attended by the then Environment Secretary David Milliband MP. At the time I said:
Everyone on table 5 came up with some good suggestions, even Clllr Barrie Thompson...(which surprised me greatly, as I'd kind of assumed anyone who so wholeheartedly and publicly supported the Identity Cards Act 2006 was either easily led or lacking in common sense......), came up with some good, common sense stuff.... (although he did completely blow it when he apparently asked David Miliband to help deregulate the planning and appeals process - I wonder why you so desperately want that to happen Barrie, eh?, eh?.
Barry actually did come up with some good stuff....but then during the question & answer session with David Milliband he rose ponderously to his feet and made a very public appeal for the planning process to be so deregulated as to make it very difficult for people, like the residents of Parks, to object to developments happening on their doorsteps.
Simon also recorded Barry Thompsons request:
Cllr Barrie Thompson (Lab, Parks, and the most outspoken supporter of the plans to build all over Coate) made a point about being bogged down in proscriptive planning legislation. David Milliband replied that compared to, say, France, where the decision to build something in a particular place is made at the top and it just happens, we have much more input from the bottom up into the planning process in the UK. I feel sure that the 28,000 who have saved the Save Coate petition and the hundreds who submitted objections to the local structure plan would beg to differ on that point.
Milliband didn't agree with him, and in not agreeing with him very firmly trod the ground down around another bitter seed that Barry had planted all by himself.....
Fast-Forward to Parks 2007:
It's local election time again and Labours Fay Howard is defending her seat against Conservative candidate Graham Cherry, the BNP's Chris Southgate, Liberal Democrat Helen Thompson -(Thompson defected to the Labour Party soon afterwards which suggests to me that she may have been a Labour party 'ringer' anyway), and the Green party candidate David Miles.
Fay Howard is re-elected with a majority of 172 over nearest rival Graham Cherry. Even for the popular 'Councillor Fay', the margins are getting noticably tighter as Nu-Labour's national gloss is wearing thin and becoming regularly tarnished with allegations of scandal and corruption. At this point in time it's obvious that, if the majorities enjoyed by Cllr's Howard, Thompson and Allsopp continue to shrink, the Labour group will begin losing seats in Parks. This is of great concern to Labour MP Anne Snelgrove whose wafer thin majority depends utterly on the voters in wards like Parks, Walcot, Central and Western and, having lost Walcot completely to the Conservatives, Parks is now upgraded from 'Important' to 'Crucial' in Annes election control centre at her constituency office at Little London Court.
At this point Kevin Small, (the leader of the Labour group), isn't particularly bothered about Anne Snelgroves still-distant election campaign and he isn't overly worried about Parks ward. Cllr Fay is elected as deputy leader of the Labour group and he already knows that she'll do what she's told, (by him), as will Barry Thompson. He's enjoying the status of 'I'm alright Jack', with the sole exception of having been removed from the Chair of Scrutiny. (He was replaced by the ex-Labour and now independent Cllr David Glaholm - Glaholm subsequently resigned after being arrested in the Manchester Road area of Swindon whilst apparently doing a 'Jeffrey Archer'. Small was re-instated to the chair of Scrutiny admidst Conservative cabinet fears of receiving a bad audit commission report for manipulating the chair of scrutiny for political gain - they just bottled it actually, and Small was the best of what was left to fit the chair.....which isn't much of a compliment, and has resulted in a Conservative council operating with an inneffective scrutiny committee).
Full Council Meeting 19th July 2007
This is the very last Council meeting Cllr Barry Thompson will ever attend. Rumours of illness have started circulating....in fact almost as soon as he started missing meetings. He'd already missed the June meeting and would now go on to miss Council meetings in September and November of 2007 and January of 2008.
Despite what he would later claim in the Swindon Evening Advertiser, Cllr Thompson was also recorded as being absent from every subsequent meeting of both the Children and Young People's Overview Committee and the Children and Young People's Partnership Board.
To all intents and purposes and whatever the reason, Cllr Thompson had effectively abdicated his council seat as of July 2007.
Fast Forward: February 2007: The Talkswindon Forum
For a couple of weeks rumours have been circulating that Barry Thompson has gone AWOL. I consider carefully whether to discuss this publicly, so I do a bit of sleuthing and decide that, (as it's true), I will do so and on February the 13th 2008 I break the news (http://www.talkswindon.org/index.php?topic=2888.msg15537#msg15537) here on the Talkswindon forum, that Barry Thompson has been resident in Spain since January and has just emailed SBC to tender his, (meaningless), resignation as a local Councillor. I'm told the email was meaningless as it was unsigned and not from an 'official' xxxx@swindon.gov email account.
The Advertiser also runs the story on its front page on Saturday the 16th Feb 2007 (http://www.swindonadvertiser.co.uk/search/display.var.2049658.0.wish_you_were_here_barrie.php)
Parks ward voters emit a collective and disgusted gasp, Parks councillors, (although clenching their buttocks furiously), fart nervously, and rightly so. Cllr Thompsons ward casework, we learn later, has been quietly handled in his absence by them, without anyone knowing that he's actually in Spain.
Hurried labour group discussion are held and Anne Snelgrove aggressively defends Barry Thompson in the advers Tuesday 19th February (http://www.swindonadvertiser.co.uk/search/display.var.2053951.0.costa_councillor_backed_by_mp.php) edition. Cllr Thompson also tells adver readers he has no intention of paying back any of his allowance.
"I'm very sorry that Barrie has had to resign but I know that he has been very ill and he has made a decision based on that.
"I strongly resent the implication that he is on holiday in Spain. He is not on holiday, he is recuperating. Barrie has given many years of service to Swindon, and so has his wife Lynn.
I'm sure that had he been aware of how long-lasting his period of illness would be he would have stepped down long ago. It's not unusual that a councillor becomes ill and it's not unusual that a councillor misses some meetings."
"I was in Parks yesterday, with Fay Howard, and we found that the people we spoke to were very sympathetic about Barrie, once they found out what the situation was."
But the Adver found residents have little sympathy with Coun Thompson's situation.
The Parks residents that the adver reporter spoke to didn't agree though:
Joseph Tyndall, 66, said: "I don't think he should get his money if he's not here to represent the people who elected him."
Maria Alaybeyi, a 41-year-old nurse said: "What about all the elderly people around here who are ill? I'm sure they'd love to go off to Spain and get a bit of sun. "If they can't do it why should he be able to?"
Katherine Stratford, 46, said: "If most people didn't turn up for their job for that long they'd be sacked, "He should have been replaced straight away, if he was too ill to work."
Ronald Coate, a 60-year-old shop owner, said: "If I was ill I couldn't just go off to Spain until I felt better and still get paid. "I'd have to be here at work, and if I couldn't go to work I wouldn't expect to get paid."
Cllr Fay said the criticism of Cllr Thompson was unfair, saying:
"Barry has been unwell for some time but has continued to be a conscientious councillor. "It's only since last autumn that he's been unable to attend council meetings, and we have been in regular contact about council business.
When I read Cllr Fays comments I remember wondering when autumn had been moved back to July.....
Friday 22nd February Cllr Thompson Strikes Back (http://www.swindonadvertiser.co.uk/mostpopular.var.2064298.mostcommented.councillor_hits_back_im_not_in_spain_on_a_jolly.php). From Spain. Squirting ink into the water like a startled squid, Barrie seems, to me, to be trying to muddy the waters up a bit by focussing on his allowances instead of his hidden absence.
"It is said that I receive in the region of £7,400 in allowances for being a Swindon borough councillor. What isn't said is that that is a gross amount for 12 months. Income tax has to be deducted, bringing the figure closer to £5,000, paid monthly. Despite having stated it on a number of occasions in the council chamber, it has not been said that I give it away to voluntary organisations. Along with all Labour Party members I voted against the increase in allowances proposed by the Conservatives last year.
I, along with Fay Howard and Steve Allsopp, decided to give the increase allowance to Dial-A-Ride to offset the massive reductions in grants to voluntary organisations implemented by the Conservatives.
And the allowance I received stopped on February 13, the day I indicated to the council that I wanted to resign.
Secondly, it is said that I haven't attended any council meetings since July. On the contrary I attended two, if not three, meetings during July and August. I also represent the people of Swindon on the South West Regional Assembly, South West Skills Alliance and, was appointed by the council as a director to the Local Government Information Unit. During the period in question I attended up to 12 meetings. I receive no additional allowance for this work and the cost of travelling to London, Exeter and Taunton, which probably amounted to something like £500, I could claim for but have not.
So, far from coming to Spain on a jolly at the expense of local taxpayers, I came to Spain to recuperate and made the decision to retire for my health. I have informed the council that I do not want to receive any more allowance as, due to ill health, I am unable to attend any more meetings.
I am standing down as a councillor from May and my duties will be covered more than adequately by Fay Howard and Steve Allsopp for the next 11 weeks. I will be returning to Swindon on about May 7.
I have been proud to have served as a councillor for Parks and am only sorry, but not surprised, that the Tories have chosen to misrepresent my last few months in this way.
I won't waste time tearing Cllr Thompsons reply apart, a five year old could probably spot the difference between the Officially Recorded Hard Truth (http://www.talkswindon.org/index.php?topic=2966.msg16135#msg16135) and the easy lies of Cllr Thompson. Is describing Cllr Thompsons various excuses as 'easy lies' too harsh?, I don't think so but opinions will differ. Please make your own minds up.....just as the voters of Parks did on May the 1st this year.
"The game is afoot Watson, the game is afoot....."
The stage is almost set for the 2008 local elections in Parks ward, but there is something else I want to say before we look at the election itself, and that is how Cllr Thompsons absence was handled by the Swindon labour group. It is my belief that Cllr Thompsons departure to Spain was not a spontaneous and spur of the moment decision. The man was, by his own admission, ill and unable to continue his obligations to his ward and this fact alone would justify his complete absence from Council meetings for the previous five months. What is harder to accept easily is that, instead of stepping down at, or before, the point he departed for Spain, (already knowing that he would not return until at least May 2008), he colluded with other members of the labour group in hiding his absence and it is therefore my belief that his absence would have continued to be covered up until the last possible moment before the nominations for the 2008 elections had to be submitted.
I have a mental picture of selected members of the labour group meeting, probably before Christmas 2007, to discuss how they would handle Thompsons absence. Keep it quiet until April 2008 then announce his ill-health retirement and present his successor in the form of, oh...I don't know....Mark Dempsey?
Marks sudden appearance in the 'Parks Matters' leaflet was a pretty big clue so, on the 26th February 2008 I emailed him. The message was short and quite clear:
From: Geoff Reid Subject: Parks
Dear Mark
I was just reading your 'Parks Matters' leaflet and wondered, as you're obviously quite involved in Parks, whether you're going to stand there as a labour candidate in this Mays local elections?
Kind Regards
Geoff Reid
I didn't receive a reply, so I sent the same message to him by SMS text. That too, went unanswered....which I took as proof positive that he firstly didn't want to deny it because he didn't want to tell any easy porkies which would return to bite him later, but neither did he particularly want to confirm the labour groups plan for Parks at the very point where it seemed he might finally get elected somewhere.
I hear you ask: "What do you mean finally elected Mr Reid?".....and I in turn shall tell you. It appears that Mark been trying to wriggle his way into an elected position, almost any elected position, somewhat like a desperate sperm battering away at an unyielding egg.
Prior to the 2005 General election Mark was managing the Parliamentary Sustainable Waste Group (http://www.markdempsey.org.uk/index.php?f=data_home&a=1) and presumably his departure from this venture was to allow him to campaign for the September general election in which he had been selected to stand as the Labour party candidate in the Cotswold constituency (http://politics.guardian.co.uk/hoc/constituency/0,,-845,00.html). I reckon Mark quite fancied his own chances in the 2005 election having put a shed load of effort into the area for no less than nine years. His previous activities are recorded thus:
Leader of Young Labour Gloucestershire: Mark founded Young Labour Gloucester in 1996 and extended the group to cover the whole of Gloucestershire in 1997. The group was extremely successful in bringing to Gloucestershire high profile speakers such as Stephen Byers and Andrew Smith to talk to young members of the party. Young Labour Gloucestershire made significant headway in providing a forum to encourage young people into the party and into active participation within the party ranks.
Candidate in the 2005 General Election: Mark was selected as the Parliamentary Candidate for the Cotswold Constituency, where he managed the constituency campaign team, led the press strategy, ensured a full slate of local election candidates for the first time ever in the Cotswolds and made numerous speeches and public appearances.
However, when the 2005 General election rolled around, (and despite all his previous 'extremely successful' work in Gloucestershire), Mark was soundly beaten into 3rd place by the wining Tory and Liberal Democrat runner up.
2007 found Mark standing alongside his labour running mate John Keeping in Swindons Haydon Wick Ward, chasing either of the two available seats. This time Mark came fourth.
Marks 2008 local election chances must have seemed much better to him and the Swindon Labour group. If they could manage Cllr Thompsons absence intelligently, they thought Dempsey would be a 'shoe-in' in Parks, but not all of the labour group were overjoyed at this thought. Perhaps some of them were nervous or threatened by Marks 'Rising Political Star', especially as he had previously been part of the:
Young Leaders Programme, Moscow: Mark was selected for an international Young Leaders Programme in Moscow (http://www.markdempsey.org.uk/index.php?f=data_interests&a=0). This was comprised of selected ‘leaders’ from Russia, USA and Britain derived from industry, government, and the media. The conference sessions included speeches from some of the most influential figures within Russia.
I don't think Mark Dempseys political ambitions bothered kevin Small very much when he was still aiming himself at Westminster, (perhaps Dempsey wasn't even on Smalls radar then), but after his knock-backs in the Cotswolds and Haydon Wick, Dempseys 'promotion' to Anne Snelgroves 'Parks Action Team' put Mark very firmly on the ground, right in the centre of the Swindon Labour groups political map, and with his political credentials, appeared to be a natural successor to, or direct replacement for Kevin Small himself. Cllr Small began to twitch gently.....
The game was now afoot in more ways than one, and on the 18th of March 2008 Barrie Thompsons resignation finally happened, as duly reported (http://www.swindonadvertiser.co.uk/search/display.var.2126824.0.thompsons_no_longer_a_councillor_for_the_parks.php) by the adver. The terseness of the report suggests to me a 'cooling' in the usually very friendly relationship between Labour and the Adver. (since wholly recovered after adver editor Dave King was personally entertained by both Swindons MPs at The Houses Of Parliament).
BARRIE Thompson no longer represents Swindon's Parks ward.
Mr Thompson made headlines last month when it was revealed he had been living in Spain since the start of the year. The Advertiser reported that he had not attended a council meeting since last July and had missed a number of meetings he had been required to attend.
He had, however, attended a number of regional assembly meetings. He went to Spain to recover from a bout of ill health. At the time we reported that he was in the process of resigning his council seat. Now that process is complete and Mr Thompson no longer represents the ward.
No by-election will be held, so in the May 1 council elections, Parks voters will be choosing candidates for the two available seats.
I'd still received no response from Mark Dempsey regarding his 'possibly' standing as a candidate, but the conservatives had already mobilised themselves by this point and were already interviewing potential running mate for their existing candidate, Graham Cherry, to contest both ex Councillor Thompsons now stone cold seat and the very-much-still-warm seat of Labours Steve Allsopp. It has to be said that Steve Allsopp keeps his head down and just gets on with the job, and if he's ever going to lose that seat, it's likely to be through a protest vote at the Labour party generally rather than because of the man himself.
Early April sees Claire Ellis selected as the 2nd Tory candidate for Parks. Although she's not a resident of Parks herself, Claire throws herself into trudging around the ward accompanied by Talkswindons Dick Norman who, in his own inimitable style, holds her banner high and gives it a hearty shake. Claire also joined Talkswindon and made a few campaign contributions which I found, and I hope she doesn't take too much offence at this, a bit arrogant. I know, I can sense you thinking....pot, kettle, black, and I'm sure I'll have to wait a while to see whether I'm right or not, but I doubt that Mrs Ellis will be campaigning in Parks in 2010 when Cllr Fays seat is up again....and unless something goes very wrong with Graham Cherry and the Tory party, she certainly won't be campaigning against him in 2010.
2010? Yes, 2010. Barry Thompson resigned his seat two years before it was due to be contested at the ballot box, meaning that Cllr Cherry has to defend it again in 2010.
Anyway, we all know the result(s) in Parks although I did skip forwards a little too far in the last couple of paragraphs so with your permission I'll skip backwards slightly and take us top the night of the Oasis count itself, as it is here that everything I've described above come to a head, several bubbles are burst and, perhaps most significantly, Anne Snelgrove acknowledges that the writing is on the wall for her.
The Parks Counting Table
(http://www.talkswindon.org/politics/2008-sbc-elections/oasiscount/parks1.JPG)
No table at the count generated more interest than Parks. The concentration, and the strain of constant concentration was plain to see on the counting agents faces as the count ground onwards.
In the picture below Conservative Parliamentary Candidate Robert Buckland is flanked by Claire Ellis, (wearing a fetching blue trimmed white blazer), and a bespectacled Graham Cherry wearing a light coloured suit. Although fresh faces did appear in the Parks table crowd, some of them didn't seem to leave it and were constant features in a shifting landscape of red, blue, yellow and purple/yellow rosettes.
(http://www.talkswindon.org/politics/2008-sbc-elections/oasiscount/parks2.JPG)
Kevin Small spent almost the entire evening at the Western Ward counting table, (his own ward), keeping a watchful eye on the progress of his mate Jim Gant, (http://www.swindonadvertiser.co.uk/search/display.var.2181657.0.leaflet_error_is_attacked_by_rival.php) sorry, Jim Grant, although I did notice that Cllr Small also kept a watchful eye on both the Parks table and Mark Dempsey.
Jim Gant Grant
(http://ww2.swindon.gov.uk/moderngov/UserData/8/0/2/Info00001208/smallpic.jpg)
I spent a few minutes half-watching Cllr Small almost constant glances across the hall at Mark Dempsey and concluded that Cllr Smalls reaction to the Parks result would be revealing. I wasn't disappointed.
The results were quietly given to the candidates first, and Claire Ellis was just as unable to mask her disappointment as Graham Cherry was to hide his elation. Steve Allsopp looked more relieved than elated and I didn't see Mark Dempseys reaction because I was looking at a smirking Cllr Small. Happy because Claire Ellis hadn't been elected?, or because Mark Dempsey hadn't?, and because of Marks non-election, Cllr Smalls Napoleonic grip over the labour group could now continue unchallenged by any young pretenders to his fading crown.
Mark Dempseys failure to get himself elected must have been a huge blow to Anne Snelgrove herself. The Swindon Labour group have as good a record of supporting her as she does of listening to and respecting her constituents. I very much doubt that many in the Labour group itself will lift a finger to help her next general election campaign, yet Mark Dempsey could have been replied upon to help.....unless perchance he was/is in line to replace Michael Wills should he suddenly step down prior to the next election.
What next?, I'll step aside for now in the hope that other members will give their assessments of the Parks result and how it will/will not affect the political landscape across Swindon. The result of the Crewe and Nantwich Parliamentary by-election will no doubt figure prominently in many minds when considering the increasingly likely prospect of combined general & local elections in 2010. Like it or not, National and local politics seem destined to converge over the coming months, and with the current economic climate affecting every one of us, it is only natural that the electorate will make their opinions increasingly felt at the ballot boxes until the next Government, (whatever colour that might be), is elected.
By the way, I wanted to check something I'd read on the Swindon Labour Group website about their Parks candidates, but when I followed my bookmarked link to where it used to be, http://www.swindonlabour.co.uk/ac03ca85-93cd-e7a4-516c-b78bb8d17ec0 I received the following message:
Page Not Found - error 404 - The requested URL was not found on this server
This isn't unusual with the Labour Party's web presence. They will often re-write their web history and remove entire blogs according to how they think it will be perceived by voters. (Anyone seen Annes blog recently?), it's irritating, but makes people like me store interesting pages as soon as they're seen. Perhaps this was Councillor Small erasing the evidence and memory of a close brush with his almost successor, or perhaps it's just incompetance with technology. Labours good at that.
That's me done for a bit, apart from leaving you with this comment of Anne Snelgroves. According to the BBC she made it on the day of the elections, but before the Swindon results were known.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/wiltshire/7376868.stm
"We're suffering because of some of the decisions we have made."
Is the writing on the wall for her, and if it is, has she read and understood it do you think?
:popcorn:
i have attached a graph of votes since the ward was created
(http://www.talkswindon.org/politics/sbc-elections-stats/Parks-1.jpg)
That's pretty graphic...thanks.