Of all the many stories I’ve followed this summer, the one that has stayed with me is the row in the Oxfordshire village of Piddington. If you haven’t seen it, Piddington is a village of 350 people. The disused army barracks next door to them is about to become an accommodation centre for 1,250 male asylum seekers. Naturally, as with any small community, this is raising concerns. I don’t want to focus on asylum seekers and immigrants here, but I would like to highlight the leadership of the parish council chairman – and why we should be taking note.
No one was asked
Tim McNally, the chairman of Piddington Parish Council, has absolutely risen to the challenge of the David and Goliath situation he faces with his community. He has taken social media by storm and has featured in the international media. The residents are even planning a referendum to vote to leave the United Kingdom in protest at the plans, and encouraging other parish councils to do the same.
Tim’s main complaint with the migrant centre is that the village was never asked – by the Home Office or anyone else. When I saw that, it resonated strongly with me because so often parish councils are simply not consulted on something directly affecting them. Instead, it will just be done to them by the authorities.
Cutting a bus service at weekends in a village – who needs to ask anyone? Just send them the new timetable. Planning a development? Why engage with a parish? After all, they will only ask difficult questions or request bungalows for old people.
And this seems to be the attitude across private and public organisations. Don’t bother asking the parish council – just tell them it’s happening.
And then we are the ones who have to deal with the aftermath, because a lot of the public don’t know the difference between the parish council and the local authority, so they blame anyone linked to ‘a’ council.
What can we learn?
I think we can learn a lot from Piddington, and start to bite back at the institutions who assume we can all just get on with life according to their agenda.
Of course, not everyone will have a migrant centre next door to them, but the principles of Piddington’s stance apply to other undesirable effects. When we have enormous housing developments imposed on us like Crossways or Norchester, turning villages into dormitory suburbs, or solar farms that no one has asked for or consulted on, parish councils need to start pushing back – hard.
Otherwise, it’s assumed we will simply roll over, and then take on the resulting undesirable chores from the local authority – which are always non-income generating.
We should exercise our right to decline, or at least negotiate for a better deal.
Parish councils are the first level of democracy in this country, and are made up of elected representatives. We should therefore be listened to and engaged with in a meaningful way. Why are we being told we have to take hundreds more houses or blots on the landscape when we are not given an opportunity to say what would work for us? Or getting an honest answer to the questions everyone has about infrastructure?
As Tim says: why are we seeing so little democracy right now? Why are so many people being ignored?
Let’s talk about it
Another lesson from Tim McNally for all parish councils is the way he is engaging with the wider public. He is saying what most people think – but in a measured and professional way. Before he appeared on podcasts and TV news programmes, most people’s idea of a parish councillor was some out-of-touch old duffer or a character from The Vicar of Dibley. Not any more.
Piddington is a wake-up call to all parish councils to get their communication channels in order and to regularly update their community on what is happening – whether it’s designing a new sports centre, dealing with ninja dog foulers, or campaigning to stop something negatively affecting the parish. Piddington’s social media is informative and measured, and they are crowdfunding as part of their campaign.
Don’t forget – not everyone wants to sit through a parish council meeting to know what’s going on, and media reaches a far wider audience.
All these are valuable learning points for parish councils across the country in how to bite back at the establishment.
Piddington’s message is not only reaching its parish, it is attracting audiences in their thousands – even as far as Australia. If you didn’t know where Piddington was before, you definitely know now.
Not on my watch
As chair of the parish council, I recently had to defend our objections to an application for more than 200 homes that no one wanted in our parish. By now, we all know the promised ‘bungalows for older people’ will end up on the developers’ scrap heap in the interests of profit margins once detailed plans are produced, and the promise of any improvements in infrastructure will evaporate into claims that it is ‘someone else’s job’. What horrified me the most, though, when I drowned my sorrows in the pub after the meeting was a remark from one of the locals: ‘We never thought anyone would go and speak up for us.’
If we continue to accept the diktat from Government departments and developers we will end up being dumped on time and time again.
It’s time to be rebellious, and difficult, and ask the questions that make people wince.
It’s time to be more Piddington.
The Dorset Insider lifts the lid on local politics with frankness and a touch of mischief. Penned by an anonymous Dorset parish councillor whose identity is known and trusted by the editorial team, it offers unvarnished opinion from the front line. Expect candour, clarity and the occasional raised eyebrow
