Ed Turner Labour: Rose Hill and Iffley
Working cross-party where possible, in our common interest
I only partially accept the premise of this suggestion, which is that working as part of a political party in local government is in some way a bad thing or at odds with the “common interest” (as an aside, I’m not sure there is a single “common interest”)! I am committed to serving my area and my city, but I bring a clear set of political values to my service, which stem from my commitments as a member of the Labour Party. Some electors will vote for me because they know me personally and appreciate my record in the ward although they support a different party, but most will vote for me because I am the Labour candidate and they identify with my party, or for “the package” – so I make no bones about being a Labour councillor.
Of course, I am very happy to cooperate with councillors from all parties, and appreciate the role non-party political forums like scrutiny, planning and licensing committees play.
Regular contact with your electors, e.g. through surgeries and/or public meetings, newsletters etc
Yes of course, I pride myself on being accessible, I do regular newsletter, I am in regular contact with local residents’ groups (e.g. Low Carbon, Friends of Iffley, Rose Hill Community Partnership), and consider myself very much part of the community
– my kids go to the local school and nursery, my son plays football for the youth football club and I am a volunteer with it, and so on.
Finding ways to engage with all the diverse elements and interests in your ward
Yes of course – I try to maintain good contacts with all sections of the community; a forum I have established during the current pandemic has got good reach, I try to attend events of different faith communities when possible, and to be honest the biggest help is through personal connections with friends and neighbours from different communities as a result of living in the heart of the ward.
Consulting with people in your ward about how to spend your personal budget
I do not think this will be realistic. In practice requests often come for projects at quite short-notice so to get the best out of the budget we have to be fleet of foot (e.g. when we managed to get a group of 40 youngsters and carers from Oxford to Bonn); longer-term initiatives can be funded by other pots. I think it is reasonable that I follow my judgement and stated political values in allocating funds. I have a policy of not funding city-wide initiatives unless there is a clear local benefit.
As an aside, isn’t this a red herring? The council has a gross budget of over £80 million annually – it would be misplaced to focus on engagement on £1,500 per councillor!
Working to implement the will of the Oxford Citizens’ Assembly on Climate Change
I think this was an important process and gave us an excellent guide on how to proceed. We will need to iterate according to circumstances, and clearly the cur rent pandemic will have a big impact.
Working cross-party where possible, in our common interest
I only partially accept the premise of this suggestion, which is that working as part of a political party in local government is in some way a bad thing or at odds with the “common interest” (as an aside, I’m not sure there is a single “common interest”)! I am committed to serving my area and my city, but I bring a clear set of political values to my service, which stem from my commitments as a member of the Labour Party. Some electors will vote for me because they know me personally and appreciate my record in the ward although they support a different party, but most will vote for me because I am the Labour candidate and they identify with my party, or for “the package” – so I make no bones about being a Labour councillor.
Of course, I am very happy to cooperate with councillors from all parties, and appreciate the role non-party political forums like scrutiny, planning and licensing committees play.
Regular contact with your electors, e.g. through surgeries and/or public meetings, newsletters etc
Yes of course, I pride myself on being accessible, I do regular newsletter, I am in regular contact with local residents’ groups (e.g. Low Carbon, Friends of Iffley, Rose Hill Community Partnership), and consider myself very much part of the community
– my kids go to the local school and nursery, my son plays football for the youth football club and I am a volunteer with it, and so on.
Finding ways to engage with all the diverse elements and interests in your ward
Yes of course – I try to maintain good contacts with all sections of the community; a forum I have established during the current pandemic has got good reach, I try to attend events of different faith communities when possible, and to be honest the biggest help is through personal connections with friends and neighbours from different communities as a result of living in the heart of the ward.
Consulting with people in your ward about how to spend your personal budget
I do not think this will be realistic. In practice requests often come for projects at quite short-notice so to get the best out of the budget we have to be fleet of foot (e.g. when we managed to get a group of 40 youngsters and carers from Oxford to Bonn); longer-term initiatives can be funded by other pots. I think it is reasonable that I follow my judgement and stated political values in allocating funds. I have a policy of not funding city-wide initiatives unless there is a clear local benefit.
As an aside, isn’t this a red herring? The council has a gross budget of over £80 million annually – it would be misplaced to focus on engagement on £1,500 per councillor!
Working to implement the will of the Oxford Citizens’ Assembly on Climate Change
I think this was an important process and gave us an excellent guide on how to proceed. We will need to iterate according to circumstances, and clearly the cur rent pandemic will have a big impact.
