Westbourne News

Hustings

Find out what the political parties have to say on local issues at a hustings on Tuesday evening which involves all five of the local candidates for the election:

• Conor Burns - Conservative
• Alasdair Murray - Liberal Democrat
• Sharon Carr-Brown - Labour
• Phillip Glover - UKIP
• Harvey Taylor - independent

It’s at 7.30pm on Tuesday 27^th April at West Cliff Baptist Church.

New M&S Car Parking Charges

Car parking at the M&S store in Westbourne just got a little more reasonable.

From the end of this week, the car park is going to charge £1 for 1 hour and £1.50 for 90 minutes with a spend of £5 needed to get a refund on this.

This further reduction is after customers and Westbourne traders raised concerns about a higher pricing structure introduced earlier in the year.

Read more: New M&S Car Parking Charges

March Competition Winner

The winner of our March competition has been picked.

Andy Challis from Poole was drawn at random and is the lucky winner of a luxury, giant Easter Egg from Chocol8 in Westbourne.

"An amazing prize and so unexpected, my nieces and nephew will get the best possible Easter present!", commented Andy who picked up the March edition of the Westbourne Magazine at the West Cliff Baptist Church.

• Our April competition is now open and free to enter online, click here to find out more.

Sharon Carr-Brown - Labour

What is your background?
I did a degree in Chinese and French at Durham University and then joined the BBC World Service in the Chinese section so I did manage to use my degree. From there I moved to Radio 4 working on the World at One programme. I left there when I had my second child and we moved to Bournemouth and I spent some time being a mum - we had 3 children in 3 years. Now my husband and I have a company together, he's a professional writer and I'm a proof reader. My voluntary work is perhaps even more important to me. I became a governor of Bournemouth Hospital when it became a Foundation Trust five years ago and I am also a governor of one my son's school and a trustee of a local charity.

What is your connection to the local area?
I call it my hometown. I moved here from Ringwood when I was 9 and my parents had lived here previously. I went to school here, I got my first job here, it's my town and that's why I am standing.

What's your favourite TV show?
At the moment, it's got to be "Glee". Favourite TV ever? "The West Wing" but my husband is the real aficionado on that.

What policies do Labour have for greener local transport?
In general a lot of work is needed on the local transport infrastructure. I'm sad that Yellow Buses was sold a few years ago by the Lib Dem council. It's very difficult to bring in green policies in an area when the council don't control the buses. Now there is the national high speed rail link government need to remember us down here; we need to be able to feed into that. Labour introduced the free bus passes for OAPs, that has been hugely popular, I think we should look at introducing it for school children.

Bournemouth West has been Conservative since it's creation 60 years ago, how confident are you that this pattern will be broken?
It's fair to say my timing is not good, this is not 1997 for the Labour Party. I am a candidate that should be heard, I am the only local candidate standing from the main parties and I think that really matters. I think it strange that the Conservatives who control the council cannot find a local candidate and the Lib Dems who used to control the council cannot find a local candidate.

The expenses issue has blighted politics for many months. Do you think this issue will go away after the election?
I really hope it does go away, not because I want anyone to escape prosecution, if it's fraud, it's fraud, but it's really hard for people like me who have been giving to the community for years, who believes in this for all the right reasons, to be looked at by people like I'm something they've stepped on in the street. I can't forgive some MP's for bringing us to that point.

Do you think a hung parliament is likely and would it be damaging to the country?
If you look at the polling in the marginal seats, there's no strong clear answer. Whether it would be damaging is hard to know, I haven't lived through a hung parliament or a coalition of any sort. You can look at Italy and think "Oh no" or countries like Germany and think it's made no difference to them. I would prefer and I am working for a Labour victory.

Alasdair Murray - Liberal Democrats

What is your background?
I am currently the director of a charity which is a policy charity covering relevant British politics. Before that I was a journalist for a number of years, mainly for The Times and briefly on the Mail on Sunday.

What is your connection to the local area?
I grew up along coast in Southampton so I have been coming to Bournemouth all of my life. I've had family in the area for two decades and I have family based in Southbourne. It's central to my life.

What's your favourite TV show?
I'm a big fan of "The Wire" which I am watching on DVD. My family and I all watch "Masterchef", my children and wife absolutely love it.

Bournemouth and Westbourne in particular appear to be doing well with fewer empty shops than the national average. Why might Bournemouth be weathering the economic storm better than other areas and how can this be maintained?
Unemployment hasn't risen as far or as fast as people expected. We also thought it was going to be more of a white collar recession and while there have been substantial job losses in the financial services including in Bournemouth, on the whole, the south escaped better than the national as a whole. I think if you have a good, vibrant local resource people will use it. In other areas of my constituency such as Northbourne and parts of Poole, things have been quite tough.

What about local policing?
There is a problem in Dorset generally in that the police are underfunded, that's well recognised and one of the jobs of the elected MP is to fight that. It is Lib Dem policy to increase the number of PCSOs and we have a costed policy to do that. On weekend nights almost all police officers are in the centre of Bournemouth leaving very few for other areas where there still may be a need to monitor antisocial behaviour.

What's your opinion on the 40mph limit on the Wessex Way?
I drove down it this morning and it was empty, you can't help but think "I would love to drive 10 miles per hour faster" but I've also driven it in rush hour where there's no chance of 50. They're trialling it, lets see what the results of the trial are. If there is evidence that it makes a substantial difference to safety then they'll be a case for it, if there isn't, let's get rid of it as soon as the trial finishes.

How will the Lib Dems make local transport greener?
One thing the Lib Dems are keen on is making sure transport powers are increased at local council level. One area that needs looking at in Bournemouth is the bus service which can be quite hit and miss, some areas do better than others. I'm a great believer that until you have a decent public transport system, you won't get people out of their cars. You've got to think about encouraging cycling and make it more pleasant to walk on short journeys.

Bournemouth West has been Conservative since it's creation 60 years ago, how confident are you that you can break this pattern?
I think we have a real chance of breaking the pattern. It has always been Conservative but their majority has been steadily falling. The boundaries have changed and that's broadly favourable to the Lib Dems. I think the old political affiliations have been breaking down and people are much more ready to consider an array of options before voting.

The expenses issue has blighted politics for many months now. Do you think this issue will go away after the election and what are your thoughts on MP pay and expenses?
I think expenses will drop down the political agenda but I don't think it will be solved though. It is part of a broader disaffection with politics the public have that I don't think will be restored very quickly or easily. I think the next group of MPs will be very careful about their expenses, they all know what people really think. Expenses should always be the utter minimum needed to do the job. I think MPs are paid adequately, at a time when other public sector workers are getting pay cuts, I don't think there is a case for raising MPs pay.

Do you think a hung parliament is likely and would it be damaging to the country?
It's possible rather than likely, given the volatility of the polls, and that so many people haven't made their mind up, that we don't know what turn out is going to be. It's very hard to call. Do I think it would be bad for the country? No. It would be a different kind of politics, we have experience of it, many councils have no overall control and get on well. Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland all deal with it in a slightly different context. We have a problem where, in the last election, Labour won with a healthy majority yet less than 1 in 4 people actually voted for them.  A hung parliament, while not a perfect solution, is a better reflection of majority opinion.

Any final message for our readers?
There is a genuine choice in this election, all I can ask is that people read our literature and check out our website before they cast their vote.

Find out more about Alasdair: www.alasdairmurray.net