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Thursday, June 09, 2005 

Oi! Milton! Clean up your act!

It has now been well over a month since 29.9% of the electorate expressed their belief that Anne Milton was a woman of action. But some of Milton's 'vote for me' signs are still in place. Perhaps she's hoping for some last-minute votes to boost her 0.7% majority. I've included pictures and locations of two signs to get her started on a belated clean-up:



But this is just the window-dressing. The important question - and one you should expect to hear often - is; what real and positive action has Milton taken since being elected (apart from shooting her mouth off over council tax)?

"She's only been in a month, give her a chance!" I hear you scream... but Milton assured us that she was taking action long before May 5th 2005.

Let's take the following as just one small but typical example...

The spectacular fire-engine crash on 4 December 2004 highlighted a notorious accident black-spot on the curve and bridge on the A281 in Shalford. The Surrey Advertiser responded by describing it as 'carnage corner' in a front-page report on Friday December 10th.

By the 15th, Surrey County Council issued this press release: Surrey County Council's (SCC's) Guildford Local Committee has taken action to improve road safety at Tillingbourne Bridge in Shalford in the light of recent collisions there by coming up with the funding for two vehicle activated speed signs. SCC's Guildford Local Transportation Service has already introduced signs and road markings reminding drivers to slow down and alerting them to both the hump-backed bridge and the bend. Street lighting has been improved and vegetation has been cut back but despite this drivers are still approaching too fast. The two signs, one on each side of the bridge, will illuminate when the vehicles approach the bridge too fast, drawing the driver's attention to the hazard and the need to slow down. The total cost of the signs, including installation and electrical connection, will be £12,000.

Funding came from 3 primary sources:
Veronica Stiastny, County Councillor for Shalford (Conservative)
Tom Sharp, County Councillor for Guildford South (Lib-Dem)
The 'Safer Guildford' partnership

But a few days later, Stiastny teamed up with Milton to take all of the credit for 'instant Conservative action' in this pamphlet, tying it in with this October 2004 pamphlet/petition with the claim that; "In October Anne Milton, Guildford’s Conservative Prospective MP delivered her newsletter to 40,000 households in and around Guildford calling for action to be taken to slow traffic down. She asked residents to sign a petition calling for Vehicle Activated Signs to be installed on some of Guildford’s worst road’s including the A281."

Erm, no she didn't. The pamphlet/petition clearly calls for action at the following locations:
B2128 through Wonersh and Rowly
The B3000 through Compton
Lanes in Seale and Sands
Clay Lane, Burpham
Farnham Road, Guildford


The A281 isn't mentioned. None of these locations are anywhere near this stretch of it.

The put it bluntly, Anne Milton lied over a matter as serious as road safety in order to gain political advantage.

But let's get back to the bit where she and (since-deselected) Veronica Stiastny claimed it was All Their Own Work. Y'see, this accident black-spot happens to be a two-way street. If Milton wants to take the credit, she needs to be prepared to shoulder the blame.

6 months has passed since the Vehicle Activated Signs were promised and Milton took credit for instant action... when really no action had been taken yet. And guess what? Little to no action has been taken since!

Here's a picture of one of the poles that was installed sometime last year:



As you may note; it's still just a pole. 6 months down the line.

But, to be fair, in the last few weeks, I've finally seen some workmen on the job, digging up the pavement in order to lay cables to an even newer pole - that now boasts its very own sign! Here's a picture of the aftermath of some recent work that I saw going on last weekend:



Yes, that is a sign. The cable, we can assume, is for illumination. So it's an illuminated sign. But it's not a Vehicle Activated Sign. A Vehicle Activated Sign looks like this, and is set apart from other signs because it, erm, is activated by vehicles:



Anne Milton promised action and took credit for delivery, when nothing was actually delivered and - 6 months later - still nothing has been delivered. Had I taken part in her campaign for safer roads in Guildford, I would be livid. But somehow, I don't think we'll hear any complaints. Here's a picture of your typical resident from Anne's October 2004 pamphlet/petition:



Well, look who it is - it's Grant Griffiths! Former Deputy Chairman of Guildford Conservatives, Anne Milton's Campaign Director, and serial 'typical resident' ringer:



I find it interesting that Grant features on this profile page at guildfordconservatives.com and this profile page at Bluelist.org, but in both cases he is the only person without a photo. Given his position, his habit of posing as a 'typical resident', and the past activities of this weblog, I'm sure you can work out why.

But a final mystery remains...

Grant lives in Wonersh. Unless he's been living as a hermit for the past 30+ days, he would have to have passed that 2nd left-over 'Vote Anne Milton' sign (mentioned at the top of this post) at least a dozen times... but he has chosen to leave it untouched.

Why?

I hope you'll pardon me for this deeply personal attack, but I think it may have something to do with maintaining a sustained erection.

Thanks for listening, and do drive safely.

Labels: ,

http://www.theyworkforyou.com/debates/?id=2005-06-08.1226.1&s=speaker%3A11603#g1226.8

It seems Milliband shut her up.

Incidentally, she's one of very few without a photo...

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Heh. She did get tagged, didn't she?

I wonder how long it took for the nosebleed to subside...

BTW, the comments allow for HTML, so you can make links to entries like this if you like.

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The reason for the lack of photo would have been that TheyWorkForYou had mistakenly got a photo of Julian Clary instead, and only realised at the last minute. Anyway, I'm sure Julian would do MUCH better than Dipsick at the pantomime that is PQs......

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I would have thought the legal position of those election posters is doubtful. Roadside advertising is only supposed to be temporary. Election posters are probably even more restricted.

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    Hi. I'm Tim. I live in Guildford. I've built a few political weblogs here and there. If you're wondering why I decided to start this particular blog, click here.

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