DEMOCRACY IN ACTION

In May '07 the Wenneye Ward of Chatteris elected Ed Bryce as one of its 3 members of the Town Council. One of Chatteris's youngest ever councillors, Ed was a breath of fresh air, but unfortunately circumstances conspired to prevent Ed being about to attend as he would have liked, with the result that his seat has now been vacated.

The May '07 election saw a spirited and exciting battle between Chatteris's two significant political parties, with many issues aired and debated. But once the dust had settled, the two parties settled down together and got on with the business of Chatteris, (ably chaired by the sole independent councillor, our Mayor Sue Elam).

At the news of the vacancy the 2 parties discussed whether Chatteris needed to bear the cost of a by-election so soon after the regular scheduled elections, and in an exemplary example of 'cross party politics' both parties agreed not to call an election themselves, preferring to co-opt a an mutually acceptable replacement. There were after all 12 candidates from the May '07 election who failed to be elected, and the opportunity existed to look amongst this group.

However, news then came that someone had exercised their democratic right to call for a by-election in Wenneye. Speculation was rife as to who called it. It was even a mystery to the some time branch chairman of the nearly defunct Chatteris Labour group.

I can exclusively reveal that the by-election was petitioned for by a group seemingly led by former labour councillor David Biggs. This is something of a surprise as Mr Biggs didn't exactly distinguish himself when he stood unsuccessfully for re-election for the Birch ward of Chatteris in the May '07 elections. On that occasion he produced what is probably the least literate and certainly the most irrelevant election literature it has ever been my pleasure to chuckle over.

David Biggs clearly failed to 'connect' with the electorate and polled just 5.5% of the Town Council vote. He faired little better in his bid for the District Council seat, winning less than 9% of the vote cast between the 3 candidates. In fact I would say that his sole achievement by standing for Labour in the District election was to secure a narrow win for the sitting Conservative councillor Alan Melton, cushioning Mr Melton from a spirited and close run challenge by Lib Dem Christine Colbert. The unsuccessful Mr Biggs has rarely been seen in Chatteris since.

After 4 years experience of Mr Biggs as their town councillor, the good people of Birch ward clearly didn't feel inclined to renew his mandate.

Since Mr Biggs is clearly heavily involved in calling the Wenneye by-election, one can assume he's planning to stand for the seat himself. The burning question now remains whether Wenneye ward will forgive former councillor Biggs for bringing about the significant cost of the by-election and return him with a rousing majority ? Will he do any better than he did (or didn't) in Birch ? Can he do any worse ?

Walt