Local election candidate interview - Andrew Neilson

Date published: 29/04/2006

Conservative candidate Andrew Neilson is making another attempt to persuade the voters of Healey ward to elect him as their representative on the council. He has fought the ward on a number of occasions and despite a lack of previous success is very confident of causing the Liberal Democrat’s a major headache by handing a humiliating defeat to their leader, one of his opponents, and the sitting councillor in the ward, Alan Taylor.

Andrew reported an exceptionally warm reception, very much more so than in any previous campaign he has contested. The positive response has been consistent throughout the six weeks he has been canvassing the ward door-to-door.

Asked what he thought where the reasons for such a good response in a traditionally solid Liberal Democrat seat he said: “With the Brotherod Estate no longer part of the ward, realistically Labour have no chance of winning the ward, this has deprived the Liberal Democrats of their previous doorstep warning that to vote Conservative would be to present Labour with a victory. People are also saying they are fed up with the Liberal Democrats, they have represented Healey ward for over 30 years and done nothing for them. Many are promising to give me a chance to show I can do something different.”

He added: “I am fighting a very positive campaign and unlike my Liberal Democrat opponent concentrating on what I can do, not what I cannot. I am going to try very hard to establish what the voters of Healey actually want and then to do my best to make it happen.

“It is, however, crucial that the very many people that have promised me their vote actually get out to the polling station, or use their postal vote if they have one, and put a cross at the side of my name.”

We asked Andrew how he was managing to get his views across to the electorate and he explained that he had put out two leaflets to date, but with just him and one other to deliver it was very difficult to cover the whole ward. With that in mind he had been one of the first candidates to take up Rochdale Online’s offer of putting his election pitch online as he recognised the opportunity was one he could not afford to miss.

He explained: “I am not very computer literate, but many people have commented on my online pitch and have been impressed by it. We put out a leaflet to 150 houses with the web site address of the pitch on and when we got home an hour later the number of times my pitch had been read online had jumped by over 70.”

We questioned Andrew about his proposal to open Chaseley Road one way at peak times to alleviate the traffic chaos on Falinge Road and he said that the idea was receiving approval from the vast majority of people he had spoken to, both on the doorsteps, and on the Rochdale Online message board, which he joined to answer questions about the details of his proposal and the potential effects.

His view on the problem is that a limited opening of Chaseley Road is a sensible compromise to alleviate what has become an untenable situation, he said: “When the road was open we didn’t have this major traffic problem on Falinge Road. I understand why the Liberals do not want it open and that’s because they caused the problem in the first place by closing it! The Liberals say there is nothing they can do about the traffic problem closing Chaseley Road completely has caused, I say that is not good enough.

"I realise that when elected as a councillor I will not be able to change the world, but opening Chaseley Road one way between the hours of 7.30 to 9.00am so that people can get to work is one small change that will make a very big difference to people, not only to the commuters whose journey to town will no longer take the ¾ of an hour it currently does, but also in environmental terms as we will no longer have a standing queue of cars ticking over polluting the environment.”

During his discussions on the Rochdale Online message board one member of the public, who resides just off Falinge Road, put to Andrew a proposal that better than re-opening Chaseley Road would be to build a relief road through the Dell. We asked him if he approved of the idea:

“I can see it may come about if approval is given to build houses on the old munitions site, indeed it would have to do so from a safety point of view as there would need to be more than one road in and out of the area. We saw only recently what a nightmare it can be for the emergency services when a road in the area is blocked. Residents in the area will remember when part of Falinge Road disappeared when the drains collapsed and all traffic had to be routed down Whitworth Road. It was diabolical and clearly illustrated the need for something to be done.”

Andrew believes his proposals have caused panic in the Liberal Democrat camp and they have, he says, resorted to “their familiar negative tactics”. Asked to explain what he meant by this he said: “The Lib Dem’s always fight dirty and in response to my proposals to alleviate the problems on Falinge Road they put out a leaflet saying it wouldn’t work and suggesting I am mad. They do not anywhere though say what they would do to solve the problem, which is typical of them, they can tell you all day long what they won’t do, but go very quiet when asked about what they will do.”

Andrew went on to say: “My answer to their criticism is that replacing the lollipop lady with a pelican crossing will speed up traffic flow. At the moment the lollipop lady is stopping every third car and this creates further congestion and amplifies the stop start nature of an already torturous journey.

“I would also like to see double yellow lines on one side of the road from just past the shops in Shawclough village down to the park gates at the junction with Howard Street. The trouble at the moment is cars taking children to Falinge High School park on both sides and that causes problems for traffic travelling both ways and is also very dangerous for children and adults trying to cross the road.” 

Clearly the traffic congestion on Falinge Road is a major irritant for people in Healey ward; however, we were keen to find out from Andrew what, besides this, he sees as the main issues affecting the ward and what he proposes to do to help.

He explained that the other major issue he finds is repeated most often on the doorsteps is the problems of gangs of youths gathering, with particular problems around Syke, the steps off Mountside Close down to Whitworth Road and Healey Parish Church grounds with allegations of underage drinking and drug taking.

We put to him that those gathered often complained they had nowhere else to go and nothing to do. He responded by saying: “I don’t agree there is nowhere to go and nothing to do, for example, we have three fields, still known locally as St Wilfred’s fields, where not many years ago there was a hive of activity whereas now you can go for a stroll and it is almost deserted. The youngsters causing the problems don’t seem to want to do anything other than hang around and cause a nuisance.

“I will do my utmost to put pressure on the authorities to crack down on those whose anti-social behaviour is having such a detrimental effect on the health and well being of decent law abiding people.”

The very big question in Healey ward is of course the proposed development of the former Turner Brothers Asbestos site and we asked Andrew his view. He explained that along with the vast majority of people he is vehemently opposed to the proposed development, having lived in the area for over 30 years and knowing people who worked at TBA who tell him there is tons of asbestos buried on the site, he says he cannot see any economically viable way to make the land safe to build on.

We finished the interview by asking Andrew if he was confident of winning the seat. He replied: “I am a resident of Healey ward, my Liberal Democrat opponent lives the far side of Milnrow, and people are telling me they feel he is simply using his council seat as a springboard for other things.

"I realise it won’t be easy, but I will work hard for all the constituents of Healey ward. I will make sure things get done and people are saying they are going to give me a chance, so yes, though I am not being complacent, I believe I will win the seat and I very much look forward to keeping the promises I have made to the people I have met on the doorsteps and the people who have read my pitch on Rochdale Online.”