Local election candidate interview - Robert Clegg

Robert Clegg

Robert Clegg is the Conservative candidate for Wardle & West Littleborough who lives in Littleborough and has been a councillor for the ward since 2004. He currently holds the Finance Portfolio in the council and says he has very much enjoyed being a councillor for the past two years and hopes the voters will give him the opportunity to continue for another term.

Robert says he is very pleased with the achievements of the past 12 months, he explained that he inherited a financial mess from his Liberal Democrat predecessor and gives a lot of credit to council officer Margaret Carney for working hard to help him to turn in an under spend and set a sensible budget for this year.

He said: “What we are doing is hopefully improving the services and saving £1M this year and another £1M next year. You can’t not balance the books.”

In light of his expression of gratitude to a council officer for her leading work we explained that during the course of our interviews with candidates, more than one candidate has expressed the opinion that, in contrast to many other councils, Rochdale Council is too officer led. We asked Robert if he agreed. He replied: “I have worked in public service and worked in officer member situation and more recently on a board of trustees. Take out political the stuff as councillors naturally consider the voters and the politics and don’t always as a result focus on what’s best for the borough – not all officers always do either, but they can be more objective.”

Moving on to the issues affecting the Wardle & West Littleborough ward we asked Robert his opinion of the A58 road fiasco that has seen what was billed as a project to improve traffic flow on the very busy Littleborough to Rochdale road bring it almost to a standstill.

In an audibly exasperated tone, he said that it was the single biggest issue that he was being asked about on the doorsteps. He added that he was being questioned about the chaos by people even as he walked his dog around Watergrove, such was the anger that had been generated. He said: “Not one issue has raised as much fuss, it has been an embarrassment and further pedestrian islands are being put in today, against everybody’s wishes. Committees have raised objections. The question was posed at the recent full council meeting about the cost – it is wasteful.”

We asked if there was anything he as a councillor, or indeed any other councillor could do in future to stop such predictable chaos being heaped on commuters and the resultant wasteful cost to the taxpayer. He replied: “We have to follow the professional advice of council officers, if we don’t and say for example we are advised that not putting in a pedestrian refuge could result in a child getting killed and we go against the advice and a child does get killed then we as councillors are personally liable.”

Robert went on to say: “We saw a computer presentation but all councillors swear it didn’t have the pinch in it that has caused the problem – it was four lanes all the way along.”

We asked how computer literate he and other councillors are, and if they are not, then how could they hope to understand the vagaries of a computer model predicting traffic flows, in particular did they understand the principle of what is known as ‘garbage in, garbage out’?

He said: “I admit I was spoiled during my working life as I had secretarial support. I can manage emails and since I have become a councillor I have been taking courses to improve, but you are right, there are councillors who would struggle to turn a computer on.”

He added: “It is not just a councillor problem though; the council itself has a major problem with the quality of information systems, they are woeful at the Town Hall, although there are now new personnel systems. Links between pay-roll, personnel and financial accounting are being created. Lots of services have wasted money on inappropriate IT.”

As a major player in the Conservative ranks we challenged Robert about what the Liberal Democrats have called an ‘unholy alliance’ between Labour and Conservatives that they allege has deliberately excluded the largest group on the council, they the Liberal Democrats, from the decision making process. Robert was adamant that following last years election of Paul Rowen as MP, and the resulting change in local Liberal Democrat leadership, the Liberal Democrats refused to continue with all party co-operation and walked away.

We returned to the major issues that face Wardle and West Littleborough and asked Robert what he believed they are and what he proposes to do about them should he be re-elected. He said the big issue was the farce of getting to and from Rochdale, which aside from the recent fiasco over the pedestrian refuge, was caused principally by the amount of development going on.

He added: “Most people rightly get wound up about the impact on the infrastructure, for example, the lack of a senior school and the NHS services such as dentists, specifically the lack of them.”

Robert also mentioned people complaining about pockets of youth nuisance, but wanted to reassure people in the area that he and the other ward councillors are working closely with the police to try and address the problem and he would continue to do so if re-elected. He gave as an example the dispersal order that is in place in Wardle at the moment. He was, however, concerned that initiatives such as dispersal orders and the much publicised ‘Mosquito’ may prove successful in one location but merely displace the problem to another location. He said: “They don’t stop doing what they are doing, they just move to the next street. I want diversionary activities rather than just moving the problems around.”

We asked what sort of a response he has been getting when canvassing and if he was confident of retaining his council seat.

He replied: “I have been getting very positive responses. I’ve worked hard and continued to communicate, for example, completing two residents’ surveys in last 12 months. I have enjoyed the last two years. I don’t know what other parties are doing and whether they are getting a different message, however, I have been striking a deal with voters saying that they should consider other candidates only if they see them, if not then vote for me.”

Pressed on whether he expects to retain his seat he said: “Based on the result in 2004 then there are over 1000 votes to overturn and I would be surprised if that happened.”