Mark Coote grew up and was educated in Cheltenham, and he was selected as Conservative candidate for his home town in November 2006 (having contested Hastings & Rye in 2001 and 2005). Here he looks forward to welcoming many ConservativeHome readers to the town this weekend as the party gathers in Cheltenham for its Spring Forum.
A record number of delegates are due to attend this year’s Spring Forum in the beautiful Regency Spa town of Cheltenham, centre for the Cotswolds.
I am bound to say, I am delighted the Spring Forum is coming to Cheltenham. Amidst the doom and gloom of localised news late last autumn, Caroline Spelman’s arrival in the town to announce that Cheltenham had been chosen to host the Spring Forum was a huge boost for morale. I have to admit, I kept the pressure on, asking both David Cameron and Caroline Spelman to consider Cheltenham as a venue. We are already a successful and renowned Festival town, so why not a Conference town, too?
2,000 delegates will descend upon the town this weekend, bringing a shot-in-the-arm to the local economy, much to the delight of local hoteliers and restaurateurs. For those who have not visited Cheltenham either recently or at all, they will find a hugely attractive town with a café society, excellent theatres, shops, parks and a warm welcome from residents.
This will also help lift our political fortunes in a town we have not won at a General Election since 1987. The flamboyant and much-loved local man, Sir Charles Irving, was the last Conservative incumbent of Cheltenham. I drove his election battle-bus in the 1979 contest, one of the most memorable elections of my life.
The loss of Cheltenham amidst a notorious campaign in 1992 has cast a long shadow on our political fortunes in the town, but we are poised this time to turn the tide.
Last year’s changes to the constituency boundaries reduced the LibDems vote to a notional majority of just 316 votes. It makes Cheltenham the tenth most marginal seat in the country, requiring a 0.55% swing to take the seat.
But winning against entrenched LibDems requires a very different approach to that when fighting Labour. Our campaigns need to be localised to ward and street level and our engagement on the doorstep needs to reflect those issues of most concern in the town.
There has been enormous resentment locally at the Government’s imposition of house building targets through the Regional Spatial Strategy (RSS), against so-called ‘Garden Grabbing’ and the protection of Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty and green space. Visitors to Cheltenham will admire the open spaces we have left, and they are being hard fought-over. And it’s only the Conservative Party that will sweep away the regional apparatus that will allow locally elected councils to make decisions on appropriate development in and around the town. That’s what we need to sell to the electorate here.
The protection of our local shopping heritage – the defence of independent, family-run shops and businesses – and the preservation of the remaining Post Office network (we have lost 10 out of our 18 Post Office branches since Labour came to power) are all issues that affect the quality of life and the vibrancy of our community. Now I am busy defending the small pubs that are a hallmark of the town as well as reaching out to savers and pensioners who are suffering under Gordon Brown.
Under the current arrangement, Cheltenham’s voice at Westminster is mute. It’s all about Westminster’s voice in Cheltenham – and I want to change that. I have aspired to be the MP for my home town since, as a boy of 17, I delivered a petition to James Callaghan in Downing Street to save my Grammar School (Pate’s) from being closed by the then Secretary of State, Shirley Williams. It taught me then that so much of local life is affected by national decisions – and I am continuing to fight for my town.
If you are coming to Cheltenham this weekend, come and help deliver the long-awaited victory for us locally. We will be campaigning from 10.30am on Saturday for a couple of hours – with a specially produced newspaper carrying a message from David Cameron. For details of where to meet, please email me.
Happy Spring Forum!