South Woodham Ferrers Council Taxpayers Association

Since formation in 2011 the South Woodham Ferrers Independents (SWFI) have campaigned and worked towards a fairer deal for this town. Residents have shown there is a need for better representation in the town, voting one of our candidates on to Chelmsford City Council in 2013 and consistently making us the clear alternative to the national Conservative Party.
Since our strong start national politics have changed, in particular a national party with similar branding became significantly more popular, causing some confusion as to our affilitions. We have therefore decided to relaunch with a new name and identity that we feel more closely represents our amibitions. We are a relatively small group but we know many in the town would like to see a better deal for South Woodham Ferrers.
— John Miller - Chairman of SWFCTA

South Woodham Ferrers is around 10% of the population of the Chelmsford City area. Due to consistently being one of the highest Council Tax bands in the area, as a town, we contribute over 10% of the city’s Council Tax revenues. In general, we can all understand the benefits of paying tax – the revenue is used to fund a number of services in the area some extremely important, but when you look around do you feel that Chelmsford City Council offers us good value for the proportion of Council Tax we pay?

SWFCTA want to work towards a fairer deal for the town. We also want to give consideration to other areas’ residents who may also feel neglected. We want to work towards a better city overall with neighbourhood shopping centres regenerated for both shoppers and local businesses. Protecting open spaces is another of our priorities, whether just open countryside or Council and Community leisure facilities that need an improved maintenance regime. Transport is another issue we are very concerned about, looking at both public transport and highways, including on-street parking in residential areas, we would seek to achieve improvements throughout the City's rural parishes.

Chelmsford City Council has been working on their new Local Plan, a hugely important project that will affect every Chelmsford resident for many years to come. With a proposal for significant new housing in our community, the cry of residents has been for improved infrastructure to support these changes, and many feel there have been insufficient promises made about how realistic the proposed growth of our town will be. We're not alone in being concerned either, with many Parishes in the area also affected by this new plan and yet left in the dark about the practicalities of what’s to come. The rural communities in Chelmsford are extremely significant to the well-being of the city as a whole and we must not let them lose out due to party politics and the City Council's concentration on Chelmsford Town Centre.

Without a national party dictating our policies or decisions, we are able to focus on the residents of South Woodham Ferrers and support the other Chelmsford parishes. We believe local government should focus on local issues and not be guided by policies made by mainstream political parties; national policies belong in national, not local, government.

We will support and work with all our residents and fellow City Councillors, not political party leaders in Westminster.

Chairman	John Miller
Nominating Officer	Sam Coley