By Colin Wiles, housing consultant.

When HQN first asked me to write a blog, in June 2019, I promised that I would “sometimes aim to cover subjects that go well beyond housing” and this is one of those blogs (although it is about good governance and local authority mis-management).

Last Thursday I was elected to my local town council as an independent councillor. That might sound rather mundane, but it was anything but, as I shall explain.

I live in Sandwich, Kent. It is an historic Cinque Port town, with a population of around 5,000. It has a medieval core with scores of listed buildings, an historic riverside quay, two fine churches and a historic Guildhall. Its archives include a copy of Magna Carta. The town council has historically been run as a kind of gentlemen’s club with an excess of secrecy and archaic rituals – tricorn hats and black gowns feature in the annual mayor making ceremony.

It has an annual budget of around £315,000 but also has access to a charitable toll bridge fund of around £2.5 million to prop up its finances. (For centuries the council collected a toll to cross the River Stour and the funds were retained when local government was re-organised in 1974.) The town council is the sole trustee of the toll bridge fund but the relationship between the two is fuzzy to say the least.

Last year five councillors resigned over the way the council was being mismanaged, four of them from the ruling Conservative group. You can read all about it on our website if you are interested. Basic stuff like publishing agendas and minutes on time was simply not being done. One of the biggest concerns was that part of the Guildhall, formerly occupied by the CAB who were evicted, was leased to an IT company owned by an existing councillor, in breach of the lease from Dover District Council who own the building. As a result of widespread concern in the town about these and other issues, a new group called Sandwich Matters was launched just before Christmas, with the aim of standing for four of the vacated seats. I was part of the new committee and decided to run. It was a big decision as I knew that, by putting my head above the parapet, I would be in for a lot of flak.

So, for five weeks I was involved in an often-fractious campaign, working ten-hour days, setting up Facebook sites, designing, printing and delivering leaflets, and canvassing. I must have walked a hundred miles and knocked on well over 400 doors. We faced a lot of abuse and vitriol from the status quo. Keyboard warriors started to attack us. One anonymous troll was exposed and started using my Facebook photo on his profile, then a series of horrific clown photos before we called in the police. I happened to meet one man, who had repeatedly abused us, in the pub and all his aggression melted away once we started chatting. Later that night I had a Facebook friend request from him. So much for keyboard warriors.

Part of our pitch was that we wanted to remove divisive party politics from the Guildhall. We described all the services that had closed in recent times and the mismanagement that we had uncovered. We called for basic administration to be improved and for the committee structure to be slimmed down, from the existing nine committees to two or three at most. We made some comparisons with Rye, another Cinque Port which has a much more bustling economy than Sandwich, the result of both a more pro-active town council and the adoption of a neighbourhood plan, something Sandwich had consistently rejected.

The campaign was well run. We put out three leaflets and gained over 900 supporters on our Facebook page. The opposition were consistently on the backfoot, responding to our claims and attacking our leaflets. I had a long correspondence with a Conservative councillor that was published, where I was able to justify everything we had said as either factual or fair comment.

On polling day itself I was delivering over 200 ‘knocking up’ leaflets to confirmed supporters from 7am and spent the rest of the day canvassing. At 5pm I went home to sleep, before going to the count at 10pm. I knew from our canvassing that we would do well, but the scale of the victory was overwhelming. There were eight candidates in our Sandwich North ward and three seats. We each won nearly 600 votes and 66% of the vote on a 43% turnout.  It was the best result for any candidate in any by-election in the town. Our candidate in South, in a two-way race, also won by 303 votes to 204.

So, now the fun begins. Sandwich Town Council has been Conservative-run for ever, but now there are ten non-Conservative councillors and six Conservatives, so we have a technical majority to push through major reforms.

What are the lessons that could be applied to UK housing? First, good governance is important in every public body, whether small or large. Second, when people have had enough, change is possible. Third, hard work pays off. By Friday morning I was absolutely shattered and slept for most of the day.

But change is coming to Sandwich. Come and visit. It is a wonderful town.