Bohemia Village Voice

Chris Benner - Liberal Democrat Candidate

THE ‘VOICE’ INTERVIEWS CHRIS BENNER, LIB DEM CANDIDATE FOR GENSING WARD

Voice: What is your background?
Chris: I came here from Bath seventeen years ago to work as a teacher at Hillcrest. After that I worked for the Child Support Agency, then I decided to retire. If I’m elected to the Council it will be my full-time occupation. I don’t have any other paid or unpaid employment.
Voice: What is your political experience?
Chris:  I didn’t join the Lib Dems until I came to Hastings. I always used to vote Labour until New Labour came in, then I became very disillusioned. The Iraq war was the last straw. To me it became almost like another Conservative Party. I started voting Lib Dem locally, but still voted nationally for Labour. However, every time I read the Lib Dem manifesto I thought it was very good, very reasonable, so I switched my allegiance.
Voice: What are the local issues?
Chris: Quite a lot. The major issues at the moment are
l Road works. Old ladies have difficulty getting to bus stops, and the bus stops keep being moved. There are lots of ongoing problems:
l Fly-tipping, sometimes right by signs saying ‘no rubbish’.
l Dog mess, as despite the Council providing bins, irresponsible people don’t use them.  I think we should flood the area with dog-wardens for a year, with the power to give on-the-spot fines. We should put up posters to educate people. Dog licences should be re-introduced. Though they penalise good people, the income could pay for dog wardens.
l Litter, the general dishevelment of the area, and neglected buildings. This is a main road, the main entrance to Hastings, and there are all those shops that just look abandoned. There’s a large transient population. People on low incomes can’t afford to repair their own homes, and if the landlords don’t, the buildings just continue to look neglected.
l Traffic and parking. People now use Charles Road West as a rat-run. The residents are unhappy and want traffic-calming. Parking is a big problem and I think there will be a domino effect on parking, which will gradually encroach on the western part of Gensing, due to overdevelopment  such as Horntye. I think planning is the Council’s worst area.
Voice: In the light of the new ‘Duty to Involve’ legislation, how do you plan to enable local people to take more control of their locality?
Chris: I will be listening to what people say and representing them as a councillor. Lib Dems are very good at listening. We need to be out there not just to get elected but afterwards. We’re not under the Party Whip so we’re much more free in how we can behave as a party.
Voice: What else do you plan to do if elected?
Chris: It’s a case of being involved in the community as much as possible, finding out what people want, and acting on their behalf – fighting sounds a bit aggressive, but sometimes we need to do that to get things done.
Voice: What distinguishes you from the other candidates?
Chris: Because I’m a Lib Dem and because of our views of the way things should be, and because of what Lib Dems have done for the town generally.