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This short article for the Hunts Post is one of the pieces of writing I’m most proud of, right up there with my doctoral thesis. It’s the last thing I wrote for the Hunts Post when I was mayor; I didn’t put it on here at the time, but I want to have it on here for posterity or whatever.

‘I’m not meant to be political when I’m wearing the mayor’s chain’.

I’ve found myself saying that a lot this past year.

That is a very strange thing for a mayor to say. I would suggest that the fact that a mayor exists is political. I would say that the mayor being the chair of the council is political. I am pretty confident in saying that representing a council that can tax you is political.

Nevertheless, I’ve felt the need to say that I’m not political.

The sad reality is that politics is a dirty word, political an expletive, and politician an insult.

Partly, this is because we say political when we mean party political or partisan.

Partly, this is because the particular structures we have in the UK need reform.

Partly, it’s because politics is hard. It means making difficult choices with insufficient information and limited resources. It means balancing doing things quickly and doing things right. It means both leading and consulting.

Partly, it’s because politics and politicians do not have a good reputation – often deservedly. That’s not just because politics is slow, messy, and difficult. I’m not sure we’ve got to grips with just how damaging the MP’s expenses scandal was for trust, particularly for younger voters for whom it is one of their first political memories. 

I cannot blame people, given what I’ve said, for not just being sceptical but being cynical about politics.

Despite all the reproach that politics and politicians get, politics is also a dirty word because nobody stands up for politics. Nobody says that, despite the mistakes and missteps and missed opportunities, politics is good.

So, let me stand up for politics.

Politics means parks, bins, roads, jobs, trains, schools, and hospitals.

It means safe food and warm homes.

It means safety. It means security. It means dignity.

I suspect that a lot of people will read what I have said and will be thinking about the condition of the roads, or of the health service, or of any one of countless other problems we face. I do not deny them or try to mitigate them for a moment. The fact that our politics aren’t working as they should is a reason to improve politics, not to abandon politics.

What I’m saying will be of little comfort to someone who is waiting for Chorus to fix their leaking roof, or who has to choose between whether to turn on the oven or turn on the heating, or who has to wait – and wait – and wait – for a mental health appointment.

But I believe it is true. 

It is possible to imagine a world without politics. Thomas Hobbes set out what it would look like – life would be ‘nasty, brutish and short’.

We can see the value of politics, even when imperfect, without going to such extremes. If I can use the Town Council as an example: there have been times on the town council when I have wanted to – metaphorically speaking – tear my hair out. There has been more than one occasion when I’ve looked back on a decision I made and later regretted. The procedures we have to go through are sometimes Kafkaesque. 

Nevertheless, from the Coneygear Centre to the crematorium to Britain in Bloom to the Fayre on the Square, the work as a whole is worthwhile. It’s not perfect. It’s still good. It’s still worth it.

Politics is more, though, than councillors and councils and meetings and minutes.

If I can paraphrase Sir Bernard Crick’s line, politics should be ethics done in public.

During my year as mayor, I have met the most wonderful people giving their time and strength for the good of the community in big ways and small. I have bad news for those people – what you’re doing is political.

What you’re up to is ethics done in public – taking a moral position, and acting on it. In the best possible way, what you’re doing is political. 

That does not absolve elected politicians, or people who aspire to be elected politicians, from anything. It also does not absolve any of us of our responsibilities to be engaged in politics as we are able, even if we’d rather not. We do need to keep a sceptical – but not cynical – eye on our elected representatives.

That does mean politics is more than what goes on in the Town Hall, Pathfinder House, or Shire Hall. It’s more even than what goes on in Westminster and Whitehall. It means reporting a pothole, picking up a discarded crisp packet, checking on your neighbour. That’s politics. It means volunteering, reading the news, taking an active interest in your community. That’s politics.

It means, hopefully and however imperfectly, that politics is ethics done in public.

If I may borrow a line from Skunk Anansie, yes, it’s political; everything’s political.

It doesn’t change that our politics need to improve.

But it does mean that if we want politics to improve, we have to improve our politics. That means lots of things, but it does mean not shying away from saying that what we are doing is political. So, if I can finish my term as mayor with a request, it is this: please, be political.

The Hunts Post, 1st May 2023.

Year	Precept (£)*	Increase (£) †	Increase (%) †	Cumulative Increase (£) †	Cumulative increase (%) †	CPI to April (%) ‡	Cumulative CPI to Apr (%) †
16-17	128.61
17-18	136.26	7.65	5.95	7.65	5.95	2.4	2.4
18-19	141.75	5.49	4.03	13.14	10.22	2.1	4.6
19-20	168.11	26.36	18.60	39.50	30.71	0.8	5.4
20-21	171.87	3.76	2.24	43.26	33.64	1.5	7.0
21-22	181.37	9.50	5.53	52.76	41.02	9.0	17.0
22-23	187.67	6.30	3.47	59.06	45.92	8.7	27.0
23-24	213.43	25.76	13.73	84.82	65.95
24-25	234.39	20.96	9.2	105.78	82.25

* Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities and Ministry of Housing, Co. (2013). Council Tax statistics. [Online]. gov.uk. Last Updated: 21 June 2023. Available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/council-tax-statistics [Accessed 16 February 2024].
† Calculated by me.
‡ Office for National Statistics. (2024). Consumer price inflation, UK: January 2024. [Online]. Office for National Statistics. Last Updated: 14 February 2024. Available at: https://www.ons.gov.uk/economy/inflationandpriceindices/bulletins/consumerpriceinflation/latest [Accessed 16 February 2024].

Huntingdon Town Council is currently going through its budget and precept setting for FY24/25. Unusually, the budget and precept were not approved when they were presented to the full finance committee earlier this month.

Below are my remarks on the budget and precept at the finance committee meeting on 11th January 2024. The headings weren’t read out, but were for me so I knew where I was in what I was saying. The budget is at the Town Council website and is the document I refer to.

At the meeting, it was agreed that councillors would submit their proposals. In the interests of transparency, I’m sharing mine publicly. My suggestions are in column G of this Excel.

I’m going to set out how I see our situation; why we’re in that situation; and what I think we should do.

What is our situation?

We have a problem. We spend more money that we take in.

The way this budget is balanced is by spending extra money we borrowed when we took out the public works board loan.

If we look at page 12 of the draft budget, near the bottom under ‘capital income’, the draft budget takes £486,000 from the investment account for 24/25. The forecast is to take the same amount in 25/26 and 26/27. That’s just under £1.5m in three fiscal years.

If you look at page 13, the capital project reserve stands at just over £1.5m.

That means by the end of the forecasts in this budget, we will have used up the extra money we borrowed to fund the first repayments on the crematorium/depot project. We are spending more money than we take in, and we are going to run out of money to make up the difference.

Why are we in this position?

Because the combined crematorium and depot project does not pay for itself.

If we go up to page 7, and look under 815 – Crematorium, the total income is £783,052 for 24/25.

On page 8, the expenditure for the crematorium is £616,876.50.

To that, we have to add staff. If you go to page 12, 4012 Salaries Gross – Crematorium is £272,436.

That works out as a loss for the crematorium of £107,260.50 for 24/25.

We also still have to pay the remaining half of the public works board loan that is attributed to the depot. That’s £243,249.50. Totalling that gives us how much the crematorium and depot project is losing us a in 24/25: £349,510.

The projections in the budget do not see us closing the gap. By 26/27, the crem is projected to be bringing in another £95,000 per year. We’d still be a quarter million pounds short.

In other words, the current budget, which relies on a 15% precept increase, is setting us up for an even bigger increase in the future.

What should we do?

During the budgeting process, I said that we needed a combination of precept rises, cuts, commercial income, and time to close our gap between money in and money out.

Precept rises

I’m afraid that there will need to be some precept rises. That shouldn’t be our first choice. This budget isn’t doing anything to avoid more and more precept rises – it’s setting us on a course where we have no choice but to tax more and more. The inflation rate over the last twelve months is 4.2%, so we are looking at a precept increase this year of more than triple inflation during a cost of living crisis.

There are about ten thousand parish and town councils. We currently have the 74th highest band D levy. We already cost residents a lot. That may well be value for money, but the absolute amount we take still matters.

Cuts

During the budget process, I suggested cuts totalling nearly £200,000. Cllr Fearon and the deputy mayor also made suggestions.

I don’t think we can justify budgeting £4,000 for civic regalia. I think we should cut quite a lot under 123 – Democratic Expenses; 410 – Grants and Donations; 430 Twinning; and 940 Huntingdon in Bloom.

Let me be clear that this means stopping doing things that I think are valuable. Things I would like to see continue. It doesn’t mean stopping them permanently, but it does mean pausing them until our income and expenditure are back in line.

I regret that I have to say what I’m about to say, because I know that it is likely to cause distress amongst people I care about. I’m afraid we have, at the very least, to freeze our salaries budget. That currently stands at £1.6m. We cannot increase our headcount further, and should look to reduce headcount through natural wastage.

Commercial income

We need to bring in more money through commercial income. I won’t rehash the various discussions we’ve had, except to say two things. Firstly, working out how we get more income, and then getting that income, should be top of the agenda. Secondly, getting that income will take time.

Time

We need time to get more commercial income. We get that time by making cuts now. We need to buy ourselves as much time as we can, and I do not think the budget does that.

If we vote down the budget and its associated precept, we will need, in short order, to draw up a new one. The clerk has said that we don’t legally have to give our precept figure to HDC for some weeks. We can do this. I will therefore vote against the budget, and encourage you to do the same.

I think we understand that we cannot go on like this. We have to do some really difficult things. We should do them now, and not wait. The longer we wait to grasp the nettle, the harder we will have to grasp it and the more it will sting.

I would like to provide an overview of what the town council has been doing over the past twelve months and look at some of the issues coming down the pike for the future.

A lot of the decisions are made and scrutiny carried out by the committees, so I will leave that to the committee chairs to go over, and I will look more at the civic side of things that it has been my great fortune to cover.

Civic

The first big event of the year was the Platinum Jubilee, marking Queen Elizabeth II’s seventy years of service to our country and beyond. I will admit that I did not expect that I would be standing on top of Castle Hill with a deputy lieutenant, struggling to light the beacon with what was essentially a four metre long match while avoiding the occasional drop of burning paraffin.

This was my first realisation that being mayor could be surprisingly dangerous, and I soon met Lady Scarlet. Lady Scarlet has a fearsome reputation for biting the unwary, and I was advised to bring a mouse to satiate her – she promptly gobbled up the mouse. I should say that Lady Scarlet is a bateleur eagle who lives at the Raptor Foundation, where I was very pleased to open their fundraising in support of the endangered Philippine eagle.

After my encounter with Lady Scarlet, things started getting really dicey. I had to judge the best front garden competition.

Just about every office I have ever worked in has a series of files for health and safety, work policies, fire, and so on. Huntingdon Town Council is the only one I’ve worked in that has one marked ‘Operation London Bridge’

Operation London Bridge was the codename for all the long-rehearsed plans for what to do in the event of the death of Her late Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II. As we all know, we had to put those plans into action on 8^th September last year.

I think the highest praise I can give is that, after coming in to see if there was anything to do, I went home because everything was either in hand or had already been done. Indeed, other councils in the area approached us for support. Everything ran as it was meant to run, down to Hayley, complete with two clocks, sending the proclamation party onto the balcony at exactly twelve seconds before we were due to start.

I was proud – really proud – to see how well both the town and the town council acquitted themselves over the mourning period. Having the honour of proclaiming the new king won’t, I think, be beaten by anything else I do as mayor, or possibly anything else I do.

As Mayor, I’ve been lucky to attend all manner of events across Huntingdon and beyond – from beer festivals to opening businesses to voluntary sector events, and marking the fortieth anniversary of our twinning with Wertheim am Main. The best part about Huntingdon is how much is going on and how much people do for the good of the town, without expecting any reward or recognition, and the best part about being mayor has been meeting many of those people. Rob Bradshaw, organising the accessible Dance Ability disco at the Montagu Club; Steph James, setting up Wild About Huntingdon; Roger Hickling, helping his 500th client at Huntingdon Area Money Advice; and so many more.

Council

One of the mayor’s functions is to be the chair of council. I’ve not had to use the gavel once, which must be a good thing, and I have been heartened to see more people attending town council meetings – not just when they want to raise a particular issue, but also because they want to know what’s going on – and to keep an eye on councillors! I would very much like to see more people coming along to observe what we’re doing.

Activities

Much of the work of the council is done by the staff behind the scenes, not least here in the town hall. I can’t cover them all, but I would like to mention a few.

To my mind, one of the key functions of a town council – as opposed to a district or county council – is to help make a town more than a collection of houses and businesses, but to make it a community by bringing people together.

One of the highlights of the year for me, and certainly something that brought the community together, was the Christmas market and lights switch-on by Jake Jarman. We had a whole range of free attractions, as well as the traditional stalls, that brought loads of people into town to enjoy themselves. It’s a huge effort for the team, and there’s a gap of about three weeks between the Christmas market ending and planning for the next one starting, but there are few things as rewarding as seeing young people – and some not so young people – dancing in the snow being blown out of the town hall.

Huntingdon is a market town. Having a market is an important part of life here – not just for commerce, but as a social event as much as anything else and to give that sense of community I think is so important by sharing the space of the town. In support of that aim, and working with Huntingdonshire District Council and Huntingdon First, we have set up the monthly Fayre on the Square. This expands the normal offering of the market, adding in crafts and other local produce, as well as free entertainment. The success of the Fayre on the Square has been obvious in the numbers of people coming into town, even on a particularly bleak January day. I think it has also contributed to there being more stalls coming to the regular, weekly market. Getting stalls to come to the market requires footfall, but footfall requires market stalls. Fayre on the Square has been a big part of breaking out of a vicious circle into what I hope will be a virtuous circle.

It does also mean that we do have a market on the market square in a market town. 

We have also recruited an excellent communications officer, SJ Gaule. Our output on social media has improved significantly, our website is in the process of being updated, we’re looking at options for developing the magazine, and more. Most importantly, having a dedicated communications officer means we can better communicate in both directions. We are running consultations, for instance, so that the people of Huntingdon can give their voice on more high-profile issues.

Coneygear Centre

The Coneygear Centre hosts a huge range of activities – the community cafe, homework club, children’s storytime, seniors’ club, boxing, bingo, weight loss, church groups, library access, and more. 

More important, I think, than the specific activities is what the Coneygear Centre represents – a space for people to come together. That can be for social activities, but, particularly as it is in one of the most deprived parts of Huntingdonshire, it offers invaluable support. Through Shilpa Desai-Sakaldip, we are a trusted partner of Cambridgeshire County Council, which means we can more easily refer people to support when they need it.

Although the Coneygear Centre hasn’t been here for long, and although it was closed through lockdown, it already feels to me to be well on the way to becoming a worthy replacement for the old Medway Centre.

Grounds

The value of parks and open spaces was brought home to us all during lockdown. We are fortunate indeed to have our grounds team. The remarkable quality of what we do in Huntingdon was shown when the town won nine awards at Anglia in Bloom last year. As well as making the town more pleasant to live in, our open spaces bring people to Huntingdon. The town council is responsible for various open spaces in town, from play areas at Stukeley Meadows to the new dog park coming near Sallowbush Road to Bloomfield Park to Coneygear Park.

One of the frustrations I have is that some parks and play areas in Huntingdon are run by the town council and some by the district council. I do not think that is the most efficient use of taxpayers’ money. We are in discussions with Huntingdonshire District Council about taking on some of their open spaces, starting with some play areas. Money is, of course, a key issue, and we need to avoid residents of Huntingdon effectively being taxed twice, but I am sure that these are issues that can be resolved.

This is not in any way to disparage HDC’s grounds team and rangers. It is simply that Huntingdon will always be more important to Huntingdon Town Council than it is to Huntingdonshire District Council.

Of course, beyond play areas and parks, the grounds team also look after the ever-popular allotments, and the cemeteries, including the new burial grounds that are now in use at the crematorium. The crematorium itself is working well after an unavoidably delayed start. As well as providing a valuable service to Huntingdon and beyond, the new crem is a green facility that will also return money to the town council.

External relations

Huntingdon Town Council works with lots of other bodies to deliver services for Huntingdon, but I’d like to highlight two: Huntingdonshire District Council and Huntingdon First.

We coöperate with District on lots of day to day issues, not least the Fayre on the Square. That joining working seems to be going well, and both councillors and officers are open to our ideas. There are a couple of particular areas where I’m sure that District will be particularly interested in our ongoing input, but where I’d also encourage everyone to follow what’s going on and to have their say because they will have real impacts on the future of our town. These are the Huntingdon masterplan and the new local plan.

The town council responded to the draft masterplan, and HDC have made it clear that they are in listening mode on the project. While there are specifics of the plan that we have concerns about, it is the right broad direction of travel.

The other is the new local plan, which will shape the growth of the district and of Huntingdon for decades to come. Huntingdon is going to grow. By engaging at very early stages, we can make sure that growth is sustainable and to the benefit of the town as a whole.

There’s a proverb in software engineering – with enough eyes, all bugs are shallow. The more people who look at these documents, the better the chance we have of finding that brilliant idea that will solve a particular problem.

The other group we’ve been working very closely with is Huntingdon First, on a whole range of different projects in the town centre. I wish I could take credit for Dino Day and Hallowe’en, but those are both down to Paul and Mags. I think, though, it does underline that no one body can do everything, but we can do a surprising amount working together.

Challenges

We do face real challenges at the moment. The very high rate of inflation, and particularly energy inflation, has hit the town council hard. We are staying on top of costs. We’ve found the best deals we can for electricity. We are continuing to find efficiencies while delaying some projects. We’re holding off hiring staff, and we’re going to keep making as many savings as we can, both in the rest of the 2022/23 financial year and in 2023/24.

Those challenges don’t just affect Huntingdon Town Council, of course. They affect everyone. That means there is more demand for, for instance, the support we provide at the Coneygear Centre. That is replicated across all parts of public service. There is more demand, but there are less resources. There are more problems, but less solutions. 

These problems manifest themselves in the town centre, with the condition of 111 High Street and the problems with anti-social behaviour we have had. I am delighted that the police are having success in dealing with the ASB, and I welcome Inspector Norden here this evening to tell us more about that.

However, those issues are not just in the town centre – they are right the way across our town – roads, buses, hospitals, schools. I wish I could offer a set of solutions, but I can’t. Better coöperation between various agencies is part of the answer. A big part of the answer is, I think, citizen involvement – join your local neighbourhood watch. If there isn’t one, the Huntingdonshire Neighborhood Watch Association can help you start one. Volunteer if you can. Check on your neighbours. Report the pothole.

Conclusion

The chairs will give more information on what their respective committees have been doing. I hope that, taken together, our reports will give you a good view of what Huntingdon Town Council is doing and why it is doing it.

I appreciate that not everyone agrees with the decisions that the Town Council makes. I hope that people will see that we do take care over the decisions we do make, even if we don’t always get it right. We are doing our best to tell people what we’re doing and why we’re doing it.

If I may borrow our town’s motto – a bonis ad meliora – we are going from good to better.

The picture here is doing the rounds on social media, and it has annoyed me, and I thought I’d explain why.

I could start by justifying or explaining the two later artworks or putting them in context, or somesuch, but I’m going to look at the facts about the artists, the Facebook page sharing the meme, and Nazis.

The four pieces of art are Starry Night by Van Gogh, the Mona Lisa by da Vinci, Untitled 1974 by Robert Ryman, and Comedian by Maurizio Cattelan.

Firstly, the facts. Neither Robert Ryman nor Maurizio Cattelan have degrees. The premise of the meme – that these high-falutin’ artists who have gone to fancy colleges and are probably woke tofu-eaters – is simply, factually wrong. Cattelan, so far as I can tell, did not attend any higher education institute. Ryman spent a year at the Tennessee Polytechnic Institute and then a year at the George Peabody College for Teachers.

Van Gogh worked for an art dealer in the Hague and then London, studied artists like Paul Gaugin, and attended the Belgian Royal Academy of Fine Arts. There’s vastly more to Van Gogh, but to imply he didn’t have education, let alone formal education, in arts is just bunkum. The situation with da Vinci is rather different. I don’t think it would have been possible for Leonardo to study art at university in the fifteenth century, because there weren’t any universities teaching it – you’d have joined the Guild of St Luke – as the faculties at the time were Roman law, canon law, theology, philosophy, and medicine.

This doesn’t particularly matter, other than in terms of being technically correct – the best sort of correct – but it’s worth considering why someone is putting out this bullshit. I should clarify that I mean bullshit in the technical sense – it’s not that it’s false, but that the person behind it doesn’t care whether it’s true or false so long as it serves their purpose.

So, let’s look at the Facebook page from where the meme is being shared. It is called Click It News*†. It was previously called Click It Conservative News – nothing wrong with that; some of my best friends are conservatives. However, if we look at what they post, we get an idea of where they’re coming from. The most recent post links a store being raided to the Democrats; the next most recent links the Democrats to the recently-collapsed FTX bitcoin thing; and so on. It promotes Dinesh D’Souza, asks why liberals are so annoying, complain about the woke, implies trans people are predators, and so on. It’s not conservative in any meaningful sense of the word – it’s populist, Trumpian, and reactionary. It is deliberately stoking the culture wars.

I’m going to go one further – it’s fascist or, at least, leaning towards fascism.

From the 1920s on, the Nazis described much modern art as Entartete Kunst – ‘degenerate art’. It connects to the idea of cultural Bolshevism, as well, of course, as anti-Semitism, and it carries a lot with it, but part of the payload is that it is not ‘proper’ art, that it is too clever by half, and that it has some malign purpose towards introducing foreign substances into our precious bodily fluids. It is pretty explicitly anti-intellectual.

I think the same thing is going on here. Now, not everyone who uses the term woke is using it in a similar manner to cultural Bolshevism in the first half of the twentieth century but a lot, wittingly or not, are. In this post, the anti-intellectualism is absolutely there, as is the implication that all this modern rot isn’t proper art and things were better in the good old days. All this university education isn’t doing us any favours.

It’s a catchy meme. A lot of art today isn’t very good. Look at this silly thing.

I don’t think Cattelan’s work is particularly interesting and, frankly, it’s derivative. The other work he’s famous for is a gold toilet, titled ‘America’. The message is obvious and banal.

However, a lot of art at the time of da Vinci or Van Gogh also wasn’t very good. We don’t remember it, because it’s not worth remembering 150 or 500 years later. I rather doubt we’ll be remembering Cattelan’s banana in 2522, although I hope that we do remember the painting Guernica.

It’s not a fair or meaningful comparison, but it’s easy to do, and puts out the idea that these are dust-eclipsed days.

It’s the same tactic that Paul Joseph Watson used in his video† about modern art, which was pretty close to complaining about Entartete Kunst – not just in the core message, but in using something that seems harmless to entice people into going thoughtlessly down their line of thinking. It’s similar to Britain First’s habit of asking people to share their posts in favour of veterans, animal rights, motherhood, and apple pie.

I don’t know whether Click It News would meet any given definition of fascism. A quick look suggests that it is leaning that way, though, and in the current environment pushes people towards it and towards less extreme but still dangerous positions.

This is a long way of saying ‘check what you’re sharing before you share it’ – for facts, for where it’s from, and why the person sharing it wants you to share it. Sometimes it’s because cats are cute. Sometimes, it’s because there’s a message, and they don’t always want you to be aware you’re receiving a message. It’s not that some people went to uni and then were a bit silly – it’s that these universities are dangerous, these times are bad, these people cannot be trusted.

* – I’m linking to this page for completeness etc, but it’s not one I’d recommend visiting.

† – you can find it online easily enough. I’m not linking to it.

Everything was well in hand when I reached the town hall at about half past eight this morning. There wasn’t really anything for me to do – all that was going on was last minute checks to see that the sound system was ready for Sunday, distribute black armbands to councillors as they came in, and wait for final details as to dates, times, and protocols.

Evidently, there had been some drama in the morning, with a couple of suspect packages being found in the town and some sort of alarm in St Ives, but nothing seemed to come of it. The chair and deputy chair of the district council came to the town hall along with a communications officer from the district and, fortuitously, a photographer. The photographer had just happened to be passing, intending to take photos of the floral tributes, when the chair came past with his floral tribute to lay outside the town hall. We sat and talked for a short while in the parlour, and then I, the deputy mayor, the chair, and the deputy chair went and laid our flowers. There were already quite a few floral tributes and a couple of drawings that had been placed.

At eleven o’clock, I went outside with the deputy mayor, deputy chair, and a couple of other town councillors to hear the bells tolling. There were quite a few people who came to the market square and stayed for all ninety-four peals.

The deputy mayor and I were kindly driven around by another councillor to deliver books of condolences to various schools, care homes, religious buildings, and other community facilities in town. That took two hours.

We then returned to the town hall, had a coffee, and went home.

I was at RAF Wyton this evening for their annual reception and Sunset ceremony. Just as a Spitfire from the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight was finishing its flypast, the news started to be passed around the crowd that the Queen had passed away.

The proceedings for the evening were quickly changed and we all stood there processing the news as the band played Sunset and the RAF flag was hauled down. The commanding officer, Wg Cdr Farley-West, took the salute, and then the band played the national anthem – God Save the King.

It was a poignant moment; Sunset is the piece of music traditionally played to mark the end of the day in the military, now marking a remarkable life of service.

Today’s news was not unexpected – the death of someone in their nineties never is, and news had come earlier in the day from Buckingham Palace to the effect that the Queen was gravely ill – but it was still a bolt from the blue. Even though it was evidently true, I couldn’t quite process it and I think the same was true for a lot of the others there this evening, particularly for those in the military who have a particular allegiance to the Queen.

Since then, it has been something of a surreal few hours for me. I am currently the mayor of Huntingdon, and so I went back home, put on a black suit and tie, added the black mourning bag over the jewel on the mayoral chair and headed in to the town hall. The team at the town hall were already hard at work, implementing our part of Operation London Bridge.

My official statement – written and approved in advance – went out on social media

“It is with the greatest sadness that this evening we have learnt of the passing of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II.

Having served our Nation with the utmost loyalty and devotion for 70 years, I hope that we as a town can come together during this period of mourning to reflect and remember our Monarch for all that she did, inspired and served in that time.

On behalf of the people of Huntingdon, I offer my sincere condolences to the Royal family and to every person grieving locally, nationally and beyond at the loss of, for many of us, the only British Monarch we have known in our lifetime.

May this time of sorrow around the world be an opportunity for us to demonstrate locally our great sense of community, to support each other as we mourn the loss of our Queen.

Please know that through your time of deep sorrow, I, along with our families, friends and neighbours share your grief and that together we will look ahead to brighter days, which is what Her Majesty would want us to do.”

Message from the Mayor, Huntingdon Town Council Facebook page.

There are all sorts of little details that go into the planning for that – there will be a book of condolences in court room two at the town hall, which usually has a picture of Oliver Cromwell, removed for the duration. We quickly went through what I was going to be doing over the period of mourning, and then I drafted a message for the book of condolences and then wrote it in the book itself.

For fully seven decades, Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II unfailingly served our country, working for her people to the last.

Just as the remarkable example of her life brought people together across the continents, I am confident that all the people of Huntingdon will come together to mark her reign, our sadness at her passing matched only by our affection for her in life.

Our thoughts with His Majesty the King, Her Majesty the Queen Consort, and all the Roayl Family.

It is now for us to follow the example of selfless dedication that Her Majesty has left us.

[signed] David Landon Cole,
Mayor of Huntingdon,
8-ix-2022

The next few days are going to be very strange. It does mark the end of an era, and we are entering a few months at least that will be very difficult for a great many people. I have various official duties coming up, including being at Huntingdon railway station for when the funeral train passes through. As someone said at the town hall this evening, it will be that moment and the fact that it will have a physicality to it that will really start to bring everything home to a lot of people.

I suspect that the question, ‘where were you when the Queen died?’ will start to go round before too long. Well, I was at RAF Wyton, watching a Spitfire fly overhead before the RAF ensign came down to the strains of Sunset.

This article originally appeared in the Hunts Post on 19th August 2022

It has been incredibly hot. The previous temperature record was broken by more than one and a half degrees, with 40.3°C recorded at Coningsby. It wasn’t just Coningsby, though – forty-six weather stations across the UK recorded temperatures higher than the previous record of 38.7°C.

How many more summers above 40 degrees will there be? And how far those summers are above 40 degrees, depends greatly on how much more CO2 and other greenhouse gases we emit.

CO₂ emissions are higher in Cambridgeshire than the national average. About a quarter of carbon emissions come from road transport, so it’s no surprise we’re higher because we’re a rural area and you need a car to get around. That means we do have an opportunity around here to have a real impact on carbon emissions by improving public transport, particularly buses. What does that look like in practice?

It needs to be quick to get to work, connect up smaller communities, and be an attractive way of travelling.

First, an express service to Cambridge. By the time the Busway B has wiggled around Huntingdon and St Ives, it can take two hours at rush hour to get to Cambridge. The possibility of the 905 from St Neots to Cambridge alternating between a stopping service and a fast service has been mooted, and something similar on the Busway would make it a realistic option for commuters.

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A faster service would mean fewer stops, but that loss of convenience could be made up for by extending the on-demand Ting bus service trial extended across Hunts. That could let people get from across town to, say, the bus station to get the B. It would also make it easier to get into Huntingdon from the outlying villages, and from villages to villages.

To make it attractive, we need to tidy up and repair bus stops and shelters, including the bus station, and publish accessible timetables and journey planning tools, advertising public transport in and beyond our area. It goes without saying that buses should be zero carbon as soon as possible. Ideally, we want bus timetables to be planned with train timetables in mind, so that you don’t have to drive to the station.

Of course, that all costs money. But it is do-able, and they are things we should do – after all, we are at particular risk from climate change, living in a flat, low-lying county criss-crossed by rivers.

This article originally appeared in the Hunts Post on 17th July, 2022.

Huntingdon is a market town, but our market isn’t working as the centre of community life that it could be.

We know that markets in Huntingdon can be successful – the vegan market run by Huntingdon First and the Christmas market run by the Town Council bring in loads of people and make the High Street a bustling place.

Why do those do so well?

High streets and markets are changing. They’re not where most people are going for the daily or weekly shop – whether we like it or not Amazon exists. What will bring people into town isn’t shopping like it used to be – it’s experiences and entertainment. We need to build on the fantastic regular traders that we already have at the market.

So, to break out of the vicious circle of low footfall causing low attendance causing low footfall, we need to relaunch of the market. That should start with a big bang that attracts both traders and shoppers – and a real push in traditional and social media to let people know that there is a big change to the market and that it’s going to be continuing, and it should tie into Huntingdon First’s Discover Huntingdon campaign.

To keep it going, we need regular attractions to bring people in. St Neots Town Council have done this really well with their Market Marvels events. We could do something similar – like Dino Day and the Eco Fair.

My own view is that Huntingdon Town Council could eventually run the market, either by being transferred the charter or leasing it for a peppercorn rent. It’ll always be more important to Huntingdon than to Huntingdonshire, and would be about placemaking based on knowing what local people want. It would also simplify the organisation and just be plain sensible that the town runs the town market. 

Either way, traders, Huntingdon First, the Town Council, and the District Council need a joint plan of action for the market – to make it what it could be, and then keep it there. There is, of course, lots more to it than that, but I do believe the basic idea of a big relaunch followed by regular events would bring in the footfall that brings in the traders that bring in the footfall.

More than anything, though, if we want the market to succeed, we need to use it. Come down this Saturday and see what’s on at the market!