Letter to Newtown & Heatherlands residents…
Dear Newtown & Heatherlands resident,
I am writing to you today to apply for the job of being your representative on the newly created BCP Council, after all as council taxpayers it is you that will be employing me if I am successful in my campaign and it is you I will be working for, to represent you in council, not my party and certainly not the council. My job will consist of representing the people of Newtown & Heatherlands and raising any concerns people may have in council and then ensure those who have raised those concerns are fully informed of any outcomes.
My intention was to have this letter (job application) sent to every house in Newtown & Heatherlands but unfortunately it took Royal Mail three weeks to respond to my enquiry and they then responded by stating there was nothing they could do until May 20th, a little pointless when the election is to be held on May 2nd. Hopefully, enough people will read and share what I have to say to ensure enough people go out to put that crucial ‘X’ next to my name on the ballot paper. I will not be putting out leaflets full of false promises that other political parties call policies and are generally forgotten as soon as they are elected. I think people need to know about me and whether or not I will give them a strong voice in the council.
So who is Marty Caine and what makes him tick?
I have been actively involved in both local and national politics for over a decade and in 2017 I stood in the General Election as the candidate for Poole, against Robert Syms who we all knew would win without even trying. I and some others had recently started a new political party and it was decided that even though any candidate standing in that particular snap general election for a newly formed party would come nowhere, we felt it was important that at least one candidate stood to show we were serious as a party and as leader of the party I felt it my duty to be the one to stand. I stood in Poole knowing full well I would get a bloody nose and did not expect to get more than the 54 votes the Independent candidate gained in GE2015, to my surprise I gained 551 which in a snap general election where Labour & Conservatives took 80% of the vote share, it turned out to be one of the highest of all the non-entities and it was certainly an important learning curve for myself and Engage. At least I did have the conviction to stand and be counted and by doing so I did put an alternative to the norm on the ballot paper.
I have been active in many things in Poole over the years, I was on the executive committee of the Society of Poole Men, Chairman of the Pirates of Poole who put on Harry Paye Day each year to raise thousands for local charities, I was on the Poole Carnival Committee and when the council sent them a VAT invoice, even though I was no longer involved because I could not put my name to something where Poole Council was the largest beneficiary, I did inform council that it was unlawful to charge non-profit making organisations VAT and this started a full investigation where all those who had been charge VAT were refunded. I started the Seaview Action Group and managed to get the Council to put in the green cats’ eyes clearly separating the bus stops from the road.
I petitioned the government to make it a legal requirement for councils to provided public toilets at all public open spaces
Click here to see the petition
and in 2015 I started a petition to call for a local referendum on the combined authority plan for Poole, Christchurch and Bournemouth because I knew this would be a direct threat to the very existence of Poole. This was before Christchurch had their own local referendum…
Click here to see the petition
As you can see both petitions failed due to not having enough signatures and with the local referendum some council members were simply saying I was talking nonsense and I got no support whatsoever from any of the political parties in Poole nor the Bournemouth Echo, so trying to do right by the people of Poole has certainly been an uphill struggle but I am pleased I have been able to achieve some changes for the better for some people along the way and this has earned me a lot of respect with many of Poole’s councillors.
However, I am far from impressed to find out that even before the new council is elected on May 2nd 2019, the BCP shadow authority has already set the budget which means that for the next six years our council tax in Poole will be raised to the maximum permissible to bring us in line with the higher rate of Christchurch, where they have just spent £175,000 revamping just one of their 16 public toilets. It seems very clear to me that Poole is going to come third in the pecking order when decisions are made by BCP Council and we need to have people elected who are willing to stand up and fight in Council for Poole and that is the job I am applying to you for. The imminent closure of Poole Maternity will mean that future generations will be born in Bournemouth not Poole and I am sure it will not be long before Bournemouth once again applies for city status and fulfils their ambition of becoming ‘Bournemouth – The City by the Sea, with Poole & Christchurch becoming forgotten towns and just suburbs of that city. Do remember that some of those who agreed this combined authority plan and the hike of our council tax in Poole will also be looking for your vote on May 2nd and if it was done (as was sold to us) to save money, it most certainly will not be saving us Poole council taxpayers any money, we will be paying more and getting less for it, which is why we need to have a strong voice on this BCP Council.
I do have grave concerns about Poole losing its unique identity and because of this I started a new project which is a social media community hub specifically for the people of Poole, to share information, past, present and future so that Pooles’ identity and history will be kept alive in the minds of future generations to come. You can find out more about this by visiting…
It is open to anyone with an interest in Poole and is completely free to use. If successful it could become an extremely useful tool for all in Poole to share all kinds of information. Though created by me it will remain totally apolitical and it has been created in such a way that it is the people of Poole who maintain the non-bias approach to information that is shared and everyone has an equal opportunity to share whatever information they want my only request is that people do have the conviction to actually put their name to what they have to say. Far too many problems are created by people using anonymous names to attack others. Of course, there is no way of stopping that completely but I hope that people can understand and respect that rule as it will help maintain respect for others using the Pooletonians Community Hub and I hope that it will help towards keeping us all so much better informed about what is happening in our town.
So on May 2nd, if you want to have a strong voice in Council by electing someone who will not only stand up for you but will most certainly ‘Engage’ with you and raise any concerns you have, then place an ‘X’ next to my name on the ballot paper. I have already created the platform to make it easy to engage with each other and whether I am successful in my campaign to become your councillor or not, that project will continue.
Thank you for taking the time to read this and please share it with others, due to me having only one leg, getting around to speak to the 13,107 residents on the electoral register of Newtown & Heatherlands is not going to be an easy task but I am trying to get round to as many as possible due to being let down by Royal Mail. Sadly time is not on my side though and I need the help of as many people as possible to help spread the word of my campaign. Help me to help you and others…
Best regards
Marty Caine
