Ken Meeson is the former Leader of Solihull Council.
As I will be 85 on 25th May I decided not to stand for re-election at the local elections after 40 years in politics, 10 years as Conservative Leader/Leader of Council and most of the remainder as Committee Chairman and Cabinet Member, Conservative Leader on the West Midlands Joint Committee, served on various Local Government Association committees and three terms as Mayor.
I am pleased to say that Solihull Metropolitan Borough bucked the national trend and we gained a seat from the Green Party (who are the official Opposition) but lost one to the Lib Democrats so we retain control. My replacement as ward councillor held my old seat with a healthy majority, which was pleasing. Solihull has a solid reputation for good public services and during my period as Leader we were named as the best place to live, in top three places for business, best council area for innovation and in the Times 100 best public sector employers. We also won (twice) the nation award for Best Regeneration Scheme (North Solihull Regen) and have just been included in the 100 Best Tree Friendly Cities worldwide for our massive tree-planting programme, which includes a commitment to restore the historic Forest of Arden, which covered most of the Borough.
Several years ago I launched the UK Central scheme to maximise the economic benefits of the HS2 Interchange Station (first stop from London) to attract businesses and create new sustainable housing – and this is under construction. Supporting the expansion of the Jaguar Landrover production site, expansion of Birmingham Airport (located in Solihull not Birmingham) plus a number of multi-national and UK companies, means that the area thrives economically and we also retain our Urbs in Rure status as the Town in the Country, with about 60 per cent still Green Belt.
Obviously, the good outcome of the local elections reflects a tremendous amount of work by councillors and party members, but I can take little credit for that as the limitations of old age and some health issues meant my activity was restricted to local leaflet delivery and limited canvassing – so I am not the best choice to write a definitive account of the successful campaign.
The most disappointing aspect was the narrow defeat of Andy Street as West Midlands Mayor. Andy has done a fantastic job over recent years – and without imposing a single penny in a mayoral tax. He was stabbed in the back by Reform as otherwise he would have romped home – so the clear message is that a vote for Reform is a vote for Labour and their candidates are probably Sir Keir Starmer’s greatest allies as we head to the General Election.
The post Ken Meeson: Our victory in Solihull reflected years of solid achievement appeared first on Conservative Home.
Click this link for the original source of this article.
Author: Ken Meeson
This content is courtesy of, and owned and copyrighted by, http://www.conservativehome.com and its author. This content is made available by use of the public RSS feed offered by the host site and is used for educational purposes only. If you are the author or represent the host site and would like this content removed now and in the future, please contact USSANews.com using the email address in the Contact page found in the website menu.