‘Don’t let politicians off the hook just because they win an election’

Everybody who is, or has been, owned by a cat will know the effect of the merest sniff of catnip on our feline fellow travellers.

Your previously refined and cultured descendent of the cat gods of ancient Egypt will suddenly start engaging in the sort of antics even a dog would consider beyond the pale of acceptable behaviour.

The equivalent of catnip for election candidates is the pre-election period.

And in a similar manner, the merest sniff of political victory (or defeat for that matter) will result in the sort of behaviour that even the most catnipped cat would consider extraordinary.

Pledges will be pledged, announcements announced, promises promised.

Some of these declarations will appear as if they are now official council policy. None of them are. It’s an election; treat all claims with caution.

Development sites that have been allocated for housing for nearly a decade and seen millions of pounds change hands, will remain allocated for development in the local plan after election day, and planning applications will be assessed accordingly until that changes.

Despite candidates suddenly becoming experts on sustainable transport, most existing councillors will still have an annual aneurysm at suggestions they give up their car parking place and use more sustainable transport to get to City Hall.

And, sadly, campaigners who have suddenly found that their own particular local campaign has suddenly risen to the top of candidates’ to do list before the election will still find they have plenty of work to do after the election, once their votes are counted.

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Sometimes, sudden changes of heart by election candidates are authentic, and fully intended to be delivered.

Sometimes, what was needed was the heat of an election battle and a well constructed and focused campaign, to properly highlight to candidates how important it is to address a particular issue. Sometimes.

And perhaps, after multiple election campaigns, I have just become the old cynic I always promised myself I would never be.

But that inner cynic still tells me that the pre-election period is when promises are easy to make. And as soon as the votes are counted, those promises are often just as easy to break.

So all those residents that are campaigning hard to preserve green spaces, mitigate the impact of development, or reduce the levels of traffic in their areas, or any other of the many campaigns that we candidates are currently signing up to say we support, need to ensure that after the election, those promises are not forgotten.

You need to hold us to account because when we try to hold each other to account it is too often dismissed as political point scoring.

Don’t let us off the hook just because we’ve won an election.

Yes, campaigning for election is a hard slog but there are plenty of people in Bristol facing a hard slog each and every day of their lives.

In the end, all of us who have stuck our ahead above the parapet to stand for election knew what we were signing on for, and all of us should have no delusions that getting elected is actually the easy bit.

Delivering on the promises we made to win that election is where the real hard work begins.

Tony Dyer is the Green Party candidate for Southville

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