About The Party - South Woodham Ferrers Council Taxpayers Association

After our formation as a local political party in 2011, the South Woodham Ferrers Independents campaigned and worked towards a fairer deal for this town. Residents agreed the need for better representation when they voted one of our candidates on to Chelmsford City Council (CCC) in 2013 and consistently made us the clear alternative to the Conservative Party.

National politics changed since our strong start. In particular UKIP, a national party with similar branding, became significantly more popular, causing some confusion as to our affiliations. We decided to relaunch with a new name that better reflects our motivations – South Woodham Ferrers Council Taxpayers Association (SWFCTA). Since our relaunch we have gone on to gain two seats on CCC in 2019 and again came runner up in the 2021 Essex County Council (ECC) election. We are a relatively small group but we know many of our residents would like to see a better deal for South Woodham Ferrers.

We can all understand the benefits of paying Council Tax - the revenue is used to fund and maintain a large number of important local services and infrastructure provision. However, when you look around town do you feel that CCC or ECC or the Emergency Services offer us good value for the amount of Council Tax we pay? In recent years we have seen some above inflation rises in Council Tax and yet many services have been cut back.

SWFCTA want to work towards a fairer deal for the town. We want to work towards a better city overall with neighbourhood shopping centres regenerated for both shoppers and local businesses. Protecting open spaces is another of our priorities, whether just open countryside or Council and Community leisure facilities that need an improved maintenance regime. We would seek to achieve improvements throughout the district in public transport, highways, parking and active travel infrastructure, connecting us to the wider network of cycleways and footpaths and making our roads safe for everyone.

Chelmsford City Council has adopted a new Local Plan, which gives a large degree of definition to what happens around the district until 2036. With a proposal for up to 1200 new dwellings to the north of our community, the cry of many residents has been for improved infrastructure to support these changes. The masterplan has now been agreed but with little infrastructure gain for the existing community. Even Essex County Council's grudging commitment to have a 2-form entry primary school built on site was quickly reversed after the County elections in May 2021. Mindful of other developments in Maldon district and the potential construction of a new nuclear power station at Bradwell, the capacity of the B1012 is also called into serious doubt.

Without a national party dictating our policies or decisions, we are able to focus on the residents of South Woodham Ferrers and support the other Chelmsford parishes. We believe local government should focus on local issues and not be guided by policies made by mainstream political parties; national policies belong in national, not local, government.

We will continue to support and work with all our residents and fellow City and County Councillors to improve the environment, services and infrastucture provision in and around our town.

Chairman	Keith Bentley
Nominating Officer	Sam Coley