Election Meeting

Election Meeting

The list of village councillor candidates and proposed new mayor which I mentioned in my last posting had an open meeting this Sunday evening so I went along to hear what they had to say. I wasn't expecting much but the meeting did provide some interest and merriment.

The main thread of the presentation was that the candidates promised to be always available, to openly explain all decisions and listen to what villagers had to say. That much might be expected but it did at least show that some listening had been done. The current council clearly tried to say as little as possible about the recent change of community of communes until it was a fait accompli, a point that still rankles among many villagers.

In more detail, the presentation dealt with new school legislation which adds half a day to the school week, to be devoted to sport and cultural activities, but provides no budget for it. The candidates asserted that the cost would not be large and proposed that the village budget should absorb that, so that the activities would be free to the children. Another topic was the Haute Aire, the large patch of elevated waste ground on which we play boules in the centre of the village. It is admittedly a bit of an eyesore and the proposal was to redo it as a recreation square for the village, perhaps with flower beds, etc. As long as they leave enough space for boules that will be OK. It was also proposed to upgrade the water purification station. Mollans' water has always seemed OK to me but is officially classified as of only medium quality by WHO standards, probably because of potential contamination from agriculture. Anyway, I have spring water in the fountain just outside my house.

I thought questions might be interesting but was disappointed when the first two were about car parking and noise. A woman complained about cars being parked in front of her garage and another about car noise; I wondered where she could live because there is hardly any car noise even on the village by-pass. She should live in Reading. Then there was a question on the positioning of dustbins and a woman got up and, rather than simply ask a question, went forward to grab the microphone and address everybody. She said that of course the candidates were showing themselves in their best light now (I presumed everybody already knew that) but......and I couldn't catch her question. Anyway, she was immediately shouted down by the audience and retired to her seat in a huff. There was also a lady who said she would love to organise theatrical events and give acting classes but there was no theatre in the village. How many villages of 1000 inhabitants have theatres?

It was left to Mana, dear Mana, to save the day for me. She said: “The biggest problem in the village is unemployment; what are you going to about that?” The mayoral candidate, clearly a bit taken aback, said what he could; that the council, if elected, would look favourably on any enterprise that proposed to bring employment to the village; what else could he say? I was disappointed when Mana left it that. I fully expected her to follow up saying that the national economy was a mess and what was the village council going to do about that? And what was their position on immigration and what were they doing about the crisis in the Ukraine? Ah well, another time maybe.