Interview with Adam Barker selected Conservative candidate for the Walton ward, replacing ousted candidate Charles Day. Broadcast at 07:20am on the 15th March 2010 in the Peterborough Breakfast Show.
PS: Last week on the show we revealed that Charles Day had been deselected as the Tory councillor in Walton. And next we are going to speak to a man who’s hoping to take his place.
(Sport Relief Promo)
PS: So as I mentioned, Charles Day deselected as the Tory councillor in Walton last week. We mentioned on the show that he will be replaced as Conservative candidate at the next election by Adam Barker. Charles Day not very happy about being deselected. This is what he had to say about it.
CD TAPE: I’ve done nothing wrong in some respects, nothing that I know of as such and nobody will tell me what I’ve done wrong, so it gives the impression that basically I just don’t fit in the future plans for somebody higher than me.
PS: Well, Adam joins us now, who’s hoping to take his place, Adam Barker, used to be a councillor in the Fletton ward. Morning Adam.
AB: Good morning.
PS: You can understand perhaps why Charles Day is a little bit upset?
AB: Absolutely. I totally understand how he feels about things, and I’m sure it did feel a little bit of a shock. But it was a matter of we were both (introduced?) to the ward by a panel, and the panel then took a vote, after a long debate, and we were called in and given the result. So really I know as much as Charles as to the reasons, but I would like to think that my vision and my aspirations for where Walton wants needs to be for the future would have played into that.
PS: Has there been some hardball spindoctoring going on here Adam? Have you been bending people’s arms behind the scenes? have you been doing a Campbell?
AB: Absolutely not. I’ve not really had a lot to do with the councillors between me last being in Council, I haven’t really seen a lot of councillors at all, just in passing in the street. But Walton is an area that I feel quite strongly about. It has certain needs that I think need addressing. It needs a vision. Certainly the day to day stuff has been done absolutely fine, but somebody needs to have a vision of a future, and being a councillor is a two-fold responsibility. It’s about dealing with the day to day things that do arise and do come up, and prioritising those, on a pure reactionary level. And then you’ve got your level where you need to be fighting, and you’re looking to see what it can be, in the future.
PB: Mr Day said he was being used as a political pawn when we spoke to him last week. There’s a lot of infighting going on behind the scenes is there?
AB: I don’t believe there is infighting. I think within any party you’re going to have different opinions, different approaches, and those different ideas, different levels, are what makes a party diverse. And we have a good range of diversity within the Conservative Party in Peterborough.
PS: You’ve got a tough act to follow, because Charles has worked very hard for Walton, hasn’t he?
AB: I believe Charles has absolutely dealt with all the day to day issues really well, but I think that what I put across in my interview is that I would like to see something in Walton, you know, the biggest problem on the doorstep that I’ve been hearing now, is about youths that are causing trouble in Walton. And that needs quite a good long-term strategy to deal with the actual root cause of that, and that’s the fact that these kids have got nothing to do. I want to champion and deliver a state-of-the-art community centre in Walton, and that’s what I would like to see.
PS: Are you confident that you’ve got the time to do this, though? Because you had a bit of a problem attending council meetings before, when you were a councillor, didn’t you?
AB: I think there was three meetings that I had to send my apologies for, if you actually check.
PS: Well you attended four in six months, didn’t you?
AB: Four out of five, yes. If you’re actually counting …
PS: But you were deselected because of that, weren’t you?
AB: No. No.
PS: You were deselected though.
AB: No no no I wasn’t. I actually didn’t ..I gave my resignation that I wasn’t going to re-stand within the ward, because at that point I didn’t know whether I was going to be relocated with my job. So I couldn’t commit to being in Peterborough.
PS: Can you now?
AB: Absolutely. I’m pretty much anchored to Peterborough, my family’s in Peterborough. I have a large amount of in-laws in Walton itself. Peterborough is home, and it has been for many many years for me.
PS: Yes. What’s your vision for Walton?
AB: I want to see some progress made. It’s a very poor looking ward, in the sense of it’s got so many rich things, like we’ve got the wondeful park, and I’d like to see that developed, some money spent on this park, someone championing to make sure, like Central Park, we’ve done such a great job there. I would like to see this park developed. I would like to see a community centre and some youth activities that actually give a channel to the kids. Because a lot of the trouble that’s caused by the kids is pure boredom. That’s all it is. Somebody needs to take a lead and start pushing and bending ears. It’s just like we delivered in Fletton. One of the things in Fletton we championed for was the community centre down Sugar Way.
PS: Uh huh.
AB: That took an awful lot of bending ears for many many years.
PS: So that’s the sort of thing you’re hoping to bring, that sort of vision, those sort of big projects, you’re hoping to bring them to the Walton ward as well, yes?
AB: Absolutely. I’m going to be a champion for delivering in Walton. That’s what I want.
PS: Adam thank you for that. We wish you all the best, should you be selected, of course. Adam Barker who’ll replace Charles Day as the Tory councillor .. well the Tory candidate for councillor in Walton.