With just days to go before the election, most people have had the leaflets, maybe a knock on the door, and probably a few too many promises.
The trouble is — if the leaflets weren’t different colours, it would be hard to tell them apart because everyone is saying the same things:
Housing. Traffic. Social care. Council budgets. Cost of living.
And to be fair they’re right to. These are the things that matter.
To you, to me, and to pretty much everyone in our community.
It’s not hard to work out what the big issues are. Open the paper, scroll through social media, read the manifestos it’s all there.
But here’s the question I keep getting asked on the doorstep, and I think it’s probably the most important one of all:
“What makes you different, Johnnie?”
“Why should I vote for you over the others?”
More Reviews, More Reports… But Still No Solutions
This week I read another article and another big promise from a national party. They were saying all the right things, trying to be different and even calling out Councils for their debt and budgets. But when it came to the actual solutions?
“We’ll audit the budget.”
“We’ll review the contracts.”
“We’ll hold the council to account.”
Now, I’ve got to be honest this doesn’t sound like much of a solution. In fact, it sounds a lot like the reason councils are struggling in the first place.
Councils already spend millions every year on consultants, reports, and layers of oversight. It’s money that never reaches the people doing the work or the services that are under pressure.
These aren’t new ideas they’re just the same old systems dressed up as something different.
Review. Report. Delay. Repeat.
And here’s the irony: if you’re running the council, who exactly are you “holding to account”? It ends up being a circular promise that goes nowhere.
The Real Problem Is the Structure
We’ve built a system in local government (and in business) that works like this:
- Middle managers tell senior leaders everything’s fine — to protect their jobs
- Frontline staff are asked to do more with less
- And senior decision-makers operate in a bubble, unaware of how stretched things really are
The people doing the work are ignored. The people making the decisions don’t hear the truth. And when things fall apart, it’s somehow always the people at the bottom who get blamed.
The structure is broken — and no amount of auditing will fix it.
So What Do I Do Differently?
I don’t come in with slogans or soundbites. I come in with a different mindset.
I don’t accept “that’s just how we do things.”
I don’t accept “we tried that before.”
And I definitely don’t accept that nothing can change.
I believe you fix problems by listening to the people who matter, the ones who see the cracks every day, and you fix the ground floor first, and the rest starts to fall into place.
It’s Not About Promises. It’s About Action.
So if you’re still undecided or just tired of being promised the same things over and over think about who’s already doing the work.
I don’t just want to represent this community. I’m part of it. I live here. I work here. And I care.
Let’s stop repeating the same failed strategies and start building something better from the ground up and if that’s the kind of leadership you want, then I’d be proud to have your support on May 1st.
Johnnie Wells
Independent Candidate – St Ives East, Lelant & Carbis Bay
PS. and just incase you are wondering what the picture is all about, that was me meeting the Carbis Bay Holiday Village Residents Association, and helping them to un-veil their newly erected village noticeboard. A proud moment for Leon and the rest of the association who had worked incredibly hard to get the funding and permission to install it.