Bournemouth Liberal Democrats

Councillor Profile - Carol Ainge

Councillor for Queen's Park

• Lib Dem Leader

Contact Details
Address:
3 Bennett Road, Charminster, Bournemouth, BH8 8QF
Telephone: 01202 395110
Email: carol.ainge@bournemouth.gov.uk

Website: http://carolainge.mycouncillor.org.uk/

Committee Membership

• Adult & Community Overview & Scrutiny Panel
• Council
• Overview & Scrutiny Management Panel

Personal Message

I have been your local Lib Dem Councillor since 2007. I feel very proud and privileged to work for the residents of Queens Park and Charminster.

In 2006 I felt very strongly about the inappropriate amount of over development targeted at this ward, and so I started knocking on my neighbour's doors asking if they too felt the same way.

As it turned out there were many like minded residents who did feel the same and with so much interest in saving our ward I set up the S.T.O.P campaign

This is STOP THE OVER PLANNING. I now have in excess of 40 members who all work together helping one another.

I have carried this on throughout my duties as a councillor and anyone who has problems with planning in the ward can contact me.

The main reason for my standing as a councillor was that I have lived in my house in Bennett Road Charminster for now nearly 30 years I have seen many changes with some not for the better and I felt that I could make a difference.

My aim is to help the community join together working towards making this ward safe and community minded throughout.

One of the tasks I have done is to change the main entrance at Malmesbury Park School from being in Lowther Road and putting the new entrance in Methuen Road. The reason for this to be done is that many people were parking on the double yellow lines in Lowther Road when the children either being taken to and from school.

When you consider that Lowther Road is a very busy road with buses, ambulances and through traffic I considered that this would make it so much safer for the children. It has now proved to be a good solution.

Whilst the change was being done with the entrance I requested that we have bus bays put into place so that the children could get onto the school bus with safety, this has also been done along with a much needed disabled bay.

Know Your Councillor

In 2007 Cllr Ainge spent hours outside Malmesbury Park School monitoring the parking situation and writing down license plate numbers of dangerously parked cars. She asked the council for more traffic wardens outside the school at picking up and dropping off times.[1] Eventually PSCOs worked with local residents and sent letters to drivers who parked dangerously warning of the potential fines. Cllr Ainge said: "I think this is an approach that should be adopted elsewhere. Ultimately we are talking about children's lives.

"It is a Bournemouth-wide or even national problem and we need to make parents realise that what they are doing is dangerous. It cannot go on indefinitely with a series of warnings if it takes homes visits or fines then this is what needs to be done."[2]

Cllr Ainge continued to work outside Malmesbury Park Primary School spending "several weeks going to the school every day and asking parents to move on but I got such abuse from one parent I had to stop." She then advocated for more traffic wardens across the borough to deal with the problem.[3]

In March 2008 she was involved in a row with her fellow Queen's Park councillor's over the allocation of the Queen's Park Local Improvement Fund - a cash pot of £15,000 to spend - council rules stipulated that the money can only be spent if two ward councillors sign back a decision. Conservative councillors Mark Anderson and Alex Adams allocated the whole pot to Malmesbury Park School. Cllr Ainge was opposed putting such a large part of the pot to one cause and wanted to give £800 to enlarge the garden space at Nortoft Day Care Centre, Cllr Anderson refused to support the request. The affair sparked an official complaint from Lib Dem group leader Claire Smith and proposed the cash be split three ways for distribution by councillors.[4]

In March 2009 Cllr Ainge spoke out about Bournemouth councillors being left in the dark over important decisions affecting their areas. This came after discovering about plans to create a new play area at Queen's Park golf course in a cabinet report. She had recently asked a council officer for information only to be told that they didn't have any yet a few weeks later they had enough information to submit a report to cabinet.[5]

In July 2009 Cllr Ainge oppossed the building of a 3 storey block of flats at Nortoft Road, Charminster. Planning officers failed to notice that the new block of flats was being built contrary to its planning permission, despite making more than 30 visits to the site. Members of the planning board retrospectively approved the plans reluctantly. She said: "I also find it totally unacceptable that a developer can build a block of flats contrary to the granted plans and when caught out can just submit a retrospective planning application"[6]

In August 2010 Cllr Ainge was "appalled" when Bournemouth Council 'forgot' to put up parking enforcement signs near newly painted yellow lines in Capstone, Shelbourne, Nortoft, Malmesbury Park and Stuart Roads. The new lines were placed on the roads to prevent dangerous parking and were useless because the lack of signage stopped wardens issuing tickets, saying "The illegal parking on the corners of all the roads makes it a real hazard for traffic"[7]

After an 82 year old woman was attacked as she walked through a subway on Holdenhurst Road Cllr Carol Ainge said keeping the subway clean and safe was an "ongoing battle".

"I'm really upset about this. "Three years ago, we replaced the lighting and I've been down there four times myself to clean off the graffiti.

"We haven't had anything like this for years. I hope it's a 'one off'."[8]

In March 2011 Cllr Ainge opposed plans for a 2-4 storey building of student flats in Malmesbury Park Road saying that up to 60 students could be crammed into the building, which would lead to "overcrowding" and noise and parking problems for residents.

She added: "This is people's lives they are messing up for the sake of making money. I find that totally unacceptable."[9]

As Lib Dem leader Cllr Ainge supported the council's suspended chief accountant Stephen Parker

In June 2012 Cllr Ainge opposed plans by chief executive Tony Williams to introduce an "earn-back" scheme, where one per cent of senior managers' salary is retained until the council's customer satisfaction score annually improves, saying: It's a little bit of a farce. I can't believe that one per cent is enough of an incentive to people who are earning an awful lot per month.

"But in any case, council officers should not need any sort of incentive to try and improve the council's performance; that is their job and it should be their number one priority."

Declarations of Interest - April 2012