Canvassing - Lib Dem style

Lib Dems share power in Oxford with the Greens

All pensioner Mrs Eileen Tripp wants is the man back who used to mow her grass.

The retired Leyland car seat sewing machinist says she finds it hard to tend her garden since Oxford City Council cancelled the scheme that provided help for the elderly and disabled.

We have changed the city's chief executive which has sorted out a lot of the management structure

Tony Brett
Lib Dem councillor

Leaning against the front door of her little bungalow in Rose Hill, one of Oxford's less salubrious estates, the 71-year-old says she doesn't ask for much.

"It's such a struggle on my own," she tells Liberal Democrat councillor David Penwarden, who was out canvassing.

"They used to cut the grass and that is a big effort. I then used to pay someone to do it for me, but he got too expensive and I can't afford to have him back anymore."

Cat attack

It is a mini-embarrassment for Mr Penwarden, whose party, in council control with the Greens for the past two years, stopped the scheme after seizing control of the city council from Labour.

Mrs Tripp is wearing a flowery overall. It looks as though the visit to her home has interrupted her housework, but she is unperturbed about speaking her mind.

Mr Penwarden is relieved when she answers the door. So far, only one other person has bothered to speak to him during his trip out to encourage the electorate to return him to the Rose Hill and Iffley ward.

Tony Brett: Lib Dems are about 'enabling people'

But speaking to Mrs Tripp was not without its challenges. First he had to carefully step over two leads connecting the bungalow to Mrs Tripp's two cats - one white, one tabby.

"I'm afraid they might get run over," she explains to bemused looks.

Mrs Tripp tells Mr Penwarden, a retired personnel director of the Guardian media group, that she rarely uses facilities on the estate.

"I am a member of the community centre, but I don't go. I don't enjoy all that music they have. I don't drink and I don't like the smoke," she says.

Asked what it has been like living on the estate since 1968, she shrugs: "I'm all right here. Some of it is rough, some of it isn't."

'Mindless vandalism'

She adds: "There is not much to do. I don't particularly like going out - I like my TV."

As Mr Penwarden explained, canvassing in the morning is not the most rewarding.

Despite more than 50% of the people on the estate being on benefits, very few seemed to be at home or wanted to answer the door.

Retired factory worker David Evans, one of the few that did respond, said the main problem with the estate was "mindless vandalism".

We are about enabling people - we don't generally solve problems by throwing money at them

Tony Brett
Lib Dem councillor

A lad seemed to be hiding in one of the terraced houses we visited. "There is a very high truancy rate on Rose Hill," Mr Penwarden said grimly.

Rose Hill's centre is The Oval, which has a few shops, a community centre, old people's homes, a scout hut, housing office and Rose Hill First School, which used to be bottom of the league in Oxfordshire.

It is divided into three parts: council houses in Rose Hill, semis in the Iffley Turn Estate and very old houses in Iffley village.

To the left of Ashurst Way is Iffley ward, which Mr Penwarden represents. To the right is Littlemore, which is 100% Labour.

Upcoming estate

Now, due to boundary changes, the whole of the estate within the ring road and Iffley village is one ward.

The Sure Start creche in Rose Hill caters for 20 youngsters

But despite Rose Hill's image, Mr Penwarden is keen to talk up its successes.

It is set to open a new kind of pre-school nursery, providing care from 8am to 7pm, to help parents seek job training or employment.

This will complement the government-funded Sure Start centre, where Mr Penwarden is director and whose chief volunteer organisers are sisters Annabelle and Tracey Jackson.

It houses a creche, a cafe, discos for five to 15-year-olds, a fishing group and takes youngsters and their parents on trips.

Father-of-five Rob Plowman is in charge of Saturdads to get single fathers more involved in their children. He also arranges groups to collect bulky waste from the tenants to keep the estate tidy.

Liberal Democrat councillor Tony Brett, who is standing for Holywell ward, defended his party's record, stressing that it had started making improvements and wanted to carry on.

Rose Hill and Iffley ward candidates:

Lib Dems 2

Green 2

Labour 2

Conservatives 2

Socialist Alliance 1

"We have changed the city's chief executive which has sorted out a lot of the management structure," he said.

He said the council's finances were now "under control" and planning deadlines had been tightened.

"Now 70% are heard within eight weeks. Before it was 20%," said Cllr Brett.

Some of the issues the party is campaigning on include: protecting Oxford's green spaces, increasing the proportion of affordable housing in new developments and reducing rough sleeping and aggressive begging.

Cllr Brett, an IT manager, said: "I think we are about encouraging society, rather than dictating to society.

"We are about enabling people - we don't generally solve problems by throwing money at them.

"Because the ward boundaries have changed, the election is a bit up for grabs and it is much harder to call."