Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

As we rapidly approach Christmas, we thought we’d look back on the year and its highs and lows for us.

There were no local elections this year, although there was, of course, the General Election.

So. despite coming within 7 votes at last year’s Chelmsford City elections, we currently do not have any councillors at Chelmsford City Council. So, we are now looking forward to the Essex County Council elections next year and we will be putting forward a candidate. It’s worth noting that with boundary changes, the village of Woodham Ferrers is now part of the same ward as South Woodham Ferrers and we are looking for new members from there so that, should we be successful as an independent party, we can represent those residents successfully too.

Back to this year though and one highlight was the launch of our new, more inclusive name, South Woodham Ferrers Residents Party.  Feedback told us that our previous name gave the impression we were for Council Taxpayers only, but we aim to serve all residents, of whom the census shows there are a greater number than ever before, due to increasing multi-occupancy of homes in our town. So, be assured that although our name may have changed our aims and principles remain the same

Our mission is to put the views of residents of both South Woodham Ferrers and Woodham Ferrers first at Essex County Council and make sure our main parties stop centralising funding in Chelmsford City or other parts of Essex and share more of that money with us. We want our residents’ views to be heard and only a party like ours, working with the other Independent Parties across the county, like the highly successful Castle Point Independents, could secure the investment that this area needs. It is entirely because we are independent that we do not have to adhere to a Political Party line and would be able to argue for the good of the area at large.

Finally, we’d like to thank Wendy, the previous editor of the FOCUS, for all her support over many years and we are looking forward to working with Daniel and his team for what promises to be a great year for the FOCUS as well.

We wish all residents a Merry Christmas and a Happy and Peaceful 2025

Further information about our party can be found on: http://www.swfrp.org/

Our Facebook Page is at: https://www.facebook.com/swfrp  Twitter www.twitter.com/swfcta  If you are interested in becoming a member, contact us by email: membership@swfrp.org, or call 07503 212795.