Interview: Martin Watson - Candidate for Parish Councillor
Martin Watson is standing in the by-election for Parish Councillor. chilbolton.news went to find out more about him and what he wants to achieve.
Background
Martin Watson grew up in London, near Twickenham Stadium, and went to school in Hampton. He studied Mechanical Engineering at Brunel University, and went on to complete a Masters degree in Computing.
After five years with British Aerospace working on avionics systems, he moved on to working on naval, air traffic control and digital television systems.
He met his wife Catherine at university. They moved to Chilbolton in 2014. They have two children who are both at university.
He supports Harlequins Rugby Football Club. This isn’t because he was born near The Stoop - his son plays rugby, and it was a chance for “Dad and Lad Time”, as he calls it. They’ve been season ticket holders there for ten years.
Why Parish Councillor?
Following the public meeting in December last year, he says that he felt “too many things had been done behind closed doors.”
At the public meeting in January, Martin stood up and said “We could do with more openness and transparency, not just on the issue of housing, but everything.”
At another meeting, he remembers a resident commenting that “sunlight is the best disinfectant” and his own view hasn’t changed since then.
Personal qualities
“Honesty and integrity are my core values,” he says. “I’m an engineer and I’ve been a project manager for eight years. I’ve worked with diverse teams, with an international scope, and differing attitudes and working methods.”
He has led teams of up to 160 people, and when dealing with colleagues, he says he’s “not afraid to have an honest conversation. If somebody is sand-bagging their estimates, I can challenge them effectively.”
Development of 25 homes
On the proposed 25-home development, he feels that the work has been “very poorly handled.” He goes further, “In fact, it’s disingenuous. They’ve mis-represented the views of the Village.”
As an example, he says “There’s no point in having a shop in a location that isn’t going to be profitable. And it should be a ‘playground’, not a ‘playing field’”
He feels that the proposals offer “facilities that aren’t needed and at a cost to the Village.”
About the number of homes being proposed, he’s clear: “It should be a 20-home development: 10 affordable and 10 ‘open-market’, not ‘downsize’.”
“I fully support the affordable housing, but I don’t like the self-builds in their current format,” he says. “They’re huge 3-bedroom homes offering ’extra’ rooms that could be used as bedrooms.”
Instead, he believes they should be of a reasonable size, appropriate for young people rather than executive homes, and in keeping with the rest of the village.
He has been vocal over the need for a referendum on the proposed development. And if the answer is ‘Yes’, he’s keen that the development should be run in a way that “reduces the risks to the Parish Council and to the Village.”
Trust and conflicts of interest
Martin thinks that there is a conflict of interest where councillors have put themselves down for houses. “It’s a personal interest at minimum, there’s no evidence it’s a pecuniary interest.” he says “but they shouldn’t be involved in the allocation of houses, as an absolute minimum. They should recuse themselves from decision-making, and some elements of the discussion.”
On Cllr Hudson’s comments in the latest Parish Magazine, Martin says “His comments were completely ill-conceived. He shouldn’t be questioning parishioners’ legitimate concerns in a public forum.”
What else is important?
Other than housing, he sees Chilbolton’s highest priority as sewage and general infrastructure.
He says “We’ve had water outages and power outages in the Village. We need to improve infrastructure for existing houses. We won’t solve the problems by building new houses to justify the investment [in infrastructure].”
Chilbolton Community Land Trust
Martin thinks the Parish Council should revisit the work on housing needs. “The previous surveys were too vague,” he says, and it was too easy to opt for a “unicorn, and a puppy for Christmas.”
Now that the proposals are more tangible, he believes that villagers can be offered more clearly defined options. In particular, he thinks a number of smaller sites for development might be better.
Importantly, when it comes to running the affordable homes once they’re built, he’s clear that it should be done by a large housing association such as Sovereign or Aster.
Contribution
Within the Parish Council, he has applied his experience as part of the Community Development Committee. He has identified workstreams and coordinated them. He is also responsible for the work on site options.
“Nobody wants a development near them,” he says, “but you need to be open with people, and adopt an objective approach.”
He describes himself as a “reasonably practical guy”, and has volunteered to join Chilbolton’s Open Spaces Committee. If elected, he hopes that the Parish Council can reduce the number of committees it runs, or convert them to working groups instead.
After the December meeting last year, Martin set up the popular “Chilbolton Residents’ Forum” on Facebook.
Life in Chilbolton
Martin and his family moved here in 2014. His children were at school in Winchester, and to allow them a little more freedom, they chose somewhere that they could travel to school by bus.
He and his wife both ride motorcycles, and drove their Land Rover Defender on the old Paris-Dakar route when they visited Morocco.
With their children away at University, they are using their spare time to refurbish and fit out a camper that was once a beer delivery van. One of the challenges is making space for two dog crates to accommodate their two German Shepherds.
The Election
On standing for election to the Parish Council, he says “You can’t criticise the way things are unless you’re willing to stand up and do something.” He makes it clear that he has no affiliation with the housing project or any political party.
He says “I will campaign for transparency and democracy. I firmly believe that the Village should have their say and not be dictated to.”