Looking at the big picture
Last updated 11:47, Friday, 09 May 2008
When 35-year-old stepmum Fiona Robson joined a campaign to save her local cinema from demolition, she never saw herself as a key player in shaping the future of a forward-thinking city.
Last week the transformation was completed. Fiona Robson, almost by accident, became a city councillor, with a crucial vote to count at many a future meeting on such issues as Carlisle’s Renaissance scheme, university and airport.
Fiona’s rise to Conservative member for Yewdale ward was no lifelong ambition. Indeed she admits that the idea had never occurred to her until fairly recently.
It was her involvement in the campaign to preserve the Lonsdale Theatre that led her into local politics.
“I don’t think I’d ever have thought about being a councillor if it wasn’t for that,” she said.
Fiona by then already had a high profile as chairwoman of the Save our Lonsdale campaign, and in that role she often had dealings with city councillors.
That contact with the council gave her an interest in local government and its workings which she had never possessed before.
“It opened a lot of issues to me that I hadn’t really thought about before.
“I began to think about how the city is run, what developments we should be allowing, whether we want more and more flats.”
So in 2006 she stood unsuccessfully as an Independent in Currock ward and the following year, after joining the Conservatives, she was the Tory candidate for Belle Vue, but again was unsuccessful.
It was third time lucky as she won her seat on the city council last week.
And having made it onto the council, she has firm views about what kind of councillor she wants to be.
“In the Lonsdale campaign, some councillors were not very good at getting back to us but some were fantastic.
“I thought I’d like to be the sort of councillor who would keep lines of communication open with people.
“What they want from a councillor is someone who will take up issues for them.”
As a young woman, Fiona does not fit the stereotype of the usual councillor.
Local government inevitably attracts those who have finished working, whose children are grown up, and who have more time on their hands for attending meetings and holding ward surgeries.
But Fiona feels confident she can juggle family and her job as a learning support assistant at Trinity School with her new council commitments – as she is used to being busy.
“I like to keep occupied,” she said. “When I first got involved in the Lonsdale campaign that took up every night after school and weekends.
“But I have a lot of support from my husband and my extended family, and I’m the sort of person who has to stay busy and feel like I’m doing something useful.”
Different politicians, whether at local or national level, have different priorities and preoccupations – and some campaigning on single issues have come to the fore in recent years.
In the 1997 general election, former BBC reporter Martin Bell was elected MP for Tatton in an anti-sleaze campaign against the sitting MP Neil Hamilton.
In the next two general elections, in 2001 and 2005, Dr Richard Taylor was elected as an Independent MP for Wyre Forest also campaigning on one issue, the downgrading of his local Kidderminster Hospital.
Parties such as the Greens and the UK Independence Party have fared well in local and Euro elections recently, and though they have policies on other topics, the single issues they prioritise are protecting the environment or leaving the European Union.
The preservation of the Lonsdale Cinema as a theatre may have been the source of Fiona’s interest in the council, but she does not see herself as a single-issue politician in that mould, and says she is in tune with Tory principles such as private enterprise and law and order.And though respectful of those independent-minded politicians who refuse to toe a party line, she argued: “It’s useful to be part of a party. We have to come together around ideas and unite.
“You have your party backing and people know what you stand for.”
But her family and her background in education are important elements in her motivation. Her two stepchildren are nine and 16 and in her job she deals mainly with 11 to 18-year-olds.
She wants to see more activities for them in Carlisle – which ties in with her vision for the Lonsdale.
Fiona feels the under 18s and over 60s suffer from a shortage of facilities, and a refurbished Lonsdale Theatre could cater for both.
“Botchergate is for those in their 20s and 30s. And we’ve got lots of sports facilities in the city.
“But there’s not a lot for pensioners or the under 18s, or people who are less physically active.”
The Save our Lonsdale campaigners envisage a theatre, cinema, a 1950s-style diner, a cyber cafe, an art gallery and a restaurant in the building, with rooms that could be hired for use as studios or offices.
And they believe it could boost the economy of the city as a whole.
“We need a theatre in Carlisle,” Fiona said. “When you have to go to Manchester or Newcastle instead you are taking money out of the local economy.
“We went to Glasgow last weekend and we must have spent about £40 on parking and food. That money could have gone into the Carlisle economy.”
When the Lonsdale closed in April 2006 it was bought by Manchester-based developers Empera Estates.
They have made no secret of their wish to tear the old theatre down and build 82 flats on the site.
Save our Lonsdale persuaded the Government to classify it as a Grade II listed building – so saving it from the bulldozers for the time being – but Empera are hoping to get the listed status overturned so they can go ahead with their plans.
However Fiona questioned the need for more flats in the city centre.
The Lonsdale was built in 1931 and she felt it should be preserved as an example of the art deco architecture of that era.
“We’ve got to keep some of our nicer old buildings,” she said. “There’s a danger we could end up with nothing but new flats.”
Another aim she has as a councillor is to encourage more interest in local politics.
Every activist, of whatever party, is used to encountering indifference or cynicism on the doorsteps during election campaigns.
“There is a lot of disaffection at the moment,” Fiona said. “One of the most disheartening things I heard was people saying: ‘You’re all the same.’
“I would like to see more young people getting involved in local politics, and losing the disaffection that they have.”
And despite being a Conservative, Fiona feels commitment to Carlisle is more important in a councillor than commitment to a party, as many of the important issues cut across political differences.
“My mum is heavily involved in the Lonsdale campaign too, and she’s a dyed in the wool socialist.
“I have lived in Carlisle all my life and I stayed here to study – I love Carlisle so much I didn’t want to leave.
“Being on the council should be about making the city a better place, rather than playing politics.”
