Walledge Associates plays an active role in local business and has most recently taken on Lewes MP, Norman Baker following his round condemnation of the direct marketing industry. The topic made the front page of South East Business News. Read the article below:
Tories are trying to unseat a Liberal Democrat MP because of his attitude to the direct marketing industry. A campaign is under way to remove Norman Baker, the MP for Lewes in East Sussex, because of remarks he made about the industry when he was environment spokesman for the Liberal Democrats. He is now the transport spokesman.
Tory activists also want voters to turn Mr Baker out because of his lack of support for industry in general. One of them is Angela Walledge, managing director of Walledge Associates, a marketing and advertising agency based in Lewes. She was paid by the local Conservative association to send a pack and questionnaire to 15,000 Tory and floating voters in the constituency reminding them of Mr Baker’s views on direct marketing and inviting them to support Jason Sugarman, the Conservative candidate standing against Mr Baker. “He hates us,” said Ms Walledge. “I employ people in Lewes and run a direct market ing agency which our MP has campaigned to have closed down.” The mailing campaign had an 11% response, and Ms Walledge said it could be used by Mr Sugarman to shape part of his own campaign policy.
She remembered that after the floods of 2000 – which damaged Walledge Associates – she was a board member of Sussex Enterprise and was on a working party which eventually succeeded in obtaining £40,000 from the Government to help businesses which had been flooded. In the aftermath of the disaster, Lewes was visited by the late Mo Mowlam, who went to Walledge Associates. Whilst she was there, she supported the idea of Mr Baker working with Ms Walledge on a guide to the lessons learned from the flooding which businesses could use if something similar happened in the future. “I never heard a word from him, “ said Ms Walledge. “He was not interested.”
South East Business pointed out that many homes put stickers on their front doors saying they did not want junk mail, and the Tory leadership’s green policies might disapprove of the paper which can litter streets from some direct mail campaigns. She replied that the Liberal Democrats were bigger users of un addressed mail than the Conservatives. “The industry is self regulating and if people want to sign up to the mailing preference scheme, they can.”
She added that her firm and others in the constituency who could be affected by Mr Baker’s policies had taken care to be as green as possible. “Our own policy is to only use suppliers in the East and West Sussex area to keep our carbon footprint down.”
Mr Baker denied ever having said the direct marketing industry should be closed down, and invited Ms Walledge to speak to him about the issue and send him a copy of the pack
and questionnaire. “Some mass mailing is not environmentally responsible, and I have put my views at the Direct Marketing Association’s conference,” said Mr Baker. “But I have never suggested that direct marketing firms should be banned.”
He added that he supported business and had secured flood defences for Lewes. “I can point to you to people in business who changed their vote as a result of what I did after the flooding.”
Posted by Matthew 
Posted by Matthew 
Posted by Matthew 