Sam Smith is not a politician. He’s not a timewaster, he’s not dishonest and he’s not negative. He’s also not a diplomat. The first words he said to me involved describing the world’s best football team, Leeds United, in the most unsavory terms.  He’s also a straight talker. Which is what you need for the job he’s suddenly found himself in. And he might just be the man that Bridgwater South needs to get for it what it deserves. Sam says all his life stuff was being provided for his community yet nobody was ever asked whether they wanted it or not. Or what they wanted instead. Now they have the chance to.

Pride in Place is Government money which, if handled properly, could change all that. Money for projects that the community wants in the first place and projects that will be sustainable and last. The money is there and the back up is there. What the project needed was a charismatic figure to convince the people that this time they are being asked what they want first. And they’ll get it. But they need to get behind it. I interviewed Sam and for sure he’s the man for the job.

Hometown

Sam was born on the Taunton Road in Bridgwater. Well, in a house next to it. He was brought up on Hamp, went to school there, was Head Boy at Blake and although he went away to university to study Motor Sport Engineering, he commuted because he continued working in his hometown. Even when he went abroad to Portugal, France, Germany in his dream job, he returned to Bridgwater. This was his home and his community.

Sam loves Bridgwater and he loves Hamp. His love comes from family, friends and community. Exactly the background and motivation you need to put you at the forefront of a project like Pride in Place. Sam is the Chairman.

One thing you can say about Sam is he’s a hard worker and this shapes him. When he was a teenager his first job was washing up in his family café in Eastover. When he went on to work in sales at Halfords, he still filled his free time working the bar at the British Legion.

What motivates someone like this? As a kid he wanted to be a pilot, but he had a lazy eye and the last thing you need is not noticing a mountain while you’re flying over it. Instead, he kept his feet just a few inches closer to the ground and went into motor racing as a mechanic “a far more important job than a ‘driver’ anyway”.

Trouble

But it wasn’t just career and workplace that drove him, he also brought that sense of drive into his main hobby, football. He joined the Rhode Lane Wanderers football team at an early age and although left back on the pitch he was Jude Bellingham when it came to driving it forward. For Sam it was a key benchmark for a community. He could see that without their football the kids could easily drift into trouble and doesn’t hesitate to say that ‘football saved lives’. I can testify to this. Of all the thousands of community groups, choirs, schools, rock groups and football teams I’ve taken to the Czech Republic over 30 years the absolute best ambassadors for Bridgwater were the Rhode Lane Wanderers team of 2008. Impeccable behavior and a credit to their hometown. Plus, they won all their matches.

Sam admits he has role models. From his family-his dad and his grandmother, who all set high standards of work life balance and went without so that he didn’t have to. But he also pays tribute to a teacher at Blake who steered him the right way. Ensuring he took up German rather than his first-choice cookery. Much more use at BMW.  It made him realise it was a great area, with great schools, great people and a great upbringing. For many people ‘privilege’ means honours bestowed without doing a day’s work in your life just because you were born into it. For Sam it meant being brought up on Hamp.

Outcome

Where does this leave the Pride in Place project? For Sam the next step is crucial. The ‘engagement’ with the community. “People have to engage. If they don’t tell us how do we know. They have to believe there’s a point to engaging and they have to believe there’ll be an outcome that they wanted in the first place”.

If anyone can convince them of this then Sam can. Local people are in the driving seat and Sam’s heading up the pit crew.