The Liberal Democrats have today announced their top six priorities that will take them through to this year’s County Council Elections in May. The official launch of their full Manifesto will take place early next week.
The top six priorities that the Liberal Democrats have coined ‘six-to-fix’ are listed as follows:
1. Repairing our roads, filling in potholes
2. Growing our economy, investing in jobs
3. Opposing a waste incinerator, protecting the environment
4. Freezing on-street parking charges, cutting the price of residents’ parking permits
5. Making sure we can trust what we eat, protecting trading standards
6. Creating a new joint fire and ambulance service, for a safer county
Further details of these and other policy areas will be published in the Gloucestershire Liberal Democrat 2013 Manifesto entitled ‘Caring for Gloucestershire’. The launch of this manifesto will take place on the steps of Shire Hall at 10am on Monday 11 March.
Speaking in advance of the full manifesto publication, Leader Cllr. Jeremy Hilton said:
“Our ‘six-to-fix’ priorities will benefit all those who live and work in Gloucestershire not just a select few. These top priorities along with our other plans included in the manifesto have been brought together by listening to the people of this county.
“We believe that more can be done to improve the quality of services provided by Gloucestershire County Council. Our manifesto to be launched on Monday is a plan that will help people across the county understand who we are, what we represent and what is important.
“This manifesto spells out our county policies taking us up to the County Elections and beyond. We believe our manifesto highlights that a Liberal Democrat run-council will not cut corners. A Liberal Democrat run-council will commit to delivering a better future for everyone in Gloucestershire.”
ENDS…
Notes:
The Liberal Democrat top six priorities with commentary as follows:
1. Repairing our roads, filling in potholes
Liberal Democrats will invest in additional repairs to our roads and footways to repair the damage left after eight years of Tory neglect. We will release £5 million worth of surplus funds in the council’s reserves to help fix the enormous number of potholes on the county’s roads.
2. Growing our economy, investing in jobs
The county council will work with the Local Enterprise Partnership to create more private sector jobs and apprenticeships. Liberal Democrats will support growing businesses to achieve their goals and will also work to establish new businesses in manufacturing, advanced technologies and the green economy.
3. Opposing a waste incinerator, protecting the environment
We have strongly opposed the building of a £500m waste incinerator at Javelin Park on environmental and economic grounds. We will seek to use more environmentally friendly technology to dispose of the residual household waste.
4. Freezing on-street parking charges, cutting the price of residents’ parking permits
A Liberal Democrat council will freeze on-street car parking charges across Gloucestershire. In residents’ parking permit zones Liberal Democrats will reduce the annual fee from £80 to £50.
5. Making sure we can trust what we eat, protecting trading standards
The Tories have slashed spending on Trading Standards by 50% at a time when the service is under greatly increased pressure with the controversy over horse meat in beef products. It needs to be in the forefront of testing food products on sale locally. There will be no further cuts in Trading Standards under the Liberal Democrats.
6. Creating a new joint fire and ambulance service, for a safer county
We will lobby the government to establish a pathfinder project for a joint Gloucestershire fire and ambulance service under the control of the county council.