Your guide to the Melton Borough Council local elections PART TWO

Next Thursday residents of the Melton will vote to elect 28 councillors to represent their interests for the next four years.
The Melton Borough Council local elections take place on Thursday May 2 EMN-190426-180124001The Melton Borough Council local elections take place on Thursday May 2 EMN-190426-180124001
The Melton Borough Council local elections take place on Thursday May 2 EMN-190426-180124001

This is part two of our guide to the policies supported, and issues campaigned for, by the 48 candidates who will be standing on May 2

In this one, we look at those standing for the Conservatives, the Liberal Democrats and UKIP.

You will find part 2, which focuses on candidates for Labour, the Green Party and the Independents, on another page on our website.

This year’s candidates are made up of 27 Conservatives, seven Independents, seven from the Green Party, five from Labour and one each from the Liberal Democrats and UKIP.

Nineteen of the 27 current borough councillors are standing for election again.

The current council is made up entirely of Tory councillors apart from one Independent and one vacant seat following the death of Labour member Michael Blase in January this year.

The participating parties say they are campaigning on the following issues:

CONSERVATIVE PARTY

We are all residents, we use the same services, we enjoy the same parks and green spaces, we put out and recycle our rubbish, use the same shops and restaurants and visit the same GP and Health Centres.

That’s how we know that the decisions made by the council have a direct impact on all our lives.

We never take this responsibility lightly, remembering every pound spent has been earned, and making sure that we provide value for money for all residents.

This is why over the last four years we have built a ‘seriously different Council’.

This has meant going beyond the traditional remit of a district council by putting the wellbeing of our residents and businesses at the heart of everything we do.

The Conservative-run Melton Borough Council and Leicestershire County Council have delivered:

• Funding for a new bypass for the town.

• Greater broadband access to villages.

Plus your Conservative council has delivered;

• Refurbished cattle market.

• Sustainable Local Plan.

Over the next four years if we continue to control the council we will:

• Ensure a bypass is built.

• Campaign for a second GP surgery in Melton Mowbray.

• Further improve access to leisure facilities.

• Tackle fly-tipping and negative impacts to our environment.

• Give business greater support to expand and develop.

• Continue to work with police to tackle crime and its causes.

Voting for the Conservative Party at the 2019 Melton Borough elections will mean that you will see your borough thrive, improve and most importantly get that bypass we have all waited so long for!

LIBERAL DEMOCRATS

Liberal Democrats will act in the interests of the whole of Melton borough, with concern for the surrounding villages as well as the town.

We want sustainable development of more and better homes: a supply of adequate housing, especially for young people, is crucial to keep communities thriving.

Councils should be allowed to borrow more to build new affordable homes where communities would like to have them, with the right infrastructure to complement what is good in the area without adding to congestion and adversely affecting the environment.

We want to preserve and expand public transport: rail, bus and taxi services are vital and more imagination is needed in how these are provided.

The by-pass is an opportunity to address transport, housing, and environmental challenges that must be grasped.

We want stronger support for local businesses: reduction of business rates, better high speed broadband and mobile phone coverage.

We want greater priority for environmental issues: expansion of community energy schemes and development of energy-saving projects, local electricity generation and green transport.

We want better protection for the countryside: an ambitious programme of tree planting and targets to protect wildlife, clean air and clean water.

We want an increase in community policing, better support for victims of crime, and recognition that drug and alcohol-related crime is also a health issue.

Most of all we want to break the Tory stranglehold on current policies.

Liberal Democrats stand for transparency and accountability of local government, and full consultation with local communities.

UKIP

Police: Austerity cuts have forced reductions in police numbers in the county, (2,300 to 1,780) and more reductions are threatened.

The cuts have gone too far placing citizen safety and trust in policing at severe risk.

UKIP believes in returning to a meaningful capita population-based policing resource.

Whilst we acknowledge the crime rate in Melton is less than half that in Leicester and is below the constabulary average, with 154 crimes reported in February including 38 within the category for violence and sexual offences, there is no room for complacency and the police always deserve our support and gratitude.

Public transport: the continuation of the concessionary fares for those of pension age and the disabled is a priority.

Roads: The Melton relief road must be constructed.

The Shoby Crossroads is a site of recurring collision accidents and effective measures should be implemented to reduce this danger.

Housing: the approved local plan involves the construction of some 6,000 additional houses in the borough.

The borough is doing as much as it can to ease the housing shortage.

I wish to see the service personnel of the borough who gave their lives in the two World Wars, and conflicts since, commemorated in the names of new streets.

This would cost nothing.

Environment: The volunteers involved in Melton Matters and their actions against dog fouling, litter and fly-tipping deserve a big thank you.

As for Brexit, I would not trust this Tory government to deliver a pizza let alone Brexit.