Sherington Tory

It looks to me as if the Lib Dems don't want people to know what they stand for or what they will do after May. Their past tactic was to keep quiet about their manifesto, and then have it adopted as council policy on the quiet after the election. That in itself is devious enough because it hides from the elctorate their spending priorities, and after all it is your money that the council is spending. Yet in spite of being on public record in the Citizen as saying they have no manifesto, their website proclaims having one as "standing on their record". I have to wonder how a manifesto, which is your statement of future intention, can be hauling out the tired old cliches of what you have or haven't done in the past. It gives no clear idea of what they intend to do and no detail as to priorities. And for this they want you to trust them with your money. What in that case is there to stop them from embarking on costly and wasteful white elephant projects or spending sprees on account of them not telling the electorate what they intend to prioritise spending on? The answer is, without a manifesto as a benchmark of intention, absolutely nothing!

The Conservatives have a manifesto we are proud of, and we DO intend to tell the electorate how we propose to prioritise spending thier Council Tax money. To obtain a copy please cal 01908 372 038 and we will gladly send it to you. I'll also be putting some of it onto this blog for your reference, and if I can arrange a "downloadable" verion on Adobe I will.


From today's Citizen:

Confident Lib Dems have no manifesto

LOW tax and value-for-money services are the battleground on which Liberal Democrats and Tories will fight for control of the city in May's local elections.
Labour – desperate to avoid ending up the minority party just five years after it was running the show – makes regeneration of older estates the main issue.The Lib Dems are so confident of a record that includes delivering council tax £60 below the national average they did not go to the trouble of putting out a manifesto unlike the main opposition parties."Government inspections and independent public opinion polling both show Milton Keynes has improved under the Liberal Democrats over the last five years," they said in a press briefing this week.They said residents reported Milton Keynes to be a cleaner city than before, that education standards had improved and people felt safer. Older people were being helped to remain independent in their own homes. Re-cycling and garden waste schemes were popular.They claimed credit for fighting off developers aiming to rip up the V10 grid road, had resisted neighbouring Tory councils' plans for massive development east of the M1 and squashed moves to demolish homes on older estates.They have battled successfully for continued local control of health services and persuaded ministers to release £2 million cash support due to the city.They promised to provide more activities for youngsters, clean up "grot spots", promote energy efficiency, provide more safety wardens and keep down tax rises.

The Tories said if they got power they would similarly hold tax increases to inflation or less and continue to press Government for fair funding of Milton Keynes to provide quality services and support demands of expansion.Theirs would be a "careful and considerate" administration – moving away from the wastefulness of previous council rulers.A priority would be a wholesale review of council operations, with people consulted on spending.They would continue to lobby for the replacement of Milton Keynes Partnership and its replacement by an elected body accountable to the council cabinet, and maintain their "i before e" stress on provision of infrastructure ahead of expansion.Growth should be slowed to a rate "beneficial" to the people and business and shaped locally rather than at Westminster, it said.On transport, the Tories would look to improve bus services, but also support motorists by protecting and extending the grid and giving city centre shops and stores the right to impose their own parking charges.As well as blitzing graffiti, it would "tackle the causes."There would be improved funding for schools with "high value schemes" producing better buildings. Village and faith schools would be safeguarded.The party would push ahead with the modernisation of council homes aiming to complete the 'decent homes' programme by 2009 – two years earlier than the Government deadline.It would make the tenant and not the council budget the priority on housing policy.The Conservatives pledged to boost the Community Safety Partnership, and also strengthen council powers to crackdown on illegal traveller encampments.There would be moves to set up a round-the-clock helpline enabling people to report trouble.

Labour set seven priorities with regeneration and housing top of the list.It would install a timed programme for upgrading each area of the city needing regeneration, increase council support for growth and ensure the planning department had the resources to match.On housing, it promised 25 per cent of new homes as social housing for rent and a further 25 per cent intermediate housing with 10 per cent stakes available to encourage home ownership.A Labour council would take the opportunity being offered by the Government to re-establish a council house building programme.It would improve the level of cleaning in all areas of the city and end what it called the Lib Dem neglect of older areas and communities. Cash for cleaning would be channelled to parish and town councils, which would also get funding to tackle poorly maintained roads and pavements.It would implement its pledge to give the parishes a fairer share of cash raised from council tax, and bring some services of council business partner HBS back in-house.Labour would fully support development of "our dynamic, lovely city", insisting on the highest standards of development with a balance of open and private space.It would be strong on promoting culture and seek to attract major sporting facilities, including a "national cricketing venue of international quality and centre of excellence."On transport, the manifesto said: "We will investigate how public transport can be made a reality. We support an independent review of transport systems to move towards a more integrated approach. We will investigate monorail and tram options."Labour would introduce the 'MK Oscars' to reward outstanding community workers.It believed the city would benefit from a "Left led council committed to a socialist vision."

http://www.miltonkeynestoday.co.uk/ViewArticle2.aspx?SectionID=415&ArticleID=2226440