Our Candidates 2018

Sweyne Park & Grange

I have been one of your District Councillors for two years. During that time I have sought to keep you advised with our Focus Newsletters, my regular blog (www.jamesnewport.co.uk) and our LibDem 'onlineFOCUS' website, not just at election time but all the year round. It is often difficult to get things done on the Council, I have been forced to be persistent and sometimes tough with the authorities. Following a lot of pressure, work is now underway to enlarge the Tesco Express car park in London Road. Sometimes it is necessary to take action very quickly, for example when ‘Travellers’ entered the Grange Playing Fields, I wrote and delivered a leaflet to affected residents within hours of their arrival (not everyone has access to the Council’s website and an advice leaflet does help). 

I've been a firm believer in delivering value for money services for residents. I have been active in rejecting the NHS Sustainability and Transformation Partnership's to reduce our local hospitals services and I believe we should be maintaining and properly funding all our NHS services.

I continue to fight against the over development of our District and West Rayleigh and have been instrumental in setting up an air monitoring programme in our area to ensure residents are aware of the any potential health threatening problems.

I am willing to go the extra mile for residents but I need your kind support

in the election on 3rd May 2018. Please vote for me

Downhall & Rawreth

I believe in the common sense approach to local government, helping residents with local Council issues. Unblocking vital drainage ditches and clearing up squalid fly- tip sites (both of which I have recently arranged), also campaigning to stop over development in our area, our roads and other infrastructure cannot take much more.

Local issues go beyond the District, I regularly press the County Council to do their duty, such as repairing potholes or taking action on Rayleigh’s huge traffic problems. With ‘Speed Watch’ I aim to make our roads safer.

I am very happy to serve you all the year round and to keep you advised with our Focus newsletters, but on the 3rd May (or earlier if you have a postal vote), I need your support.

Please give me your vote in the local election.

Wheatley

Over development has blighted Rayleigh during the period of Conservative control. In peak times getting around by car can take an age. There is a big policy document (Local Plan) being prepared by the Council that could lead to a lot more building in our town. That’s why the Lib Dems have already started campaigning to minimise the development in Rayleigh. We are insisting on infrastructure, like new roads, be provided before any building. Last time the Council drafted a plan (then called a ‘Core Strategy’), we campaigned and managed to get development in Rayleigh significantly reduced – but it was still too much! We need your support in the local elections to fight over development.

Youth services have taken a real hit in the government austerity cuts over recent years. Most local kids are well brought up and are basically good at heart. But we risk creating problems if we continue to provide so little for them to do, especially during the long summer holiday period. When the Lib Dems ran the Council we provided funding for schools to open up their sport and arts facilities during holidays for all children. Today what little use is made of school assets seems to be for fee paying clubs, not always suitable for our young people.

You only need to look at the state of the roads to see the Conservatives are not doing a good job in key areas. Our roads are heavily potholed making driving hazardous. Roads are a County Council responsibility but with Conservatives in control at all levels of government so they cannot escape criticism.

Another example of their bad management is the way that they are building new unsightly toilets in the conservation area in Crown Hill, instead of taking the cheaper option of refurbishing the historic toilets which are not in a very bad condition.

If you want change please vote for me, Lisa Newport the Liberal Democrat Candidate in the local election on 3rd May 2018.

Trinity

I have seen Rayleigh develop too rapidly with no matching infrastructure. It can take almost an hour at peak times just to get through town by car! Services have declined and the consequences for our aging population, let alone young families, doesn’t bear thinking about. I will work with the Liberal

Democrat team to make the Council more effective for our towns needs and ensure our residents needs are always put first.

Hockley

We must take control of the excessive over-development of recent years which,together with poor infrastructure and reducing public services, are blighting our area. Increasing numbers of bad potholes make car journeys uncomfortable and sometimes downright dangerous. As your Councillor I will press County Highways to get funding for pothole repairs spent here in Hockley as a matter of urgency.

I am also concerned that new street lighting has a spotlight effect which creates dark pools between lamp posts. This is a new problem which has safety implications for residents both as pedestrians and as drivers. We need to make sure all the services local government provide are safe.