Lib Dems Pledge Wide-Ranging ‘Better Deal” in May Elections

Published on: 24 Mar, 2019
Updated on: 25 Mar, 2019

Guildford’s Liberal Democrats have launched their manifesto, “Demand Better for Guildford”, seeking voter support in the May 2 council election.

Cllr Caroline Reeves, leader of Guildford Borough Council’s Liberal Democrat group, said: “We know people of Guildford, Ash and the villages are fed up with a Conservative administration which has ignored and failed local people for so long. Residents deserve better and that’s why we’re demanding better with our manifesto.”

With the borough finely poised for a close political battle, the Liberal Democrats will be pushing for every vote as they seek to put an end to 16 years of Conservative control of the borough council.

Cllr Caroline Reeves

Cllr Reeves added: “We take our responsibility as the main opposition party across the borough very seriously. We have produced a credible, ambitious programme to tackle the real issues facing our borough, to ensure the council is accountable to residents and to deliver the better future that our communities deserve.”

Key pledges include:

Housing A target to build 3,000 new council houses in the next 10 years to clear the council house waiting list, setting up a Help to Rent scheme and ending rough sleeping;
Planning A “brownfield sites first” approach to the Local Plan, requiring infrastructure improvements for new developments to be put in place before new houses are occupied, and creating a town centre masterplan to open up the riverfront;
Crime Strengthening anti-social behaviour teams, bringing back Community Wardens and working with Surrey Police to restore neighbourhood policing through Neighbourhood Action Groups;
Traffic Tackling traffic congestion, cutting air pollution, creating 20mph Neighbourhood Zones in residential areas and improving public transport, walking and cycling options across the borough, including an overhaul of the gyratory and installing electric vehicle-charging points;
Environment Keeping fortnightly bin collections, increasing recycling rates, aiming to make Guildford a single-use-plastic-free borough, supporting the abolition of rural parking charges and drawing up a plan aimed at making the borough carbon-neutral; and
Democracy Ensuring full transparency of council spending, full accountability to residents, and ensuring that all councillors, regardless of party affiliation, are involved in decision-making, and supporting the abolition of Surrey County Council and Surrey’s 11 borough councils in favour of replacing them with more effective unitary authorities.

Zoe Franklin

Guildford’s Lib Dem parliamentary spokesperson, Zöe Franklin, said: “This manifesto is the result of listening to residents. We know local people are fed up with an unaccountable Tory council administration that ignores anyone outside the inner circle, and the Lib Dems are clearly in the best position to beat the Tories across Guildford borough.

“But we do also welcome the news that, among others, there will be candidates for the new Residents party contesting the council elections. More choice and more competition is vital for a healthy democracy and I applaud everyone who is standing for the first time in these elections

“Guildford Lib Dems welcome being kept on our toes and we look forward to working with any councillors elected, of all political stripes, on issues where we agree to achieve a truly democratic and accountable council that properly serves its residents.

“That said, we Lib Dems are confident that we are offering the best prospectus for Guildford and the villages. From ambitious action on the housing crisis to improving transport options and protecting the environment, we have real solutions.

“Our message is clear: a vote for the Liberal Democrats is a vote to demand better for Guildford.”

The full manifesto can be read online at GuildfordLibDems.org.uk/DemandBetter.

Responses to Lib Dems Pledge Wide-Ranging ‘Better Deal” in May Elections

Jules Cranwell Reply

March 24, 2019 at 7:53 pm

This is rather rich. The Lib Dems have slavishly followed the Tories ‘trajectory’ for the Local Plan, and voted with them for its adoption, instead of fighting it, as they should have.

Most recently, they failed to resist the Wisley ‘Garden Village’ proposal rather than subjecting it to scrutiny, as was their duty.

Now they argue for “brownfield first”, which they so patently failed to do throughout the miserable progress of the plan.

Why now? Oh yes, there’s an election in the offing.

Only the Guildford Greenbelt Group has consistently defended the green belt, and only GGG, and the newly formed R4GV (Residents for Guildford and Villages) are going to in future.
Julian Lyon Reply

March 24, 2019 at 11:19 pm

To use a Lib Dem election mantra: “Can’t win here”. This is as much about failure to oppose (behaving as if there were still a national coalition with the Conservatives) as it is about numbers. The Lib Dems simply haven’t earned our votes.

If you are lucky enough to have a GGG or R4GV candidate (or two or three) in your ward, do yourself and Guildford Borough a favour; vote for a local party, not a shamed, shambolic national party whose promises evaporate as soon as your cross has been put in their boxes.

However much respect I have for Zoe Franklin, locally this Lib Dem Group is as useful as fluff in a machine. Give them a miss this time. “Can’t win here!”

Julian Lyon withdraw as a prospective Independent candidate for the borough council elections to be held on May 2.
George Potter Reply

March 25, 2019 at 12:10 pm

It’s nice to see Jules Cranwell and Julian Lyon out in force to rubbish the Lib Dem manifesto in favour of their own preferred parties.

They’re entitled to their opinion of course (even though I think they’re rather far from being accurate with the facts) but I do think it’s a shame that they’re happy to make political attacks but aren’t actually offering any alternatives.

The Lib Dem manifesto addresses issues ranging from high housing costs to crime to traffic to the environment.

I completely understand why people might disagree with our Lib Dem policies but if they don’t like our proposed solutions to the issues then it would be nice if they could offer alternative, positive suggestions of their own instead of petulant hissing at the ideas of others.

Personally, I’ve had positive, thought-provoking talks with several R4GV [Residents for Guildford and Villages] politicians and found a lot of common ground as well as areas where I’d like to think our differing ideas on how to tackle the issues have led to critically re-evaluating our own ideas.

And if candidates who are standing against each other can manage an elevated level of debate then it would be nice of their supporters could manage the same.
John Perkins Reply

March 25, 2019 at 9:31 pm

Come on George, you’re a good man, join the good side.
Colin Cross Reply

March 25, 2019 at 10:34 pm

George Potter was welcomed at both our recent public meetings where he was an active participant and contributed in a positive fashion, for which he should be applauded.

I’m not an official spokesman for our newly formed R4GV Party but Guildford Dragon readers may have seen earlier that we were both with the local Lib Dem party a while ago.

I am not about to defend Jules or Julian as they do not require defending, being so very to able to defend themselves if required. However, I do have my own take on the dialogue above and, in particular, the stance the Lib Dems have increasingly taken in giving succour to the Tories in power at GBC.

The evidence is all around us, the entirely perfidious performance relating to the Wisley Development plans, the phoney claim of a commitment to brownfield first, inability to grasp the nettle of a vital town centre master plan, the continuing overt and covert support for the Tory group, denied publicly but clear to many, I could go on and on.

I too must express my admiration for Zoe, Liz and other former colleagues but changes will have to be made in other areas if we are to truly cooperate on a much needed and desired multi-party level after the May 2 elections. These are changing times for all.
Julian Lyon Reply

March 25, 2019 at 11:39 pm

Hold

I would like to thank George Potter for his thoughts.

I have made a lengthy study of the entire borough since 2011, wading through indices of multiple deprivation at borough and at middle and lower super output area levels, and at domain and sub-domain levels for both 2010 and 2015.

I have compared these to the council’s Local Plan which has been largely enabled by George’s current crop of councillor colleagues. The plan does little to address the issues of child poverty, poor educational achievements, crime and environment in tough pockets across the borough. It does not help to resolve an overriding issue of access to services across the borough, and it sets an aspiration for affordable housing that its proposed Community Infrastructure Levy, or CIL, and proposed payments for Sustainable Alternative Natural Greenspace (SANG) will make unviable.

I welcome the Damascene conversion, but I find it difficult to trust his party on this matter in the same way students may never trust it again on tuition fees, and yes, of course, the Lib Dems’ new position on the Local Plan, if it can be trusted, is much better than our local Conservatives’ position with it’s broken promises and its failure to listen to consultations.
Valerie Thompson Reply

March 26, 2019 at 8:32 am

The Lib Dems may have their own policies, but if they continue to slavishly kowtow to the GBC Conservatives’ directives then they cannot be considered as a party worth following.

Personally, I shall be voting for GGG in May.
George Potter Reply

March 26, 2019 at 3:39 pm

I appreciate the further comments above but I will make four brief points:

Firstly, I’m sorry to see that R4GV and GGG supporters are persisting in criticising without actually offering any alternative policies of their own. Which specific Lib Dem policies do they object to and why? What would they do differently?

Secondly, any suggestions that Lib Dem councillors have enabled the Tory local plan are utter nonsense. Housing targets were imposed by central government and local councils are obliged to either deliver a Local Plan that complies with those targets or face a free for all for developers who would then have no obligation to provide infrastructure or affordable housing.

Please see the neighbouring borough of Waverly for an example of this in action. The Lib Dems at GBC have voted consistently for a greater public say wherever possible and our brownfield first policy is unchanged from our 2015 manifesto. Colin Cross knows this full well since that was the same manifesto he was elected on and I don’t think anyone could believe he would ever have stood under the Lib Dem banner if our policies had been pro-green belt development.

Colin also knows full well that it was only thanks to the Lib Dems that the Local Plan was amended to include a planning requirement for all new developments to be accompanied by the necessary new additional infrastructure to support them; which has the effect that no major developments could possibly be approved without new infrastructure being provided.

Thirdly, Julian Lyon is also undoubtedly an intelligent man and so he must know full well that a Local Plan, as dictated by national planning law, cannot hope to begin to resolve issues like poverty, crime and educational attainment. The levers for addressing those issues lie with local and national government and I hope Julian will note that the full Lib Dem manifesto offers a detailed plan of how we intend to use every single one of those levers that we can in order to tackle the long-standing and deep-rooted issues across the borough.

Fourthly, and finally, I’ll point out that most Lib Dem councillors in Guildford actually represent the wards with the highest levels of deprivation and poverty; something even more true prior to the 2015 local elections. Yet so far, neither GGG nor R4GV seem to have any inclination to stand in those wards. Instead, they seem far more interested in standing in the wealthier, leafier parts of the borough. If Julian and his colleagues genuinely do care about deprivation and poverty then I can only suggest they do what Lib Dem councillors have been doing for decades and put his money where his mouth is by actually fighting for the interests of our more vulnerable and poorer residents and proposing policies that will actually help them (such as building more council houses).

Alternatively, he could just continue with what is apparently the current R4GV path: throwing stones at others whilst focusing solely on the concerns of their well-heeled neighbours and the devil take anyone else.

There’s a reason I’m a Lib Dem rather than R4GV or anything else and that’s because I’m utterly sick to my back teeth of self-interested politicians and their hangers-on who are quite happy to riot over a planning application they happen to dislike but won’t lift a finger and couldn’t care less about children in poverty going to bed cold and hungry in Guildford.

And, on that front, I really can’t see how GGG or R4GV are offering anything even remotely new.

George Potter is an officer of the Guildford Lib Dem Party.
- Lisa Wright Reply
  
  March 26, 2019 at 6:49 pm
  
  How about those central government housing targets were met by genuinely affordable, small homes on the brownfield sites in town?
  
  I don’t seem to remember any of the Lib Dem’s demanding a brownfield first policy be produced back in 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017 or 2018.
  
  I also take great offence when George Potter suggests GGG is only looking out for the leafy suburbs, we all have children and parents that need homes and we all use the NHS, police etc… We would like everyone to be able to afford somewhere to live without destroying the planet we live on.
  
  I would also remind Mr Potter that GGG fielded two candidates in Worplesdon, one in Ash South and Tongham, one in Normandy and so on… I think you will find that all of these areas have their fair share of deprevation.
  
  Perhaps it’s time for George Potter to take his own advice and have a look at the wider area too!
Ben Paton Reply

March 27, 2019 at 8:13 am

The last paragraph is an excellent summary of Mr Potter’s political outlook. He writes: “There’s a reason I’m a Lib Dem rather than R4GV or anything else and that’s because I’m utterly sick to my back teeth of self-interested politicians and their hangers-on who are quite happy to riot over a planning application they happen to dislike but won’t lift a finger and couldn’t care less about children in poverty going to bed cold and hungry in Guildford.”

It is worth re-reading this statement several times to savour the complete lack of logic. Mr Potter 1) says that GGG and R4GV “…are happy to riot over a planning application they happen to dislike…” 2) says GGG and R4GV “couldn’t care less about children in poverty going to bed cold and hungry in Guildford”.

Mr Potter is not making a rational point. He demonises his opponents by ascribing to them grossly exaggerated and untrue actions (“riot”!). He sets up his opponents as opposing him on a highly emotive issue (children “going to be cold and hungry”). He fails to produce any evidence for either of these two claims.

It appears that Mr Potter is seeking to make his opponents appear inconsistent and heartless by accusing them of caring about a planning application but not about child poverty. But it is not inconsistent to take different positions on different and unrelated matters. If R4GV’s policies do not happen to mention child poverty that’s probably because child poverty is not an issue that local government is empowered to address rather than, as Mr Potter appears to imply, they are heartless.

By seeking to connect two separate and incommensurable issues, planning and child poverty, Mr Potter exposes his own lack of clear thinking and rather cheap exploitation of an emotive issue to make a political point.

GGG and R4GV are fortunately a good deal more down to earth and practical than Mr Potter. And they address the real local issues that confront the local authority, not Mr Potter’s pet hates, bugbears and Aunt Sallies.

Making speeches about Brexit or Global Warming in a campaign for a local election is just a distration technique. It should not distract the public from the hard fact that the Lib Dem councillors have voted with the Conservatives on every important issue facing the borough council.
Ben Paton Reply

March 29, 2019 at 2:34 pm

Will the Lib Dems be voting for this Local Plan when it comes up for adoption next month?

If they do vote for it they won’t be in any position to offer anything better any more than the Conservatives.
Stuart Barnes Reply

March 30, 2019 at 2:55 pm

I have never voted for the Liberal Democrats in my life and never, under any circumstances, will.

If I am ever in doubt about any subject or policy, all I have to know is what do the Liberals/ BBC/ Guardian think or say, and then I know the opposite is the correct view or answer.

It is quite helpful sometimes.