Monday, 23 April 2007

What they tell us, 2: The Conservatives take 2

Days to election: 10

The second leaflet arrived today. Four page A4, four-colour. From the Conservatives again. And rather more information this time, effectively making the previous leaflet redundant (and therefore a waste of trees).

Pledges:
  • to control council tax through a four-year detailed plan, to protect the elderly, vulnerable and people on low incomes.
  • to introduce 'integrated schemes to enhance the local environment' (rather non specific).
  • to 're-develop the Brighton Centre, carefully manage the West Pier re-generation, restore the Regency bandstand, ensure Brighton and Hove Albion FC gets a new fit-for-purpose stadium, and introduce a unified box-office for all key venues'.
  • to establish a Tree Trust Fund to renew city trees.
  • to work with tenants to bring all council housing up to the Decent Homes Standard and encouraging council house ownership.
A section on problems with traffic and transport blames the mismanagement of the Labour-controlled council (remember that Brighton & Hove is NOC, so it can't be just Labour) and promises a thought-through plan for road layouts and traffic light timings, better parking (non-specific), improved public transport including 'linking the bus and train tickets and timetables to provide more universal use of public transport across Brighton'. However, the support for car drivers seems to take precedence, given both the wording and the probability that traffic congestion (not to mention pollution) is closely related to the volume of non-public transport traffic: 'there has to be a better way to accommodate the car driver.'

On education, the candidates would 'monitor the future growth of the school population and plan accordingly'. An addition secondary school in the city is a possibility.

Leaflet count to date
Conservatives 2, others 0
Canvassing to date
None

2 comments:

Neil Harding said...

The Tories are putting a lot of money into campaigning in B+H - (they are still in shock at not winning Hove in the GE).

When it comes to the leaflet count - it should go back years to be fair to parties not just a few weeks or months.

JDF said...

I disagree about the leflet count. What matters is the proposition being put forward at this election. It is irrelevant how many leaflets the parties have issued over the years.