West Sussex Votes 2021: Lib Dems vow clampdown on 'wasteful' public spending
We've been speaking to leader Dr James Walsh ahead of Thursday's elections
With West Sussex County Council elections just days away, the leaders of the main political parties have made their pitches for your votes.
The candidates were quizzed on their track record, main campaign policies and what their focus would be on if elected next month.
Polling day is Thursday (May 6th) with all 70 seats up for election.
The Liberal Democrats are the main opposition party on the County Council heading into the election - here's what they are planning to do if they can win a majority:
The Lib Dems have promised to clamp down on ‘wasteful’ spending of public money at County Hall over the last four years under the Conservatives.
Group leader James Walsh, who has now been a county councillor for 36 years, pointed towards the £12m required to put mistakes right in children’s services, £5m extra needed for the fire and rescue service, £4m compensation paid out after the ‘bungled’ re-letting of the highways contract and large golden handshakes paid to several senior officers leaving the council.
Dr Walsh said:
“All this talk about the Conservatives looking after the taxpayers’ money very well is a myth.
“That’s the record we are looking at drawing to the public’s attention and we want to change a lot of that.”
He highlighted how the county’s civic amenity tips had experienced four major changes over the last few years from closing several locations between one to two days a week, to briefly introducing charges for some non-household waste, to bringing in ID checks and now trialling a booking system at six sites.
The Lib Dems are pledging to reopen sites seven days a week to encourage more responsible recycling and help reduce fly tipping.
His party is also concerned about the level of potholes on West Sussex’s roads. He said: “It’s clear not enough is being spent and the pothole situation is just getting worse. That is everybody’s experience.”
The Lib Dems are also campaigning to restore bus subsidies, especially in more rural areas in order to reduce reliance on cars in line with the climate agenda. He said the cuts have meant a ‘vicious circle’ of fewer bus services leading to a drop in people using them.
Dr Walsh described how they want to see a ‘really intensive’ programme of climate change actions from improved public transport to extending the network of electric vehicle charging points.
Another area where they want to see action is to address the funding crisis across West Sussex’s schools with the county’s children ‘getting a worse deal than many other parts of the country’.
He also said they needed to make sure central government makes good on promises to properly fund adult social care especially with costs going up and people having to sell their homes and other remaining assets to pay for their care.
Dr Walsh said: “Adult social care needs to be funded in the same way the health service is funded.”
A redesign of early help services has been in the spotlight recently and the current proposals out for public consultation would see the majority of the county’s children and family centres close.
Dr Walsh described how these facilities provide ‘absolutely vital’ services for new parents, with the Lib Dems promising to keep as many open as possible if not all of them.
He also pointed out how over the last half decade council tax bills have risen significantly at the same time as services are ‘effectively being reduced’. As a regressive tax he argued these increases hit poorer families who are not eligible for support the hardest.
Although taking control of the county council might be out of reach for the Lib Dems, they are hoping to pick up seats in a number of areas particularly Arun, Mid Sussex, Chichester and Horsham with the aim of denying the Conservatives an overall majority.
Dr Walsh said: “A sizeable opposition is very important to hold an all-powerful executive to account and make sure they remain responsive to the public across the whole of West Sussex.”
He argued that a vote for the Lib Dems was about getting ‘better value for money and making sure the waste and excess of the Conservatives is not repeated’.