The Conservative Election Manifesto for NELC
We need your vote to deliver a Conservative-led council.
You need a Conservative-led council because we will be better at managing your money, listening to your concerns and promoting pride and standards across North East Lincolnshire. Our record speaks for itself: • Conservative councillors have worked tirelessly to scrutinise and support the economic and social regeneration of North East Lincolnshire to improve the quality of life for local people and promote pride in our community. • Conservative councillors have challenged Labour whenever they would not listen to your concerns. Examples include when they closed Scartho Swimming Pool long before its useful life had expired; or when they initially wanted to close and then introduce contactless entry payments for toilets in Cleethorpes despite visitors being vital to our local economy; or when, as now, they intend, despite widespread opposition, to replace a low speed roundabout with a high speed-traffic light junction at Toll Bar.
Over the past year, Labour have only retained control of the Council because they have the support of the five Liberal Democrat councillors. So, a vote for the Liberal Democrats is a vote for Labour!
The Conservative Group is very close to taking control of the Council. In last May’s local elections, Conservatives received over 18,000 votes and Labour less than 12,000. But they are clinging to power with the support of the Liberal Democrats. We need your vote to put an end to this charade.
Please read this Manifesto and judge whether it makes good sense. If it does, then please help us to deliver the pledges below by voting Conservative on 2 May 2019. Vote for change in North East Lincolnshire.
PLEDGE 1: CREATING MORE JOBS AND PROSPERITY During the 13 years of Labour government (1997 – 2010), our area was starved of investment and new jobs.
Our present Conservative Government is now making it possible for Grimsby to become the first town in the country to be offered the “Town Deal”. The Government’s plan is designed to lift the local economy out of years of persistent stagnation. The plan will provide £millions of additional funding and opportunities for more skills, training and better paid jobs, as well as generate the business rates needed to fund vital local services. Conservatives will promote growth and jobs in our key business sectors: ports & logistics, renewable energy, food manufacturing, chemicals and tourism, along with the many and varied local firms that service these industries. We will address Labour’s broken promises for the regeneration of Grimsby town centre, particularly the long-delayed redevelopment of Garth Lane and the Alexandra Dock area. For far too long, we have turned our back on our waterfront assets and their development potential! We will secure the future of Grimsby town centre by setting up a Town Centre Commission to address the serious decline of “Top Town”. We want to help deliver a vibrant, safe and attractive place for shopping, work and leisure. Cleethorpes has recently received £millions of grant-funding from the Conservative Government. Conservatives will encourage further local investment in tourism, not just in Cleethorpes but across North East Lincolnshire, promoting and improving the visitor economy and attracting more major events. Last year alone, North East Lincolnshire Council received almost £32 million of extra grant funding from the Conservative Government directed at specific projects to improve the area or the way services are delivered. With the demolition of the high-rise flats and the disused and derelict buildings at the northern end of Freeman Street, there is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to regenerate this long-neglected area. Conservatives will ensure that the Council works with partners and community groups to bring about this transformation. This would be an ideal location for a community stadium, providing a much-needed new home for Grimsby Town Football Club, if such a project can be delivered.
PLEDGE 2: IMPROVING TRAFFIC FLOW AND CAR PARKING PROVISION
We continue to oppose the very unpopular Labour plans to replace Tollbar roundabout with a traffic-light controlled junction. If we take control of the Council on May 2, we will endeavour to put an immediate stop on the project. Conservatives will give priority to reducing congestion and keeping road users and business moving. This means tackling congestion “pinch-points”, reducing the use of traffic lights, having sensible speed limits and scrapping the Scartho Road bus lane. Conservatives will put a stop to Labour’s anti-motorist attitude. Reducing congestion means spending available funding to best effect. Labour spent £420,000 at the Scartho Road hospital junction, with months of disruption and only minimal resulting improvement. Labour have allowed our roads to become blighted with potholes. Road maintenance must be improved to minimise accidents, vehicle damage and compensation claims. Conservatives will radically review car parking provision and charging to make our towns more attractive destinations for shoppers and visitors. We will encourage more residents-only parking schemes, where they are wanted and justified, and do more to tackle illegal parking on grass verges, footpaths and yellow lines. Labour have dragged their feet over these issues. We will actively pursue plans and funding for a Western Relief Road to take heavy traffic away from Grimsby town centre and our hard-pressed rural areas like Humberston, Waltham, New Waltham, Scartho and Healing.
PLEDGE 3: PROVIDING MORE QUALITY HOMES IN THE RIGHT PLACES
North East Lincolnshire needs more quality homes, but Conservatives will give preference to redeveloping derelict and empty town centre sites before we build on our greenfield, rural locations. We will also focus on the issue of the many empty homes in the older parts of the borough.
PLEDGE 4: RAISING THE SKILLS OF OUR YOUNG PEOPLE
Under Labour, our school exam results have not improved quickly enough even though North East Lincolnshire has some excellent, high performing schools. Conservatives are committed to supporting a mix of academies and free schools as well as the reintroduction of a local grammar school and specialist technical training. An improved education system will encourage career professionals to make their home in the borough and keep our brightest students in local schools. We will also work with local business to develop a more diverse education system to give all our students a greater opportunity to acquire the skills needed in the work place and to enjoy higher paid jobs that the Government’s economic regeneration plan will bring to North East Lincolnshire.
PLEDGE 5: INTRODUCING WEEKLY RECYCLING
Under Labour, North East Lincolnshire has one of the lowest recycling rates in the country. Conservatives will re-introduce weekly recycling collections and improve the current kerbside recycling collection arrangements, including for those areas where the current system is less workable. We will improve the local “bring-to” sites and make the Community Recycling Centres more accommodating and user-friendly to both residents and businesses. Conservatives will gradually reduce and eventually remove the charge for collecting garden waste to encourage more recycling.
PLEDGE 6: RESTORING PRIDE AND STANDARDS IN OUR COMMUNITY
We have had enough of the “anything goes” culture that Labour has allowed to develop across the borough. Conservatives will act to restore pride and standards in our streets and communities. We want North East Lincolnshire to be a pleasant and safe place to live, work in and visit once again! That means more commitment to street sweeping, verge cutting and maintenance of parks and open spaces. It also means high-profile enforcement action against dog fouling, littering and fly-tipping. Under Labour, enforcement has been too little, too late. Conservatives will work more closely with the police and other partners and hold them to account. We need to crack down on crime, anti-social behaviour, vandalism, graffiti, rough-sleeping and begging. These currently blight the lives of many law-abiding individuals,
families and businesses. We will send out a powerful message that current behaviours are unacceptable.
PLEDGE 7: SUPPORTING AND PROTECTING VULNERABLE MEMBERS OF OUR COMMUNITY
Central Government has pledged a much-needed review of the provision and funding of adult social care. Here in North East Lincolnshire, Conservatives will support and promote partnership working between the Council and the NHS to ensure we have the highest quality and most cost-effective adult social care services. These services must be tailored to suit individual service users’ needs. To ensure that vulnerable and disabled residents can be cared for in the community, if they so wish, home adaptations will be a high priority. The success of care in the community relies heavily on family and friends and these carers will be given the support and help they need and deserve.
PLEDGE 8: PROTECTING AND PROMOTING OUR HERITAGE
We must protect, and bring back into use, North East Lincolnshire’s many fine historic buildings. Labour have allowed many of these to go to wrack and ruin! Conservatives will reverse the neglect. Conservatives will look to provide a gallery and museum space where we can display North East Lincolnshire’s extensive collection of historic artefacts which have, for too long, been in storage with the public unable to view and enjoy them. PLEDGE 9: LISTENING TO YOU We promise to listen to your views and ideas and adopt a common-sense approach to running and improving North East Lincolnshire and delivering core services to the standard that we know you want and deserve. We will reduce waste, better manage the Council’s assets, improve efficiency and value for money so that more of our resources are made available to provide the key services we all need and care for the most vulnerable in our community. This will also enable us to keep the Council Tax as low as possible; unlike Labour and the Liberal Democrats, the Conservatives are a low-tax Party.
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