After 6 month's consultation with party members and supporters Island Labour has published its 2009 Local Election Manifesto "Your Island, Your Council", which reveals our aspirations for the IW Council after the June local elections.
Labour recognises that having influence at County Hall rather than power is its realistic target, though it plans to field candidates in a majority of the Island's 39 new wards.
For the last 4 years the IW Council Labour Group has been recognised by all fair commentators as the only effective opposition group at County Hall. We now hope to build upon that reputation by securing a larger group of councillors at the June elections who can exercise far more influence at County Hall. We believe that our Manifesto offers Islanders many good reasons to vote Labour at a local level. By releasing it early we are giving Islanders plenty of time to consider our aspirations.
The Manifesto brief says:
From June 2009 Labour Councillors at County Hall will seek to achieve or exert influence upon the following-
YOUR COUNCIL TAX
- Guarantee to limit Council Tax increases to no more than the maximum advised by Government – usually the inflation rate.
- Aim only to use Council reserves and balances for projects that deliver a public asset, such as a swimming pool or day centre for vulnerable people.
- Commit to delivering efficiencies year on year in line with Government targets.
- Choose the Council’s own staff before extortionate outside consultants.
YOUR SCHOOLS & YOUR CHILDREN
- Reject the current school closure programme and support small schools, recognising their importance and value to local communities
- Fully implement the government’s ‘Reducing Surplus Places Strategy ‘ and work to reduce the size of our secondary schools
- Introduce free school meals for all primary and middle school children.
YOUR HOMES
- Ensure that all new housing developments include at least 33% affordable homes, and at least 50% when built on Council owned land.
- Target more Council resources on converting empty properties into homes for hard-pressed local people.
- Offer dedicated staff, and work in partnership with other organisations, to provide more support and help with the legal system to prevent Islanders from losing their homes unnecessarily, and improve services such as debt counselling.
YOUR TRAVEL
- Pursue a flat rate bus fare of £1 for 19-59 year olds - 50p for 5-19.
- Roll-out a free ‘park & ride’ scheme for
- Make car parking more accessible for local shoppers, whilst increasing the costs of long-stay parking and permits (over 4 hours).
YOUR ENVIRONMENT
- Initiate the further development of alternative energy systems based upon LOCAL production and supply that are fuel efficient and powered by renewable energy sources.
- Establish annual community and individual carbon emission targets, monitored by local forums in liaison with elected members.
YOUR QUALITY OF LIFE
- Offer free swimming in public pools for the over 60’s
- Provide the driving force and co-ordination for an annual Island-wide Cultural and Arts Festival, which stimulates the diversity of our community and encourages the involvement of young people.
YOUR HEALTH AND CARE
- Increase support for patient and carer travel to mainland hospitals.
- Improve support for carers – through faster assessments and more respite and day care services.
LAW & ORDER IN YOUR COMMUNITIES
- Seek to improve cooperation with pubs, clubs and outlets selling alcohol to reduce anti-social behaviour in the night-time economy.
- Abolish the existing Environmental & Neighbourhood Officer scheme and introduce a more effective and cost-effective Local Community Warden scheme in areas of anti-social behaviour.
- Increase resources for CCTV monitoring capacity
QUALITY JOBS FOR
- Work with IW College and employers to provide the courses and training for the jobs of the future.
- Push the IW Council to take the lead with quality modern apprenticeships
HELPING TOURISM
- Commit to investing a proportion of car parking charges to improving amenities - for example, decorative flowers and safety improvement along the sea fronts - and the appearance of the towns where visitors stay.
1 comment:
Increase CCTV? Aren't we all watched far too much already? Most of this is good, apart from complete naivety on the energy front (would Labour support a coal-fired power station if it were "LOCAL"?) but the Labour Party I grew up with, and which the badge your picture represents, would never have supported spying on people. If you want good policing, employ more police - oh, and pass good laws, as opposed to the frenzied legislation-mania of recent years. This country has become a giant, muddled, incompetent bureaucracy. New Labour, and the EU, have been responsible for that, although the trend was established by the previous government. The way in which Blair, one of the worst prime ministers this country has ever endured, and Brown, have followed that disastrous lead is the greatest tragedy to afflict the Labour movement and the people of Britain. I like this manifesto: it's better than anything else on offer locally. But Labour has a huge job ahead of it in trying to overcome this combination of Stalinism and hard-line capitalism, and frankly, we need to break decisively with New Labour and its top-down prescriptiveness if we are to reclaim the support of our traditional supporters while at the same time offering hope to those who have no traditional allegiance to Labour, and little understanding of the tradition it represents.
Of course, they are not alone in this; the Blair-Campbell-Mandelson axis has no comprehension of that tradition either. Local Labour people are not slaves to the new orthodoxy, but maybe need to make this more obvious than they have hitherto. Loyalty may be a great thing, but only when it's loyalty to principle.
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