The Cornish Liberal Democrat manifesto

As it's been a busy day at work, I have not had a eventful day, apart from getting COD4 on the Xbox 360 (dont worry I only play it post 8:30pm after door knocking!). I'd thought I'd post the Lib Dem manifesto for Cornwall the whole manifesto is here but here are the bits which I think are my favorite things;

1. We will freeze Councillors’ allowances - at a time when the economy is contracting and
   people are losing their jobs and savings, Councillors need to tighten their belts too
2. We will make Cornwall the ‘Green Peninsula’, leading the way nationally in sustainable policy,technology and the way we do our business.
3. We can now promise to cut your Council Tax in real terms over the next four years, whilst
   maintaining and improving services. This comes as a direct benefit of creating a single council for Cornwall, which will result in over £70 million pounds worth of savings across the county.
   
4. We will ensure at least 1200 new energy efficient homes earmarked for local families and guaranteed to be affordable in perpetuity, are delivered every year.
5. We will spend at least £1 million to support Cornwall Credit Union - making possible their work to help households access affordable credit and tackle financial exclusion.

Now the reason why I chose those five, is not because the are the most hard hitting to put in a blog, but they give you an idea of what we are planning to do.

Councilors wages must be put on hold, and further to that we must make it so normal, working people can serve on our council not just the retired or unemployed. I've heard from many people that the only way to do this is increase the allowances offered, but that'll only make sitting councillors better off, the way to do it is by having meetings in the evening, allowing people to engage in the democratic process without having to miss work, it's not a revolutionary idea but if you want more people involved you have to think how the change the pattern of how the council works, not how much the councillors are paid!

The second thing is making Cornwall a "Green Peninsular." I feel that this is at utmost importance, over the next 50 years our planet is going to face some extreme weather, and Cornwall (being on the southwesterly tip of the UK) will be bearing the brunt of it, we have to look at everything we do to bring our carbon emissions down, from the way we produce energy away from coal, gas and oil, onto the natural resources that surround Cornwall, we can produce energy from Wave, to Wind, Cornwall is surrounded by energy, we just have to capture it!

Council tax, unfair, unjust, brought in by the tories without factoring the ability to pay, and made worse by this Labour Government's contempt for local democracy. Cornwall now has a unitary council that means 7 chief executives have merged into one. So effectively we're cutting the cost it takes to run Cornwall so we can pass on those savings on to the council tax payer. We're going to cut council tax = FACT.

1200 affordable green homes to go to local people every year. I dont even have to explain this when some communities down here only have 40% of houses occupied all year round!

The final thing is a credit union to help working people afford a home, when wages down here are 2/3rds of the national average, and house prices are higher than almost everywhere else, we need money at low cost to help us get our homes!

Any way sorry it was a bit long, I know blogs are meant to be 200 words or so long but hey, I have a lot to say!