Liberal Democrat claims that they show local government at it’s best have been roundly dismissed by opponents in Southport.
It follows Vince Cable’s local election launch in which he called the Lib-Dems a “secret phenomenon” in UK politics and claimed that they ran “reliable and responsive” local services.
His comments have been dismissed though by Southport Labour who say that the experience locally is rather different. They cite a recent proposal by the town’s former MP and now Lib-Dem leader in Sefton, Cllr. John Pugh, to spend an extra £400,000 on potholes for one year by borrowing the money for it and then paying it back out of the roads budget each year for most of the following decade.
Labour’s parliamentary candidate, Liz Savage, explained:
“It is a truly potholed potholes proposal. This is what happens when you chase headlines rather than solutions. Under Cllr. Pugh’s plan, you’d get a one off hit which wouldn’t do much at all considering the scale of the problem and then you’d have even less roads funding each year for the following nine years! It’s an absurd proposal.”
“What’s even more absurd is that he tries to grab attention with a meaningless gesture that wouldn’t even begin to touch the sides of the highways funding gap and then hopes no-one will remember that he helped create it while MP. Along with the Tories, his party will soon have cut nearly a quarter of a billion pounds from Sefton’s budget, which is why we have so many potholes. Our current MP, Damien Moore, is also trying something similar at the moment and it reeks of hypocrisy.”
The Liberal Democrats also came in for criticism for ignoring the situation at Hightown Village Surgery when it came before Sefton Council. A special meeting of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee for Adult Social Care and Health was held on 3rd April to hear the second report of NHS England and NHS South Sefton Clinical Commissioning Group regarding the threatened GP practice..
The absence of three expected Liberal Democrat councillors, John Pugh, Sue McGuire and Lynne Thompson from the meeting was noted as well as the fact that none of their substitutes attended either. This was a repeat of the situation at the previous meeting on 22nd March, which they also failed to attend.
Liz Savage says it reveals how locally Vince Cable’s comments just don’t hold water:
“The fact that not one could be bothered to turn up or appoint stand-ins speaks volumes. This was a major issue and if it wasn’t down to the efforts of Sefton Central MP Bill Esterson and Labour colleagues highlighting the problem then there could have been a situation in which a large number of patients would no longer be registered with any GP.”
“Labour councillors at Sefton have now raised critical concerns about how the process had been handled by NHS England; over communications issues with CCGs and NHS England and also the lack of a transparent complaints procedure. There are also issues with Lancashire Care’s review of Formby Clinic which could have knock-one effects in Ainsdale and Southport, something that only Labour is raising.”
“It seems the ‘secret phenomenon’ of the Lib-Dems locally is that they are largely invisible when there is a real issue. Especially if they can’t take a cheap shot at Sefton over it.”
The Lib-Dem leader’s citing of problems in education and housing also came under fire from Labour’s Southport candidate:
” The Lib-Dems and Tories slashed education funding and right now 92 out of Sefton’s 93 schools are facing funding cuts according to the campaigning group, “School Cuts”. The pair of them also got rid of over 1,000 Sure Start centres. It’s like the Lib-Dems want to re-write history, it’s not education they are interested in it seems but a sort of re-education.”
“Also Vince Cable’s comments regarding housing don’t have the strongest of foundations given the active opposition the local Lib-Dem party shows to housing developments in the town. Southport Lib-Dems are not being either ‘reliable’ or ‘responsive’ it would seem.”
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