Liberal Democrats Unveil '6 to Fix' Manifesto for Local Elections

The Liberal Democrats have released their manifesto for the May local elections. Dubbing it  “6 to Fix”,  there’s a strong emphasis on handing power back to the local communities that make up Sefton, but also on addressing basic issues that they believe the current Labour administration is failing to address properly like potholes, flooding and looking after our heritage. 

They are determined to bring back under financial control Sefton's runaway budgets and end the Sefton strategy of creating arms length companies that lose money. 

“ We are planning a complete shake up of how this secretive Council works,” says Liberal Democrat , John Pugh,  who currently leads the opposition on Sefton.

“' 'Shaking up' makes you think of the current pothole situation but that, worrying in itself, is symptomatic of a wider pattern of poor, uninformed decision-making by remote, inadequately briefed  

 Council bosses.   

 “ We want to move power and decision-making away from the tiny clique of councillors who make up the Sefton Cabinet to powerful Township Committees set up for Formby, Bootle, Southport ,Maghull and Crosby. 

 There local councillors would be joined by representatives from the local NHS and police and be directly accountable and visible to local communities. Regular town meetings will allow the public to question and make representations to the councillors they elect locally. They in turn will have the power to respond and make better properly informed decision on the issues that impact on daily life in that community.

This is a huge change from the current status quo where almost all decisions are made in private by one of the 9 Cabinet Members and just published for the other 57 councillors and the public to read. 

Within an overall budget and strategy, local communities together with their councillors can help shape their neighbourhoods and address local problems and get quick action on potholes ,anti-social behaviour, traffic dangers. etc,, Having the police and NHS there enables a joined up approach to services at a local level should the public want to highlight difficulties in getting appointments, burglaries or speeding etc.

The current administration has pursued a top down “One Sefton” approach with a take it or leave it approach to council decisions. We want to recognise the diversity and differences in the natural communities that make up up this artificial local government unit, glory in their traditions and strengths and respond to their problems in a sensitive, informed and responsive way, listening to the people not telling them what they are getting.”