In Touch? In Reality Out of Touch!

The Conservatives have been delivering a newsletter right across Wednesfield North this week end called 'in-touch' . In it they state they will reduce the Counciltax. Indeed they go so far as to say that they can save every household money, but what they do not tell you is which services they will cut to save you £62 a year!

In their publication they talk about decent homes, yet ignore the £400m that has been earmarked by this Labour administration and Government to invest in Wolverhampton housing stock.

We can see the scaffolding embracing Council homes all the way up Griffiths Drive on Ashmore Park,as investment and modernisation of our housing stock is already underway.

Investment in homes is already now taking place here in Wednesfield North and Labour is responsible for that! Councillor Bourne the Tory even resigned off the Board of Wolverhampton Homes only weeks after being elected onto it, so much for wanting to help Wednesfield North residents.

This bunch are a joke, they talk glibly 'about working with local residents' to tackle issues that matter. It is this Labour administration that is investing multimillions of pounds in building a new schools for the future here in Wolverhampton.

Its this Labour administration of course developing a £1m new Children's Centre which is currently taking shape on Ashmore Park and there is a programme of new investment to be poured into other local schools, it is Labour that is taking the lead.

Labour is committed to ensuring that investment and jobs keep coming to Wolverhampton.

The Wednesfield Leisure Centre is now open. This is £12m of new investment that was very much part of Labour promises in previous elections which has now been delivered and this 'promise' we made some time ago now is packing our citizens in.

The Tories also run with an article about Post Office closures in there latest newsletter. Where in Wednesfield North are we seeing a post office closure? Let them tell us where these closures are, my view is they are doing no more than scaremongering.

Trying to frighten the old and the infirm into voting for them.....disgraceful tactics.

Make no mistake if the two Post Offices that are in Wednesfield North were to be threatened then I will be there with them campaigning. But they are not on any closure programme that I am aware of. Therefore it is 'Tory spin' at work here, nothing else but twisting arguments.

Right the way through their latest election newsletter they contort the truth.

Do you know two out of the photographs they are using do not exist in Wednesfield North? They are twisting the truth for their own Party gain, and it has the strong stench of panic about it. How can you put out an election newsletter which states that 'Doing our best for Wednesfield North' that carry's a picture and caption that says 'tackling anti social behaviour', when the picture is of somewhere else in Wolverhampton.

What is the reason behind that other than an action to try and dupe Wednesfield North voters and the Conservatives should be apologising to my community for trying this trick on. Even the home that they show with a caption 'Decent Homes' is not a home in Wednesfield North.

The Tories also ignores in their campaign newsletter the fact that 31 youths have been identified who were involved in anti social behaviour, and 16 of them have already been interviewed with parents, due to the residents, the police, the Local Authority and Wolverhampton Homes all working 'together' to deal with this problem.

I am with Hazel their candidate however on the need to re-cycle plastics. Indeed I wrote a number of articles on this very issue on 'Councillor Phil Bateman On Line' way back in 2006 and in 2007. Indeed it was many of my constituents who supported me then and encouraged me to write to the Authority about the need to recycle plastics.

Guess what those proposals are now being progressed by this administration!

So much for being 'in touch' with everything that is happening in this Ward. I am pleased to welcome her onto an issue that is being addressed.

Finally just for a bit of balance wouldn't it have been better if they campaigned by setting out how they are about improving this part of the City that I live in. The whole tenure of this election literature smacks of accentuating the worst arguments with a view to bad mouthing the neighbourhoods and the community.

Politics and local politics in particular is all about 'doing things' improving peoples lives. Why set out to denigrate and undermine neighbourhoods?

Where is their plans for improvements, for progress, for development. Why do these Tories always want to show my Ward of Wednesfield North in bad light?

Why the need to warn local people and threaten them with " If we want to keep local services we must continue to use them" That is the threat levelled by Hazel Keirle the Conservative candidate in her own election leaflet.

So Hazel if you are making that bold statement on your 'in touch' newsletter.

What local services are your group earmarking to take away should the residents not decide to use them? Residents have a right to know now before the election takes place? Why should you threaten them in this way?

Wednesfield North is a really great place to live, I am annoyed that you feel that you can threaten it and besmirch it in the way that you do, but of course the answer to that question is that none of the three Conservative representatives live in the Ward.

None of them feel for this community like we who live in it feel, if they did they wouldn't have published such a document.

Vote for Phil Bateman Labour on May Ist