Election 2010 – Real deal? Lib Dems to be ‘realistic with voters’

Published: 1 April 2010
by RICHARD OSLEY

NO glitzy manifesto launch – the Liberal Democrats are going door to door with a stripped-down, six-promise pledge which they hope will help them strengthen their grip on Camden politics.

They are promising a new primary school in the NW3 area to alleviate demand for places, around £1million of spending on 10 new council-funded police constables and 20 new support officers, and a pledge to cut Camden’s entire carbon emissions by 40 per cent by 2020.

The details will be presented as the greenest option offered by the three main parties for voters on the doorstep, although Labour too has made a similar pledge on slashing the borough’s carbon footprint. 

The Lib Dem manifesto will also be promoted as being an honest assessment about the tough economic conditions the next administration – whatever colour rosette wins – will face and the Lib Dems are not prepared to match a Conservative pledge to freeze council tax yet again next year. An inflation-only rise is expected if the Lib Dems win total control for the first time.

Group leader Councillor Keith Moffitt said: “We feel that we are being realistic with the voters, not treating them like they are stupid. Everybody knows there are going to be difficult times ahead of us. We have kept council tax frozen for three out of the four years of the partnership administration and we are committed to keeping it down, but if you go for a freeze again then you have to cut deeply into spending on important services.”

After four years of sharing power with the Conservatives, the Lib Dems are towing a careful line, eager to show they have new policies without suggesting that Camden needs a major change in direction.

The promise to work on a new primary school, for example, is already been interpreted by Labour rivals as an admission that planning over pupil places went awry once the Lib Dems and Tories took power in 2006.

Another thrust of the new Lib Dem manifesto, however, will be a promise to “shift power away from the Town Hall”. The party wants to beef up the idea of ‘area forums’, where residents take decisions affecting them on a ward-by-ward basis. The scheme has been criticised for poor attendances, but Cllr Moffitt said some areas had 80 to 100 people turning up regularly to meetings.

He added: “At its heart I believe that liberal democracy is about wresting political power away from faceless bureaucracies and institutions, to communities so that they can shape their own lives.”

Parking, an area that was once a hot election topic, is not included in the main pledges.

“It’s not that we don’t think it is an important issue,” said Cllr Moffitt. 

“It is included in the manifesto, but we want to build on what we have done. In 2005/06, under Labour, 26,453 cars were clamped. 

“By contrast, in 2008/09, just seven cars were clamped.”