Change the council

8.00.00am GMT Tue 16th Feb 2010

Jim Beeley, (Hucclecote), Verona Vidal (Barton & Tredworth), Jeremy Hilton (PPC Gloucester) and Anna Mozol (Quedgeley Severnvale)

This year will see two important elections, the first being the General Election and the second, elections to Gloucester City Council.

On the 6th of May voters will go to the polls to choose 15 councillors to serve on the city council, for the next four years.

There are a total of 36 councillors in all and the other 17 seats will be up for re-election in 2011 and 2012.

Currently, the Liberal Democrats are the second largest party with 11 councillors, and this year they will be defending four seats and fighting to gain more across Gloucester.

The election campaign will be led by Jeremy Hilton, he said: "The Tories have been in power for 5 years and they are exhausted. They have run out of ideas. The cabinet are complacent about their own performance and this should worry the people of Gloucester. We shall mount a strong campaign to take power off them."

The Liberal Democrats are currently drawing up their manifesto, which shall be published in March and it contains six themes to change the council, which are:-

1. decent homes for all

2. cost-effective council

3. greener Gloucester

4. high quality regeneration

5. vibrant cultural and sporting life

6. listening to you not telling you

Deputy Leader, Declan Wilson said: "The Audit Commission recently inspected the council and said it was performing in the bottom half of councils in England. They gave the Tory council a one out of four for managing its resources. We know we can do better. There are 5,200 households on the housing waiting list and this will be one of our top six priorities - providing more decent affordable homes for people to rent."

Jeremy Hilton confirmed that the Liberal Democrat group are committed making the city council a listening council: "We shall work with the people of Gloucester to provide better services and we shall listen to what people want for our historic city."

Ends...