North West Hampshire Liberal Democrats

Elections take place on 5th May for Test Valley Borough Council.

All 48 seats are up for re-election and Test Valley Liberal Democrats have candidates for nearly all the seats including every seat in the Andover area.

Our candidates in the area are

Alamein: Len Gates, Kevin Hughes, Robin Hughes

Anna: Ben Harrington-Elsmore

Charlton: Mike McGarry

Harewood: Richard Rowles

Harroway: Ryan Hughes, Josie Msonthi, Andrew Whiteley

Millway: Barbara Carpenter, Ross Fifield, Margaret Henstock

St Mary's: Katherine Bird, Nigel Long, Vince McGarry

Winton: Dave Campbell, Sid Dajani, Peter Wilson

We believe the top priority of councillors is to look after the best interests of residents. We are not in coalition with the ruling Conservatives and offer a real alternative to the current administration. Test Valley Borough Council must not become an expensive bureaucracy out of touch with the people it serves. If elected we will cut unnecessary costs, transfer savings to front line services and devolve decision making back to local people. We have already identified four key areas where we can implement this programme by

• Reversing the unacceptable councillors' pay rise and cutting the costs of councillors and council meetings by restructuring committees and reducing overheads.
• Cutting operational costs by sharing services with other district councils and by devolving responsibility to town and parish councils. We will also scrap the unfair Andover levy - a poll tax on the people of Andover.
• Using the savings made above to improve the environment by introducing weekly summer month household waste collections and regular doorstep glass recycling collections.
• Bringing planning back under local control by giving residents a real say in local development and by opposing any more unnecessary large scale developments in the area.

We look forward to increasing the number of seats we currently hold on the council and putting the above programme into practice.

Local Lib Dem councillors are calling on Test Valley to charge developers who open fast food outlets for litter bins.

In a motion submitted to the next council meeting Cllr Len Gates and Cllr Celia Dowden from North Baddesley are proposing that any application for a fast food outlet should automatically be subject to a legal agreement calling on the applicant to pay for litter bins in the vicinity.

One of the biggest causes of litter in our town centres is the thoughtless discarding of takeaway wrappers and food. At present the tax payers have to pay for litter picking and bins. At a time when money is tight and Test Valley have refused to pay for any more bins it's only right that those who profit from these developments pay their fair share of the costs of dealing with litter in the area

The proposals call on Test Valley to ensure there are enough bins to cover current needs and require all future outlets to pay the cost of additional bins. The full text of the motion, which will be discussed on 25^th February, is as follows

Council recognises the litter problems created by takeaway food outlets

Council therefore requests that

• Officers investigate current litter bin provision in the area of fast food outlets and ensure adequate bins are provided in these areas and
  
• unless there are pressing logistical reasons not to so do, request officers to seek to implement a standard planning condition on planning applications for future outlets to ensure that litterbins will be provided in the vicinity of the development at the applicant's expense