State of the City: Liberal Democrat view (Bristol East Liberal Democrats)

Bristol East Liberal Democrats <info@bristoleastlibdems.org.uk>

State of the City: Liberal Democrat view

January 15, 2008 5:23 PM

Liberal Democrats today laid out what they believe are 3 key issues facing Bristol in the State of the City debate.

Highlighting the frustration felt by many Bristol residents about the State of their City, Cllr Steve Comer, Leader of the Opposition and Liberal Democrats talked about the poor service given in Transport, Education and Housing.

Cllr Comer said:

"I want to focus today on three issues which matter to Bristolians. Three issues on which Bristol can not be considered a success and which frustrate many local people: transport, education and housing.

"Firstly Transport - because the city is congested, the public transport expensive and unreliable, and the cycling and walking often dangerous and inconvenient

"Secondly Education - because our children are simply not getting the results they deserve and we are not making enough progress in sorting this out

"Thirdly, Housing - because buying a house now as a first time buyer would be beyond almost all of us and is beyond thousands of people in the city who are stuck in private housing, often paying off someone's buy-to-let mortgage"

Cllr Comer expressed frustration at the lack of power given to local government to enable them to achieve the dreams of their city.

Cllr Comer said:

"If there is a recurring theme here, it is I'm afraid the enterprise, spirit and can-do ethos of Bristolians is held back by Central Government and its plethora of unelected and unaccountable Boards, Commission, Trusts, and Authorities. We are stifled by the dead hand of the Treasury and quashed by Quangos.

"Major cities everywhere grew through enterprise and with imaginative civic leadership, not through bidding for a few quid from central Government. Localism is the 'in' phrase for some, for Liberal Democrats it has been at the heart of our thinking for generations."

Cllr Simon Cook, former Mayor of Bristol said: "When quangos fail us, as they have with both the Arena and the Bristol Old Vic, it is up to the Council to state unequivocally that what has happened is unacceptable. Recently, our ability to be able to produce or sustain key cultural institutions has come under question."

Speaking about Labour's role in the state of Bristol, Cllr Comer said:

"In Bristol we have to accept that many of the problems that we have to deal with have their roots in decades of one party - Labour Party control. Labour have been in power in this Bristol from 1972 to the present day (barring 2 years from 2005-7 and a one year inter regnum in 1983/4). That is 33 out of the past 36 years.

"So Labour have to bear much of the responsibility for the poor state of many of our facilities. Poor services are always the result of a complacent political culture, where clinging onto control and power becomes an end in itself."