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‘Pasties & Politics’ - David Laws meets Central Devon Lib Dems in Crediton
November 6, 2011 9:07 PM
David Laws MP with Central Devon Lib Dems
David Laws MP was guest speaker at the Central Devon Lib Dems Pasties & Politics evening held in Crediton. One of the architects of the present government coalition pact, he pulled no punches in his answers on the Economy, Health, Transport, Tuition fees and Job losses.
Asked about how to deal with redundancies in an area reliant on one or two big employers, he stated that the closure of Bristow's was very sad, adding that in these circumstances help should be requested from the governments 'regional growth fund' which he explained had been helpful in reducing the effect on job losses in his own constituency in Yeovil.
On transport, asked why the South West gets very little new investment in rail or road, he painted a rather gloomy picture on new investment criticising rail companies for not supporting regional branch lines such as the Tarka Line where investment shrinks but passenger numbers continue to rise. He concluded that once local authority finances were stabilised, rail to road links should be investigated using micro investment equally funded between the Department for Transport, Rail companies and local councils.
He was though more scathing about local authorities who chose to use scarce government grant funding to bring back such things as the return of weekly bin collections stating repair our 'rotten roads before our rotten rubbish"
Parliamentary spokesperson, Phil Hutty, commenting at the end of the session pointed out that although the localism bill has become the central plank of the governments consultation with the public, Liberal Democrats had been consulting with the public for years and so perhaps it wasn't quite as new as many thought.
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