May 1st is Just Around the Corner: Don’t Let This Chance Pass Us By

On May 1st, Devon County Council will have an election where all County Council seats are up for grabs. After 14 years at the helm of the authority, the Conservatives have made Devon the pothole capital of England, crippled our County’s ability to provide Special Educational Needs for our children, and ran our county services into the ground. This May is the chance to say, loud and clear, that enough is enough. 

The mess made by the Conservatives on Devon County Council will take years to clear up, so that’s why it’s so important that we start that clear up now, by electing hard working, local champion Liberal Democrats across the County. The £200 million backlog in road repairs is just one of those messes created by the Conservatives. In Conservative Devon it costs £189 to mend a pothole. In Liberal Democrat Somerset it costs £60. The Conservatives on Devon have had years to properly tackle the crumbling state of our County’s road and they have sat on their hands. While people in Devon face spiralling costs from car repairs which only adds to the cost-of-living crisis – another Conservative legacy. 

We have a plan. Liberal Democrats would take control of highways maintenance back in house to the County Council, rather than a costly outsourced contract. We would invest in reducing the potholes and improving our roads and reintroduce inspections of roads and repairs. 

I am a great believer in the power of a good education. It is the start in life that all our children and grandchildren deserve. The aspirations and ambitions our young people desire and can work towards, are all made possible by a good education. Yet again, the Conservatives have failed not just our young people in Devon, but our teachers and schools too. Children’s Services – run by the County Council – have been rated inadequate for years now, and they are letting our children down. The crisis in our services is especially stark for children with special educational needs or disabilities. In Devon, less 5% of Education, Health and Care plans are issued within the legal timeline of 20 weeks. That means that 19 out of every 20 children who need extra support in their education are being failed by the County Council. That is not what the children and grandchildren across Devon want, and I’m sure it’s not what parents, grandparents and carers across Devon want to see either. 

It isn’t just children’s social care which the Conservatives have crippled in their time leading the County Council – adult care has been run into the ground too. That failure to properly run our adult care service doesn’t just hurt that system, but it also heaps more pressure onto our NHS because it means people can’t leave hospital, even if they are medically well enough, because there is nowhere suitable for them to go. That means that corridor care, and people staying in hospital beds longer than they need to, is here to stay in Devon if the Conservatives keep control of County Hall on May 2nd. 

We know what we must do. By fighting for a fair deal for you, Liberal Democrats will bring back funding for Care in the Community: funding that was cut years ago at a County-level by the Conservatives. If we can fix social care, we can put the NHS in a better position to do provide preventative medicine by improving primary care with more GPs and dentists. This will cut hospital waiting lists and take the burden off chronic care provision. It will also mean that our beloved NHS staff are better supported.  The Liberal Democrats are the only Party serious about plans to fix social care and primary care and simultaneously improving the NHS. 

This election is a chance to turn the page on a dark chapter of Conservative mismanagement of Devon County Council. Whether it has meant letting our roads fall into disrepair, failing our children, underfunding our care services. The Conservative’s track record is nothing to be proud of. Liberal Democrats across Devon will fight for you, fight for a fair deal, and fight for the interests of the people of Devon. On May 1st, vote Liberal Democrat, and let’s get started on the work of rebuilding Devon’s services: we can’t afford to leave the Tories in power for a second longer.