Tories score a zero

I READ with incredulity Peter Aldous' letter (October 2) when he puts forward the Conservative's plans for the future.

There is much to applaud if that was indeed their plans and could be believed. For instance he talks about each community meeting its own housing needs without saying exactly how.

He suggests not to impose top-down targets yet at the Tory party conference they are suggesting many policies that are just the opposite and will be imposed from on high and for a Conservative to even countenance local people 'being in control of the way that their towns and villages develop' when Waveney Tories are suggesting just the opposite by sharing chief executives, a joint council by stealth, doesn't suggest local people being in control but imposed from above.

The final straw is that they will make planning decisions based on 'having consulted with the communities they serve.'

They have been in control of the county and district councils for some considerable time and what do they have to show for making decisions after consultation with local people? A big fat zero.

Ask all parents who didn't want the middle school system to disappear in favour of the Tories' two-tier system when all the Waveney Conservatives went straight down the party line on Suffolk County Council in the vote to rid us of the middle schools. What happened to consultation then?

If people want a party who do genuinely consult and do what they say by not imposing top-down policies and wishing to have a council that is closer to local people then they should look to the Liberal Democrats.

We see too much of the Conservatives saying one thing and doing just the opposite when in power - look at local government for the evidence.

If they have made such a mess of the county and district councils, what makes people think they will be any better in government?

CHRISTOPHER THOMAS

Waveney Liberal Democrats

Party chair