Conservative Leaflet for Eynesbury now received

I received a Conservative leaflet through promoting Paul Ursell for District. It can be seen at electionleaflet.org.

To start with I looked through the leaflet and compared it to the 2010 leaflet. In the section for £3 a week there are a few differences. In 2011 it says:

The 2010 leaflet said:

So what has been dropped? Grant aid to community projects, Listed Building Grants and Transport initiatives such as Dial-a-Ride.

Nothing in the leaflet about £8.6 million of cuts. All the Governments fault it would seem. The Council Tax comparison needs to be looked at as Conservative run Fenland District Council charges £241.56.

What is also missing is the amount of reserves being used to pay for this low Council Tax rate in Huntingdonshire.

Now the Conservatives do make a series of pledges about Council Tax. I've highlighted the passage. The pledge is to "Reduce the cost of Local Government whilst keeping key services intact". What are the key services?

Whilst these pledges sound good none of them actually mean anything in terms of Council Tax rates. Lots of words - little content.

Rebalancing must be the buzz word of this election. When it comes to the Town Council, I asked what are front lines services and what will this mean to the back-room bureaucracy. Answer.....Silence.

The one pledge I see is the protect and enhance pledge for open spaces.

So the Conservatives are going to protect and enhance Shady Walk instead of having a cinema! Not going to become a car park then!

Lastly we have the New Homes Bonus.

To me this is a commitment by the HDC Conservatives (Jason Ablewhite - next Leader of HDC is featured on this leaflet) that New Homes Bonus money will come to St Neots. This is at odds with what Cllr Rogers said about the New Homes Bonus.

This is a well presented leaflet and gives good account of what the Conservatives aspire to do. There are some conflicts between what the Conservatives say and do as outlined above.  The problem I have is the leaflet leaves out the mess HDC got itself into. It doesn't really say anything concrete over Council tax rates and whilst it does go on about the New Homes Bonus this is at total variance to what the current Executive Councillor in charge of finance actually says. He said the money is to be spread across the District. How this will hold up only time will tell. If the money for St Neots does come back to St Neots this will leave another hole in the Conservative run HDC budget.