WALLASEY ELECTION 2010

Apr 21 2010 by Matt Hurst, Heswall News

I want to see educational opportunity for all regardless of family wealth or background.

I am proud that Labour has doubled school expenditure per pupil, invested in new school buildings and seen standards rise steeply especially in poorer areas.

We will create a guaranteed route to good qualifications for all and have invested to create the Future Jobs Fund which is now giving 6000 young people in Merseyside their first job opportunity.

All of this would be at risk with the Tories.

Most young people in their twenties have never known anything but a Labour Government.

I want to stop the waste of young people on the dole.

There are more than 1,000 young people out of work in Wallasey and Moreton.

Conservatives will tackle this by expanding the number of college places and apprenticeships. We will also replace Labour’s failing job creation schemes with a radical, new ‘Back to Work’ programme.

In Britain today many young people are demonised or denied the right to thrive.

I believe young people should be free, so far as possible, to make the decisions that affect their own lives.

Young people should have a future; there should be full political rights at age 16.

We will provide more support for young people who are vulnerable, and ensure that public service provision is accessible and does not exclude or discriminate against disabled children.

This is why young people should vote Liberal Democrat.

As I am a father of two young adults and live with my partner, who has two teenage children, and I am a local football league referee, I am constantly aware of the problems that face the youth of Wirral.

This involves the need for proper funding of decent youth programmes, proper employment and a lack of feeling that they have not got a voice to be heard.Š

I would like to see the money that we spend in the EU being put towards these young people and their projects.

Pulling out of the EU will create proper jobs for the young of Britain.

I am glad the tolls have been frozen this year.

The five Merseyside authorities showed a great deal of foresight when they built the tunnels but they were built with loans that have to be repaid.

Don't believe those who tell you that national Government should take them over.

Nationalising the debt on all tolled river crossings would cost over £1billion and the previous Tory Government had eighteen years to do it. They refused.

First, it’s important to remember that most of the people who pay the tolls are Wirral residents.

I think the MPs who supported the Mersey Tunnels Act six years ago made a mistake in giving Merseytravel the right to raise the tolls year after year.

The tolls are now being used to pay for transport schemes all around Merseyside.

Why should Wirral residents pay for new services in, say St Helens or Southport ?

I, like many users of the Mersey Tunnels, look forward to the day when we can use the Tunnels free of charge, but sadly this is not going to be the case for a number of years because of the existing debt.

This debt is the result of the construction of the Wallasey Tunnel and the borrowing to finance the operating losses (£116m) between 1968-1992.

I do hope Merseytravel continues to use its discretion not to increase the tolls when the economic conditions dictate. That at least is a small comfort.

I find it very sad that we have to continue to pay tunnel tolls on a daily basis whilst the Scottish Parliament has voted to abolish all toll fees (bridge, tunnel and road) in Scotland.Š

Why are they allowed to vote to abolish them in Scotland but come to Westminster and vote not only keep them, but also increase them?

I do not believe we should be paying tunnel tolls, it is an unfair burden on commuters and business.