Not one political manifesto directly mentions Gloucestershire, but that doesn’t mean any of the party’s pledges won’t affect your life.
The UK’s main parties are gearing up for the General Election on December 12 – the third since 2015.
Manifestos can run for many pages and set out the policies a party aims to introduce should it win the election.
From scrapping the A417 Missing Link scheme to closing 17 private schools, here’s what promises the Conservatives, Labour, Liberal Democrats and Green Party are making to potentially win over voters on polling day.
BREXIT
Conservative: Leave the European Union with a deal
Labour: Renegotiate a new Brexit deal within three months, and hold a second referendum on the deal or Remain within six months
Green: Call a second referendum with remaining in the European Union on the ballot paper
Liberal Democrats: Stop Brexit
TRANSPORT
Labour: Councils to take back control of local bus networks, free bus travel for under-25s, nationalising the rail industry , invest in electric vehicle charging infrastructure
There are less than half the number of bus operators in Gloucestershire than in 2006. While some of this is driven by legislative changes, tighter standards have also played their part.
No bus services in the county are run by any of the local authorities, but Gloucestershire County Council does subsidise bus companies for their services. Stagecoach now carries over 95 per cent of the county’s bus passengers, with Pulhams carrying around 2 per cent.
Work is currently being undertaken to improve public transport in the rural areas of the county, the Cotswolds and the Forest of Dean, such as more suitable hours and integration of larger network.
Liberal Democrats: Allow local authorities to run their own bus companies, electrify Britain’s railways and ensure that all new cars are electric by 2030.
Green: Spend £2.5billion a year on new cycleways and footpaths, reduce cost of train and bus tickets and improve bus punctuality, cancel lane widening schemes and make all non-major roads 40mph.
In Gloucestershire, there are two major lane widening schemes due for completion: the A417 Missing Link and A40 revamp works.
The A417 runs between Gloucester, Cirencester and Swindon and is used by many motorists travelling between London and the West Midlands as a shortcut between the M4 and the M5.
A new 3.4 mile (5.5km) road is being proposed and it will cost £435m to build.
And a £22m project designed to ease congestion in Cheltenhan will include widening the Arle Court Roundabout and increasing capacity at J11 of the M5.
The planned work comes ahead of the development of a £650m cyber business park on the western edge of the town.
Conservative: Create a £2billion fund to fix potholes.
There are no huge policy surprises in terms of transport by the Conservatives compared to the other parties.
Opposition county council groups, particularly the Liberal Democrats, and residents have raised concerns for a long time about the state of Gloucestershire’s roads.
HEALTH AND NHS
Conservative: Increase the number of nurses by 50,000 and reintrouce maintenance grants for nursing students, build cross-party consensus on the social care system, and free hospital parking overnight and staff working night shifts.
Labour: Increase the health budget by 4.3 per cent per year, cut private provision in the NHS, and free hospital parking.
Green: Invest £6billion in the NHS, with a further £1billion per year for nursing higher education, and £4.5billion-a-year for social care.
Liberal Democrats: A penny income tax rise to raise £7billion over five years for the NHS and social care.
EDUCATION
Green: Scrap tuition fees for undergraduates, and write-off debt for ex-students who paid a £9,000-a-year fee.
The cost of writing off existing debt for graduates who have paid fees of £9,000 a year or more is estimated by economists at about £33bn.
Conservatives: Freeze tuition fees at £9,250 and create 250,000 extra childcare places
Liberal Democrats: Recruit 20,000 more teachers and spend £10.6billion more a year on schools
Labour: Abolish private schools as well as tuition fees and bring back maintenance grants for the poorest students
POLICING
Conservatives: Introduce tougher sentencing for worst offenders, new court order to stop and search those convicted of knife crime and add 10,000 more prison places
Labour: Recruit more frontline officers and re-restablish neighbourhood policing, reform of police funding formula and better police training on domestic abuse
Liberal Democrats: Invest £1billion to restore community policing and fund an immediate two per cent pay-rise for police officers
Green: Focus on community-based policing and halve the prison population
ENVIRONMENT
Liberal Democrats: Generate 80 per cent of electricity from renewables, and reduce carbon emissions by 2030.
Conservatives: Cut emisisons by to virtually zero by 2050
Labour: To put UK on track for a net-zero carbon energy system within the 2030s
Green: Cut greenhouse gas emissions to zero at a cost of £100billion-a-year, remove fossil fuels from the economy and plant 700 million trees by 2030.
ENDS
Notes to editors:
The manifestos can be found here:Green: https://www.greenparty.org.uk/assets/files/Elections/Green%20Party%20Manifesto%202019.pdfLiberal Democrat: https://d3n8a8pro7vhmx.cloudfront.net/libdems/pages/57307/attachments/original/1574876236/Stop_Brexit_and_Build_a_Brighter_Future.pdf?1574876236Conservative: https://assets-global.website-files.com/5da42e2cae7ebd3f8bde353c/5dda924905da587992a064ba_Conservative%202019%20Manifesto.pdf
Labour: https://labour.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/Real-Change-Labour-Manifesto-2019.pdf
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