Uttlesford District lies within the Saffron Walden parliamentary constituency. Uttlesford Conservative voters now have another choice for local elections. Whilst Westminster parties have their place on national issues and in parliamentary elections, we at RESIDENTS FOR UTTLESFORD (R4U) believe all politics should be local.
The national parties are in disarray and not listening to residents. We are not a national political party. We are residents that love where they live and want to create a better local future for their children and their children’s children. We want a local government of the residents, by the residents for the residents.
Even if you vote for the Conservative in parliamentary elections, you can vote RESIDENT for local elections.
Westminster parties are failing Uttlesford residents
The Conservative Party has led Uttlesford District Council for more than a decade. They have become stale and have run out of ideas, have wasted £millions of our tax money, and are failing residents on important issues such as planning, finance, schools, roads, local jobs, housing, libraries, pollution, crime and much more. It is time for a change to a party that is in touch with residents.
Local representation and the Uttlesford Conservatives
“If you don’t drive over the pothole every day, how do you know it’s there?” At Residents For Uttlesford we believe in true local representation.
The Conservatives have become complacent and are taking voters for granted. For the 2019 local elections they haven’t even published a manifesto to tell residents what they propose to do. They are standing many token candidates are only there to allow them to retain control of UDC. That is not what local representation should be. In the following communities the Conservatives are standing candidates who don’t live there:
- Ashdon
- Great Dunmow North
- Great Dunmow South and Barnston
- Newport
- Saffron Walden Audley
- Saffron Walden Castle
- Saffron Walden Shire
- Stansted North
- Stansted South & Birchanger
- Stort Valley
- Takeley
Uttlesford Conservatives and Fake News
If companies made the kind of false statements many Westminster politicians make they’d end up fined for false advertising. But politicians seem to get away with it.
At Residents for Uttlesford we back our statements with evidence and have a ‘positivity in politics pledge’. Not so the Uttlesford Conservatives. They continue to make a series of false statements which they know to be untrue, but repeat them even after being forced to publicly retract them. These are some of the reasons people why people mistrust Westminster parties.
For example:
- Conservatives claim in their election leaflets “Saffron Walden Town Council had over £800,000 in reserves when R4U took over leadership in 2015.” This is untrue Fake News. The Town Council’s free reserves were only £58,000, against a recommended figure of £500,000. The departing Conservative administration had overspent the budget, raided reserves, and left a £1m financial hole. In November 2018 the Conservatives were forced to apologise for their ‘wonky maths’ and retract their numbers, yet they still use them in the leaflets.
- Conservatives claim in their election leaflets “It was not necessary for R4U to raise the Town’s precept by 25%.” Again this is Fake News. The incoming R4U leadership at Saffron Walden Town Council inherited a £1m financial hole left by Tory mismanagement, crumbling buildings that needed emergency repair, and a budget that was spending more than it was getting in. With cross-party support at the Town Council R4U implemented a 5-year financial plan to fix the finances, and did so in under 4 years. The truth of the matter is that the Saffron Walden Town Council precept has only increased by around 65p a week for the typical council tax bill since R4U has been leading the council. This year the increases was half that of either the Tory lead district or county councils.
- And elsewhere in their leaflets they make more misleading claims on schools, pollution, policing, traffic, potholes and planning.
Switch to RESIDENT for better local results everywhere in Uttlesford
In 2015 Residents For Uttlesford took over leadership of the Saffron Walden Town Council from the Conservatives. Years of mismanagement had left a £1m financial black hole and crumbling assets. In 4 years under Residents leadership the council has been turned around to be multi-award-winning. R4U is currently the second party at Uttlesford District Council (UDC) and has a goal of taking over leadership of the council on the 2nd May 2019 local elections. Please help us to help all local residents.
Uttlesford District Wards
The following are the new wards for the 2015 local elections in Uttlesford.
