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Sir Ed Davey’s visit took place at Wiltshire College’s Lackham campus, which provides a range of technical ‘land-based’ courses that offer further education opportunities. Sarah Gibson, MP for Chippenham joined him on the visit. Holding a 10-day-old lamb, the Liberal Democrats’ leader discussed the college’s provision of animal-related and land-based courses before moving on to cuddling a rabbit following a brief tour of the grounds.
Sir Ed was in Wiltshire campaigning ahead of the local elections taking place on May 1, in which Liberal Democrats will face off with the Conservatives, Reform, Labour, and independence for the leadership of Wiltshire Council. Speaking exclusively with the Wiltshire Times, the Liberal Democrats’ party leader and MP for Kingston and Surbiton in Greater London said one of the priorities in the upcoming election was restoring order to local government. (Image: Newsquest) He said: “The combination of Conservatives running the council and Conservatives running national government has left local government in a bit of a mess, I think everyone knows that.
” Sir Ed also explained the Liberal Democrats would focus on investing more in social care: “Lib Dems locally in Wiltshire but nationally through what I’ve been saying are very strong on social care and understand that we’re not going to fix our health service unless we get investment in social care. “One of the things Liberal Democrats are well known for is being rooted in the community and listening to local people and getting things done. “No one’s saying it’s going to be easy after 20 years of Conservative rule.
There will be lots of things we’ll have to fix.” Recommended reading: 'Delightful boutique' Wiltshire hotel sells for huge sum Pioneering Wiltshire tech department hailed by MP High street hits out at ‘plague of anti-social behaviour’ following five arrests The Liberal Democrat leader also said that the community would be at the heart of the planning process. He continued: “The Conservatives have traditionally not done that and what’s that meant is people have objected time and time again to new homes being built because they feel ‘well, we’re already seeing our services stretch, they’re already overrun, we can’t have more people here’.
“Unless you take that more strategic approach which we’ve done working with the community you won’t get the right result. “Developers aren’t interested in all that community infra stuff, but people are and we need to be on the side of people.” On the subject of local government’s ability to fund large-scale infrastructure projects, Sir Ed was also confident that Liberal Democrat-run local government would be able to build.
He explained: “On capital infrastructure, I think there’s an opportunity here, the government has actually said it wants to build, it talks about many social homes in particular. “But it’s also talking about expanding budgets, be that on energy infrastructure, defence infrastructure, so there is a potential if the case for Wiltshire is put properly that the county could get its share of that extra capital spend and with our MPs and hopefully with a Liberal Democrat majority council.” The visit was the second the Liberal Democrat leader made in the South West on Wednesday April 9, following a stop at a dry ski slope just outside Gloucester.
Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey has skidded down a steep slope in a rubber ring to demand smoother road surfaces for motorists to glide over. Sir Ed called out the years of neglect of roads and highways during a local election visit to Gloucestershire. He joined in on a tubing slope at Gloucester Ski Centre with Liberal Democrat MPs, councillors and candidates to highlight the poor state of Gloucestershire’s roads.
Ed Davey in Gloucestershire earlier on Wednesday, April 9. (Image: PA) “We’re having a bit of fun, we’re campaigning, but there is a serious message, always a serious message, and that is about having services that are smooth, that people can go over,” he said. “The parallel analogy is with our roads.
“Around the county the roads are a real mess, a lot of potholes, and the Conservatives have been running Gloucestershire for a long time now, often, mostly with the Conservative Government, have failed to fix the potholes.” Responding to Sir Ed’s remarks, shadow transport secretary Gareth Bacon said: “The Liberal Democrats say they want smoother roads, but are jacking up council tax, slashing services, and wasting millions on gimmicks like four-day working weeks. “It is no coincidence that local roads are deteriorating under Liberal Democrat councils.
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