The Lib Dems have published a manifesto for Lambeth that would mean massive council tax hikes and yet, bizarrely, offers almost nothing positive for local people. 

Lib Dem spending plans would require a massive 30% leap in council tax – costing the average household an extra £1500 in Lib Dem taxes.  That level of increase is entirely in line with the 40% increase the Lib Dems imposed last time they ran Lambeth between 2002-6.    

Apart from the tax hiking plans, the Lib Dem manifesto is bizarrely empty of new ideas.  It has nothing to say about a long list of key concerns for local people.  The Lib Dems say NOTHING about how they would pay for road resurfacing or repair potholes, NOTHING on how they would tackle anti-social behaviour, and NOTHING detailed on key proposals for new leisure centres in Clapham, Streatham, West Norwood, Kennington and Waterloo.  Labour has explained what we would do and how we would pay for it in all these areas. Even the name of the Lib Dem manifesto seems to be a desperate attempt to associate themselves with Labour’s popular proposals to turn Lambeth into Britain's first cooperative council by working more closely with local people.

The list of issues on which the Lib Dems remain completely silent or fail to say what they would do includes:
o Protecting youth services that Labour’s expanded
o Tackling tax-dodgers and town-hall fraud
o Domestic violence
o Identifying a site for a new secondary school
o Tackling bullying at school
o Lambeth’s big lesbian and gay community
o Getting unemployed people into work
o Work experience and apprenticeships
o Opening a voluntary sector resource centre
o Street cleaning
o Cycling
o Parking controls
o Funding work to upgrade 10,000 substandard council homes
o Older people’s lunch clubs
o Tackling abuse of older people
o Customer service standards

The Lib Dem manifesto is an empty box with a huge price tag attached.  Local people will be walloped with a massive 30% Lib Dem council tax rise straight after the election but will have almost nothing to show for the extra £1500 that would cost the average household.  This must surely be the most bizarre set of proposals ever put before Lambeth’s voters and I have little doubt it will be rejected out of hand on 6 May.

The contrast with Labour’s manifesto couldn’t be clearer.  We have a fully costed set of proposals that are ambitious and affordable while tackling the things residents care about the most.  You can read Labour’s manifesto for Lambeth in full on our website by clicking here.  I can’t help thinking the Lib Dem manifesto is a disastrous mistake that will, quite rightly, lose them votes at election time. 

The Lib Dem manifesto is an empty box with a huge price tag attached - in the form of a massive £1500 council tax hike