Extracts from UKIP Local Election Manifesto 2014

COMMON SENSE POLICIES

UKIP stands for much more than opposition to the European Union.

Government at local, national and European level has become too remote. The political class have forgotten they work for us.

Bureaucrats and professional politicians have taken over and the people are too often ignored.

UKIP will bring back power to the people. Decisions will be made locally, common sense policies will make people’s lives easier and government will do what is needed, but no more.

6 UKIP PRIORITIES

1. Local referendums

It's time to bring power back to the people. So major decisions should be subject to binding local referendums if the people demand it. On the petition of 5% of the population within 3 months, major planning and service provision decisions should be put to a local vote.

2. Regain control over development

Our housing, education, health and social services cannot cope with

constantly rising numbers of people coming to live and work here. The government is now riding rough-shod over local people’s wishes with mass house building that has become a ‘Developers’ Charter’ - without the new services to go with it.

3. Prioritising services for local people

We must end benefit and health tourism and give priority to local people for housing, education, health and social services. In planning, the local people's opinions should be respected and not overruled.

4. Moving government closer to the people

We will provide incentives to encourage enterprise, attract jobs and regenerate town centres, including developing empty properties and brown-field sites to meet local housing needs.

5. Spending our money at home

Our membership of the EU costs £55m a day – and another £23m a day goes out in foreign aid – while jobs, services and benefits are being cut at home. UKIP believes that we should save that money to help rebuild our debt-ridden economy.

6. Fighting crime and anti-social behaviour

Britain's communities suffer from an unacceptable level of crime and anti-social behaviour. We should overhaul the system to make sentences meaningful, rehabilitate offenders, deport foreign criminals, free up the police from excessive form-filling and tackle nuisance neighbours and anti-social behaviour.

UKIP Councillors are expected to follow the best interests of their constituents.

They do not just toe the party line, as the other parties do.

Democracy:

Introduce binding local planning referendums on major decisions, such as out-of-town or large-scale supermarket developments, wind turbines, incinerators, solar farms, major housing developments and transport schemes like HS2.

Economy and Enterprise:

Reduce tax and business costs to stimulate the local economy.

Make it easier for smaller and local businesses to tender for local authority contracts.

Environment, Planning and Housing:

Reduce the pressure on housing by ending open-door immigration.

Oppose the bedroom tax, but provide incentives to re-use empty homes.

Protect our green spaces by directing new housing and business developments to brown-field sites.

Stop preferential treatment to special groups such as travellers - rules should apply equally to us all.

Education:

Improve access to quality local education and create more grammar schools and technical skills colleges, encourage vocational apprenticeships, give parents the right to choose where their children go to school, protect rural schools and support home schooling.

Public Health and Social Care:

Put local communities at the heart of health care.

Oppose health tourism and cuts to front-line doctors, surgeons, dentists and nurses, but reduce the number of managers and executives.

Transport and Roads:

Improve road maintenance as a priority.

Mending potholes should take priority over council vanity schemes.

Upgrade public transport, especially maintaining and reinstating rural bus routes that many communities depend on and which feed town-centre businesses and markets.

Increase provision of free parking to regenerate town centres and boost business.

Oppose any introduction of tolling on our roads and motorways.

Bin Collection:

We are opposed to the loss of weekly bin collections and will restore it in councils where the majority of residents seek for it to be returned.

Culture and Heritage:

Preserve our public libraries and develop a local buildings listing programme to allow communities to protect buildings of local importance.

Safer Communities:

Keep real police officers on the beat and stop the

scrapping of front-line police jobs.

Adopt a zero tolerance approach to anti-social

behaviour and crack down on nuisance neighbours.

Energise the voluntary sector: UKIP believes that the best decisions are decisions that are made locally. Community groups and volunteers are often better placed to run facilities and services than the State. By ensuring that these groups are supported, empowered and energised much more can be achieved.

Here are just some of the ways we will save your money:

·       Cut councillors’ excessive allowances and expenses.

·       Slash excessive pay deals for senior council staff.

·       Limit the number of highly-paid council employees.

·       Cut the councils’ advertising and self-promotion budgets.

·       Build partnerships to reduce costs.

·       Abolish non-essential and politically-correct jobs and red  tape.

·       Leave the EU and save £55 million every day.

·       Drop the EU Landfill Directive to cut refuse disposal costs.

·       Control immigration to ease the burden on local services.

·       Close unnecessary central government departments and quangos.

·       End wasteful EU and UK subsidies to ‘renewable energy scams such as wind turbines and solar farms.

·       Require all visitors to show adequate health insurance at the point of entry into the UK.

·       Make it easier for schools to sack bad teachers.

·       Reduce bureaucracy in the education system.

·       Sell unused state-owned property and assets.

·       Oppose EU directives adding artificial and detrimental costs.

Published and promoted by Stephen Crowther on behalf of the UK Independence Party,

Lexdrum House, Unit 1, King Charles Business Park, Heathfield, Newton Abbot, Devon TQ12 6UT.

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