Local manifestos have been unveiled by the main political parties campaigning for votes in Burnham-On-Sea and Highbridge’s upcoming local elections.
Residents will head to the polls on Thursday 5th May when local elections are held for seats on Somerset County Council and Burnham & Highbridge Town Council. The full list of canidates is available here.
These are the local manifestos announced by the Conservatives, Liberal Democrats, Labour and Highbridge and Burnham-On-Sea Independents.
Liberal Democrat manifesto for Burnham and Highbridge
- Work with the new Somerset Council and neighbouring parishes to maximise the benefits, and minimise the drawbacks, of the new system of local government in Somerset.
- Bring services down to Town Council level where it makes sense to do so and when we can provide a better services.
- Push for regeneration and improvements in Highbridge – working with Sedgemoor (while it exists) and Somerset Council to gain government grants and private investment.
- Work with residents and local businesses to find ways of improving what Burnham has to offer to residents and visitors.
- Work with Somerset Council to make Princess St into a lively public area which becomes the northern focus of the town centre. Continue to support the Princess Theatre and Arts Centre as part of this and encourage Somerset to find vibrant uses of the former Skills and Learning Centre.
- Develop Burnham and Highbridge as centres of walking and cycling – both for the health and benefit of residents and visitors.
- Encourage the improvement of public transport – better bus routes and the reinstatement of services to Highbridge station – which should be the transport hub of the area.
- Put climate change at the heart of our priorities. Draw up a climate change action plan.
- Support our residents through the cost of living crisis – working with organisations such as the CAB and the Foodbank.
Conservative manifesto for Burnham and Highbridge
- Bus services
A bid of £163M has been submitted by the Conservatives to improve services, throughout Somerset. We will make sure that Burnham and Highbridge get their share. - Thriving Towns
We recognise that each town is very different and has different needs. We will continue to find investors for Highbridge and encourage industry. For Burnham, we will continue to listen to you, the Chamber of trade and the Burnham Retail Group in order to understand and act upon increasing footfall in the winter and summer, making Burnham town centre the place to shop, work and visit. - Sea Front – Burnham
We will continue to seek funding to improve the look of our sea front.
- Town Council Responsibilities
We will carry on serving you to the best of our ability within the responsibilities we currently hold. We welcome the chance to have more say for our towns under the new unitary council, however, we will investigate that if more services are taken on by the town council that this is NOT at the cost of huge increases to your council tax. If services are self-sustainable, we will take them on.
5. Communities:
a) We will keep supporting our thriving theatre – The Princess. This is an important feature for Burnham, giving pleasure to many people and groups.
b) Many groups and individuals are, and have been doing tremendous work within our community. We will continue to work with these people and set up meetings/get togethers so more people can get involved, networking to help vulnerable, lonely and those in need.
c) We will hold regular “networking” surgeries for you to get involved and to have your say in what you would like to see in your towns.
d) Within the networking meetings, we will address issues of mental health of all ages. We will seek professionals to help with this issue.
e) The Conservatives are putting £31M extra into social care and children services. We will make sure that Burnham and Highbridge residents benefit from this.
f) Dementia: We will look into making certain area’s of the centres “dementia friendly” We will gain advice from professionals on how to improve the lives of individuals suffering from dementia and their families.
g) Support: Your Conservative-led Town council has always supported the citizens advice bureau and the food banks. We have steered many residents to these two valuable services and will continue to do so. During lock down your Conservative led council and councillors were collecting and delivering to the food banks to get much needed food for people.
- Funding Support
We will continue to support local charities and groups with the much needed funding the require.
- Environment
Local Conservative Councillors have been successful in supporting campaigns to protect our environment. This can be seen locally where we have campaigned for the development of areas into wildlife corridors to ensure biodiversity in our rural area. We will continue to support this and work on ways we can encourage local fruit and veg planting for local people to take part in and enjoy. Conservative run Somerset County Council has been ranked the best County in the country for tackling climate change. Thanks to the Conservatives, we are protecting the environment for generations to come and leading the way in climate action nationally.
- Continue with services
We will continue to monitor the services such as refuse collections, gull proof bins and cleanliness of the towns.
- Anti-Social Behaviour
We will work closely with the Police to tackle the areas identified, where anti-social behaviour has become problematic.
- Independence for Highbridge
Residents of Highbridge have voiced that they wish to stand alone. We have listened and will trigger the beginning of this procedure. We will seek advice, guidance and consult again with Highbridge residents to bring this to fruition, if that is what they want.
Labour manifesto for Highbridge:
- Public Transport
We would improve public transport in Highbridge. The bus will take you to Bridgwater or Burnham but people need to travel to other places too, and the fares are too high. If Labour had control at Somerset Council we would make sure that more people can get concessionary fares, and have better information about the bus services. We would work to make Highbridge railway station a better place for travel, including better interchange facilities with onward transport systems. - Homes and Housing
Highbridge is facing considerable new development, with many new houses currently being built. While we accept there is a need for new housing, we are concerned that this new development may not deliver the housing that local people need. We are also concerned that the developments will place extra strain on local services. The people that will be welcomed to Highbridge will need shops, schools, healthcare and a whole range of other services. If elected Labour would work to make sure that the community infrastructure is available to support new developments.Labour would also work to improve homes across the county. People are worried about energy prices, and our policies of installing better insulation will help address those concerns. We would work to make sure that homes are available for renters, including building council housing. - Anti-social Behaviour
We recognise how people feel when anti-social behaviour happens in their neighbourhood. We also understand that there is no one simple way to address bad behaviour. If elected, Labour would use council services to prevent anti-social behaviour, in particular we would make sure that youth services, school, and family support services work together to prevent bad behaviour becoming a problem for the larger community.
Burnham and Highbridge Independents manifesto:
Highbridge and Burnham-On-Sea Independents want to:
