The Home Straight

In a few hours time, residents in West Shoebury will be voting for the future of Southend and the country. Residents will be faced with the choice of the chaos of Ed Miliband proped up by the SNP in Downing Street or a Conservative Government finishing the job of securing the economy from the near bankruptcy of the last Labour Government.

Although it has had little coverage in the media, residents will also be voting for who they want to be running Southend Council. I wasn't intending to be a candidate at these elections but Cllr Liz Day had to step down due to ill health.

Sadly, Cllr Liz Day passed away on the 23rd April. When Liz resigned her seat, Liz asked that I consider re-standing in West Shoebury.

Last year, residents in West Shoebury elected a UKIP councillor in James Moyies. Due to party infighting, James Moyies was expelled from UKIP. The UKIP civil war has now spilled over to the ballot paper as James Moyies has got his son and mother in law to stand for the Independent Party to spite UKIP.

One thing I can certainly guarantee is that if I am elected as a Conservative, I will serve my full term as a Conservative. The losers in the UKIP civil war has been local residents. Instead of fighting for residents, UKIP chose to fight each other.

Whilst James Moyies has been busy fighting his colleagues, West Shoebury residents have suffered. When talking to local residents I have heard horror stories of residents concerns goin unanswered for 8 months. We shouldn't also forget the saving of the non existent toilets from closure.

Under this Independent Party led administration Shoeburyness has become the forgotten part of Southend. This year, Shoebury has not seen a single penny spent on road or footpath improvements. As part of this years budget residents have seen an unnecessary rise of 1.95% in Council Tax and an 11% hike in car parking charges, litter bins in residential areas abolished, our public toilets on borrowed time and 5 officers who deal with fly tipping and dog fouling are now on the dole. All these  were voted for by James Moyies. Do residents really want another two members of his family giving this sort of representation?

Up until the last few days, the local elections campaign was good natured until the Moyies family Independents decided to conduct their last minute campaign from the gutter by putting out their election material under the name of a local pressure group. How do I know? I caught them red handed on Monday afternoon delivering the leaflets.

Despite what the Independent Party claim, the Conservatives will not re-introduce previous flood defence proposals for Shoebury Common. These proposals are dead in the water. New proposals for flood defences are currently being drawn up by Council consultants.

It will be you, the residents, who will decide if the new proposals are sufficient as I will only support them if they have the support of local residents.