Green boost for Liberal Democrats as Ashfield heads for conference

12.38.19am BST (GMT +0100) Fri 14th Sep 2007

LIBERAL Democrats from Ashfield have welcomed the results of an audit of policies of the three main political parties that shows Menzies Campbell's party as the best for the environment.

The audit was carried out by a group of major environmental organisations, including Friends of the Earth, Greenpeace, the National Trust, the RSPB, the Woodland Trust and WWF-UK.

It awarded the parties "green lights" according to how green their policies were. The Conservatives scored zero, Labour one and the Liberal Democrats three.

Speaking at a meeting of Liberal Democrat members about the forthcoming party conference in Brighton, Cllr Jason Zadrozny, Leader of the Council said the verdict of the green groups was a great boost for the party.

"This audit has confirmed what we have been saying in Ashfield for many years," said Jason Zadrozny. "Liberal Democrats are leading the battle of ideas for protecting the environment and cutting the pollution people cause.

"Locally in the next few weeks my Portfolio Holder for Land and Property, Cllr Lee Cooper will be unveiling our plans for four or five carbon zero properties to be built right here in Kirkby, in the heart of Ashfield. We hope they will prove to be a beacon of excellence, demonstrating that the environment is firmly of the core of what happens right here in Ashfield.

"We can now also confirm that the new North Ashfield Leisure has had many environmentally thought out sustainability features built into it on the instruction of the new Liberal Democrat Cabinet.

"At our conference next week we will be debating plans that will put us even further ahead of Labour and the Conservatives. These include plans to shift more people from domestic flights to a greatly improved high-speed rail system.

"And we will discuss our plans for cutting income tax by 4p in the pound to 16p, paid for by shifting more of the tax burden onto pollution."