Manifesto launched by Northumberland Conservatives

The party’s candidates and councillors were joined by Conservative Party chairman, Sir Patrick McLoughlin, at the launch on Friday afternoon.

Sir Patrick said: “What is happening nationally will be a backdrop to the elections, but local issues will be key.

“The Northumberland Conservative group has put forward issues in the manifesto that are of great importance to the people of the county, for example, allocating extra funds to fix potholes.

“What the Labour group is planning with the County Hall site and the headquarters move to Ashington will also be raised in the run-up to the elections.”

Conservative group leader, Coun Peter Jackson said: “It’s very pleasing indeed to see a senior party politician take our campaign in Northumberland very seriously.”

Introducing the manifesto, he added: “We are sure that Northumberland is in need of a radical change after the poor experience of the last four years and that our group is the only one with a realistic possibility of bringing that change about.”

The manifesto features ‘seven pledges to save our county’ with the first being to stop the relocation of County Hall to Ashington.

The Conservatives also say they will represent all areas of the county more fairly through the introduction of five local area councils and local area investment funds.

There are also pledges to spend £100million repairing potholes, to scrap transport charges for post-16 students, to ‘halt the march of the developers’ and to prevent destruction of the environment.