West End South Ward candidates video hustings

[22s] Who are you and why are standing in selection?

[26s] Hello, I'm Dave Waghorn.

[28s] I've lived in West End South for over 18 years.

[56s] I'm standing in this election to improve services for local people, but also often vote as an alternative to the Lib Dem stranglehold that liberals have

[65s] had over our council for many years.

[74s] Do you think the council tax hike this year is really necessary?

[81s] Both Eastleigh Borough Council and Hampshire County Council are in massive debt and they are struggling to provide the public services that we all want

[89s] and need them to Now we can talk about how they got into that debt but the reality is they need the funding to provide those services.

[96s] We know that their funding from national government has been cut and that means that you and I end up having to be taxed more in order to pay for those service.

[106s] I think it's terrible because we know the Liberals have got us into about £600 million worth of debt and if you divide that up by the amount of households

[115s] in the borough it is probably approaching about 5,000 pounds per house now.

[120s] The council tax has gone up and services have been going up because of the way the Liberals have run the council.

[128s] Conservatives would freeze council taxes and would actually discount the Council tax because we've been more efficient.

[134s] The steps outside of ASDA still haven't been prepared since the tragic accident last year.

[143s] Why?

[145s] Although it seems like those steps are part of the public street, they're not.

[149s] They're actually ASDA's property.

[151s] And I expect it's with ASTA and with their insurance company to get the funding to, get those debts repaired.

[158s] It is really annoying.

[160s] Sadly, this is a similar story all over the country where what seems to be public property is actually private and the local authorities have got no control

[170s] whatsoever because it is all in private hands.

[174s] This was an awful tragedy and I've been into the pub myself and spoken with members of staff there.

[180s] I actually went in with the Member of Parliament Paul Holmes and nobody's made representations for the county.

[185s] If I'm elected on Thursday, it'll be my number one job is to make sure that everybody works together to sort this out.

[191s] Some of it has been done, but it's not been fast enough or good enough.

[195s] Once that's tidied and cleaned and made safe, then we need to look at other restrictions in the road.

[202s] What can be done to stop rubbish being dumped, particularly behind the takeaway?

[218s] We've got to make it easier for people to do the right thing, but also to deter them from doing the wrong thing.

[224s] Maybe it's time to relax the need to book a slot at the household waste recycling centres.

[230s] And also we need think about how to makes those centres accessible to people that don't have a car.

[234s] In terms of deterrence, we've really got a clamp down hard on the people who are committing these crimes.

[239s] That means we have to be sure it is easy to report them to the police and CCTV in the places to catch them in an act.

[247s] I think more use of CCTV is vital and also if you have an active counsellor that actually lives locally and patrols the areas,

[256s] I can pick that up and if anything comes in to me, casework-wise, i can also pick it up, and report it.

[261s] And also we'd like to forensically look at the waste.

[264s] It can often be tracked back to where it came from.

[267s] Often the people that it come from do not know it was fly tipped, it's cleared by someone who they paid and it ended up not in a dump back of the shops.

[280s] One last call, anything you like to say?

[282s] Living in West End means we've got the city of Southampton on our doorstep, but we are not part of that.

[288s] We live in a village on own and we have that lovely village atmosphere.

[293s] Now if we keep building houses, telegraph words and along Ellington Lane like the Lib Dems want to, then we will lose that village feeling of the place.

[301s] I want West end to be a greener and a more peaceful and fairer place, so vote for me if you want a Greener, Fairer West-End.

[311s] Right, the last thought that I think you should think about before Thursday is where does your councillor live?

[318s] Last time, obviously, we elected in West End a councillor who actually lives in Oxford, but I live right back in the centre of Hedgehead,

[326s] Weston and Botany, which is the local area that controls us on Eastley Borough Council.

[331s] So I'd like to your trust in me.

[334s] I'm not going anywhere, I've lived here all my life and I'll continue to live here and i'll look forward to being a Borough Councillor if you trust me

[341s] on Thursday.