It is with much pleasure that we can announce the 2010 General Election results for Chelmsford;
Name
of Candidate
Party
No. of Votes
Michael
Richard Bateman
British National Party
899
Claire
Breed
English Democrats
254
Simon
Burns
The Conservative Party
25,207
Pete
Dixon
The Labour Party
5,980
Stephen
Robinson
Liberal Democrat
20,097
Ben
Sherman
Reduce Tax on Beer
153
Angela
Joan Thomson
The Green Party
476
Ken
Wedon
UK Independence Party
1,527
42
rejected.
54,639 votes in total.
Turnout - 70.5%
April 30th
House
Building: Conservative Policy
Simon Burns is against the plans for large numbers of houses to
be built in Chelmsford. He has always opposed the massive house
building targets that Labour have forced on us.
These top-down targets have tied the hands of the Borough Council,
forcing them to plan for more houses than are needed locally.
A Conservative Government will abolish the housing targets and
allow local people to decide how many houses are required to meet local demand.
Chelmsford
needs houses but not in the numbers Labour have forced on us. We need more homes - but they must be built
in a way that protects the environment and provides the infrastructure to
support local communities. That's why local people need to decide where new
homes should go, instead of Whitehall
bureaucrats.
Labour's planning rules have resulted in a shortage
of family homes and the bulldozing of gardens for homes - and they have
prevented the building of new homes with proper parking spaces, gardens and
other essential infrastructure. A Conservative Government will change these
rules as a matter of urgency.
April 30th
Simon
Burns - The Commuter's Friend
Travelling regularly from his home in Chelmsford
to London,
Simon shares many of your commuting concerns.
As soon as he arrived in Chelmsford in 1986 he
became an active supporter of commuters and was engaged in the formation of the
first Commuters' Association. Since then
he has continued his involvement and support.
Simon has constantly fought
for better commuter services from Chelmsford
to Liverpool Street. He has frequently lobbied ministers for the
introduction of more carriages to reduce overcrowding and a fast-tracked
upgrading of the overhead cables and track so as to improve the quality of the
service.
There is still more to do,
as too often commuter journeys are disrupted and delayed and he will continue
to fight hard for further improvements.
A Conservative
Government will tackle overcrowding, improve services and ensure the rail
industry puts passengers first; we will reform Network Rail to make it
accountable to passengers and transform the Rail Regulator into a powerful
passenger champion.
A Conservative Government will reduce the influence of Whitehall in the
management of the railways. Whitehall has held back
innovation - slowing the introduction of new rolling stock and hindering the
increased capacity that commuters want and need.
A Conservative Government will give the go ahead for a
new high speed line connecting Leeds, Manchester,
Birmingham, London and Heathrow. We see this as the first
step in a national high speed network.
Passengers should have a one-stop-shop to complain to
when things go wrong and to represent their interests; so we will expand the
remit of the Office of Rail Regulation to create a powerful consumer-focused
regulator with the power to bang heads together to ensure that performance is
improved, regardless of where the fault lies. We would give the regulator
stronger powers to ensure Network Rail delivers what passengers want, and we
would introduce tougher and more effective penalties for failure.
A Conservative Government will not allow any building on
disused rail paths. This will last for
at least our first term in Government and will conserve any disused
railway lines still in public ownership. As well as keeping alive the
possibility of reopening them to rail travel in the future, this will protect
these paths and allow pedestrians and cyclists to use them in the interim.