Tories failing on manifesto pledges, Lib Dems reveal

11.10.00am BST (GMT +0100) Sun 18th Oct 2009

Have Plymouth Tories left their manifesto, forgotten, on a dusty shelf somewhere?

Conservative councillors are failing to honour a series of manifesto pledges on which they fought the last set of city council elections, held in May last year, research by the Liberal Democrats reveals.

Despite a Conservative pledge to switch council-owned vehicles to environmentally friendly fuels, council officials have now confirmed that none of the council's 292 vehicles have been altered to use green fuels. They have also confirmed that there are no immediate plans to change any vehicle.

Another pledge made by the Conservatives in the run-up to last year's elections was to increase the number of allotments. Despite this, the number of allotment sites in the city remains unchanged, at 32.

One thing that has changed is the length of the waiting list for an allotment plot. That grew by 78 per cent between the election and August this year. Officials suggested that the wait in Plympton and Plymstock is now as long as five years or more.

Commenting, the Lib Dems' prospective parliamentary candidate for Plymouth Moor View, Stuart Bonar, said:

"Call me old fashioned, but I believe that politicians should stick to their election pledges. A manifesto is a contract with the people. It should be implemented, not left to gather dust.

"The Tories are letting Plymouth down, just as Labour did before. The two old parties have been doing this for years. Nothing is ever going to change until we put some fresh ideas into the council chamber, not just have the same old stuffed shirts playing musical chairs. The Liberal Democrats offer those fresh ideas.

"We've only just started to go through the Tories' manifesto in detail. We're now determined to work our way through it with a fine tooth comb. We will hold the Conservative-run council to account, and publicise their failure to honour their pledges."

These latest revelations follow the earlier Lib Dem discovery that the city's Tories have actually cut the number of recycling banks, despite a pledge to increase them. The party also found that after pledging to increase the range of items residents could recycle, the Tories have not done so.