Battle of the party bosses in elections
THE BOROUGH’S two political heavyweights are gearing up for a head to head battle in the county elections.
Leader of the ruling Tory administration Mike Hall is taking on his Lib Dem counterpart and leader of the opposition Stuart Bray.
They are pitched to fight it out for the new county division of St Mary’s which covers large parts of Hinckley along with the Lash Hill area of Burbage, a ‘traditionally safe’ Lib Dem enclave.
Electoral boundaries were redrawn last year with the former two-candidate seats of Burbage Castle and Hinckley abandoned in favour of four, one candidate divisions, Burbage, St Mary’s, De Montfort and Hollycroft.
Councillor Bray is a current county councillor representing Burbage Castle and is hoping loyal supporters will return him come election day on Thursday May 4.
By contrast opponent Cllr Hall believes voters need a change.
He said: “Existing Lib Dem county councillors are incapable of delivering anything for Hinckley and Burbage, and you don’t need to take my word for it. Their own leaflets are full of attempts to blame the Conservatives for every problem under the sun.
“But Cllr Bray and his colleagues have been the county councillors for Hinckley and Burbage for eight years and more and if they can’t get anything done in that time then they never will. It’s time we had a strong and influential Conservative voice in the county council, and that’s exactly what I will be for local people.”
He said as an opposition party the Lib Debs would never be able to make the big call on major issues such as traffic and parking improvements, quality education and better social care for the elderly and vulnerable children.
“Lib Dems can only ever run protests and they can run those without being county councillors. With Conservatives running the county council a Conservative councillor will be able to deliver for Hinckley and Burbage, and if I don’t then people can rightly blame me.”
Countering these claims, Cllr Bray insists he has a “record of action” from fighting to save Hinckley’s fire engine and NHS services, to campaigning to tackle traffic and parking problems.
He said: “Mike Hall has no record of action across St Mary’s and most people living in the division haven’t seen anything from the Conservatives since the last elections.
“Mike Hall’s policies have hit local people hard. They have felt two inflation-busting council tax rises and he has introduced a new brown bin tax, which is deeply unpopular.
“His decision to extend parking charges to 6pm and introduce charges for leisure centre members to use the car parks has exacerbated parking issues in the town.”
The division has three other contenders, Christina Emmett Labour, Benn Moore Independent and Elaine Simpson UKIP.