Candidates say why they want your X

Scarborough and Whitby will be going to the polls with the rest of the country on June 8 for the General Election. There are eight candidates standing and we have given each of them the chance to speak directly to you, the voter. One of these eight will b

Guide to the general election candidates for Scarborough& W hit by, Filey & Malton, with their election statements.

BILL BLACK YORKSHIRE PARTY

The Yorkshire

Party stands for Yorkshire devolution.

It has become apparent in recent years that the London government does not give Yorkshire its fair share. For every pound the government spends in the South East it spends only eighty pence in Yorkshire. Education spending is about half and major infrastructure spending is about 50%.

Important roads don’t get built, schools don’t get repaired and hospital funding is way down.

We want a Yorkshire assembly or parliament that would to be able to spend the tax raised here on the county rather than sending it south to be spent on hospitals and schools and roads elsewhere in the country.

We want what the Scots already have!

Bill Black has been a member of Newby and Seamer Parish Council and remains a trustee of the Scarborough and Ryedale Carers Support and Newby and Scalby Village Hall Trust.

He became interested in Yorkshire devolution some years ago and when the Yorkshire Party Steering Group was formed he was part of that and has remained an active member of the party ever since that time.

He has become convinced that the local government system in use in Yorkshire, the police and other public institutions are no longer fit for purpose because of the low level of funding given to Yorkshire from central government.

ERIC BROADBENT LABOUR PARTY

I am Eric Broadbent, a local resident that has had the honour to be chosen by the Labour Party to fight the forthcoming General Election.

Married to Lynne with three grown-up children, I attended Northstead and Friarage schools, before being taken on as an apprentice coach builder with Plaxtons, Scarborough

I served as Mayor of the Borough of Scarborough from 2004 to 2005 With over 25 years service on the Borough Council, I have represented Scarborough’s Central Ward, and I was re-elected as County Councillor for Northstead Division in the recent elections.

I serve as Leader of the Labour Group on North Yorkshire County Council. My commitment to our local community, and my experience serving as Mayor, Borough Councillor and County Councillor mean that I am ideally placed to serve my constituents as a Member of Parliament.

My priorities for the residents of Scarborough and Whitby are: To help the growing numbers of local residents that are struggling to buy or rent a home to live in.

I believe also that the our residents deserve a health service that meets their needs.

I will fight to protect the NHS and make sure that it is adequately funded from Westminster.

Our coastal towns need up-to-date transport links, in order for us all to prosper and secure real employment, and I will fight to ensure that our main arterial road, the A64 has a dual carriageway all the way to Scarborough, and demand that our rail link from York to Scarborough is electrified.

I have listened to local residents’ concerns on crime, and support Labour’s policy of providing “more bobbies on the beat”.

I will also fight to stop the cuts to our local schools, to protect our children’s education. Scarborough and Whitby deserve a local MP who will stand up for the many, not just the few.

SAM CROSS UKIP

The Tories are telling you a fairy story about Brexit meaning

Brexit. The

Tory plan is to increase their majority and remove the influence of the small number of Tory MPs who want to leave the EU.

The Tory plan is really to stay in the single market, keep pouring your money into EU coffers and retain the failed Lib/Lab/Con policy of mass uncontrolled immigration, which causes so much damage to the UK and has consistently increased your tax burden over the last 20 years. The Tories will now donate 188 miles of our 200 mile Exclusive Economic Zone, an estimated £2billion boost from fishing to our economy, to the EU.

The incumbent two-faced Tory MP, Robert Goodwill, claimed to be a staunch Eurosceptic and wanted to repatriate powers from Brussels. When push came to shove Mr Goodwill put his ministerial career and his financial interests above those of you and our country when he came out in favour of the Remain campaign.

Can you really see the incumbent MP taking a moral stand against Theresa May when she announces that her deal to leave the EU will include retaining single market access and mass uncontrolled immigration? Can you see Mr Goodwill giving up his ministerial job and standing up for the 62% of his constituents who voted Leave?

The past seven years have seen failed Tory economic plan after Tory economic plan as they attempt to clear up the mess Labour left. Our tax burden is at a 30-year high. It has become clear that the Tories are conservative in name only.

Like Labour, the Tories are a party of high taxes, big government and are wedded to mass uncontrolled immigration, because they have no other way of growing the economy.

There is not one single mention of Brexit on the Labour candidate’s election leaflet!

If you vote Tory or Labour on June 8, you will not see your Leave vote come to fruition within the next five years. Only a vote for Sam Cross and UKIP on June 8 will see your Leave vote enacted.

JOHN FREEMAN INDEPENDENT

I am standing as an Independent candidate at the General Election because Enough is Enough where Scarborough Borough Council is concerned.

I invite the protest votes of all those who are fed up with the disgraceful way that SBC does not listen to local ratepayers.

This Borough depends on tourism, but Tourist Information Centres have been closed or downgraded. Public lavatories will close unless town/ parish councils pay for them themselves. Our streets and public places look run-down and neglected. Yet SBC spends millions on grandiose projects like The Sands, Open Air Theatre and Water Park.

Whitby’s piers are essential to guard the town and harbour against flooding – but are decaying and falling apart. SBC were warned in 2002 that the piers might only last 10 years.

They now hope to start repairs in 2019-20 – provided they can find the money. The whole economy of Whitby is at risk of total devastation.

SBC is not listening to the voters of Scarborough either. Protest marches and Open Letters go ignored. The Save the Futurist and Fight4Whitby campaign groups should not need to employ lawyers to extract answers from SBC. Why spend £4M demolishing a much-loved theatre, yet not spend £3.8M to save Whitby Piers from collapse?

As chairman of Whitby and District Tourism Association, three-times Mayor of Whitby, and co-founder of Fight4Whitby, I have tried my utmost to get SBC to see sense. My support includes former Mayors of Whitby and SBC – plus Conservative, Labour, Lib-Demand Green party members.

We cannot leave our borough to the tender mercies of SBC for another five years, while the Government negotiates Brexit. We should send a strong message to our MP and the Government that they cannot and must not delay the reform of SBC any longer.

Please use your vote to say Enough is Enough.

ROBERT GOODWILL - CONSERVATIVE

It has been my privilege to serve the people of Scarborough and Whitby since

2005. I am Yorkshire born and bred, following on from my father on the family farm near Malton. Maureen and I have three grown up children.

In Scarborough itself, things are really on the up. Coventry University and the University Technical College are open with the Sports Village later this year. The Water Park is a great success with a multiplex cinema to follow.

There are also exciting plans for an iconic attraction at the Futurist site.

In Whitby, match funding will release Government investment to repair the piers and work will start on a £6m rebuild of Whitby Hospital this autumn – securing its long-term future.

The local economy – particularly tourism – is buoyant. Youth unemployment in the Scarborough and Whitby Constituency is down from 675 to 245 and total unemployment has halved since 2010. The potash mine will deliver hundreds of new jobs for decades to come.

Making Brexit a success for our country is paramount. 62% of people here voted to leave the European Union.

That result must be respected. There can be no going back now. The greater Theresa May’s mandate, the stronger her negotiating position will be.

As Immigration Minister and part of the Home Office team, my role will be central in being able to take back control of the numbers who can come here from Europe. We need to get the best possible trade deal too.

Ultimately, the choice at this election is between strong and stable leadership under Theresa May or a coalition of chaos with Jeremy Corbyn propped up by Nicola Sturgeon and the Liberal Democrats. A Labour government means higher debt, higher taxes and economic chaos.

Please support me by voting Conservative on June 8. Thank you.

GORDON JOHNSON MBE JP-INDEPENDENT

I am independent, not associated with candidates of other registered parties.

In promoting an independent people’s party that works and speaks for the people and the communities who want democracy.

If you ask or request to do something I will do it, if I disagree with your request I will say so and discuss it to find a satisfactory conclusion.

If you still insist on an original request then I will, if elected, carry it out and put it forward as a motion. This is applicable to individuals and communities if two groups of people disagree then they can call a referendum and I will obtain a motion for the party with the highest number of votes.

With regard to a promise, I will never break a promise as this would damage my integrity. This will not happen irrespective of who or what endeavours to carry it out.

In many cases registered parties have made promises, yet over the last two years no promise has been fulfilled.

I am asking for your vote as I believe I can with my experience and skills best represent and retain and improve the region and interests of the area.

My hopes are that democracy will promote you to vote for myself. If either I am successful in converting the candidacy then although I would be delighted there would be a concern with respect to the work I would have to carry out and I can only hope that the people’s party would thrive in all areas. Prior to 1974, I am of the opinion that we had a good society where people looked after each other and helped the people who needed it and this is what we would like to see today, including the new technology that is becoming available in all areas. I am not either community, religiously or politically influenced and we would like to have full freedom of information in this country. Scarborough Council needs investigation, Whitby Council needs independence. We need to ensure our area of the British Empire is defended against extremism.

ROBERT GRAHAM LOCKWOOD LIBERAL DEMOCRAT

Robert Graham Lockwood is 55 years old and lives in West Ayton, Scarborough, with his partner Sandi.

Born and raised on a farm, Graham considers himself fortunate to have started life in a clean and healthy environment; his love of nature instilled in him from the start.

Educated at Newby Primary, and Scalby Secondary Schools, Graham started work in Scarborough aged 16 as an apprentice motorcycle mechanic. In 1981 Graham completed a City and Guilds in Motorcycle Engineering, and worked for GB Suzuki, testing and reporting new products, before full scale production; a dream job. Rubbing shoulders with Barry Sheene, Graeme Crosby and others, in the GB Suzuki race team, this really was life in the fast lane; roadtesting on every type of road, and in every kind of weather.

Whilst working for the RAC, Graham sustained a back injury; this prompted him to study History at Goldsmith’s College, graduating in 1992 from London University. Coming from a musical family, Graham joined the University of London Opera Group, and performed in several productions.

On returning to Scarborough, he joined a folk club, which helped establish other people on to the local music scene. Graham has since then, worked a summer season as a tour guide on Loch Ness, and furthered his career as an electrician, first at the Sullonm Voe oil terminal, in the Shetland Islands, and here in Yorkshire, where he now runs his own business as a domestic and commercial engineer.

His love of the natural world, prompted Graham to join the environmental group Greenpeace in 1988, and has since encouraged others to take a greater concern on our impact on the world.

This concern, led to Graham becoming politically motivated, and has been a party member, and activist since 1989.

He has stood as a Scarborough Borough Council candidate three times, and a North Yorkshire County Council candidate twice, being Chairman, and now Vice Chairman of the Scarborough and Whitby Liberal Democrat

DAVID MALONE - GREEN PARTY

This election is about more than left or right. It’s about globalisation versus the future of this country. Only the Green Party is offering thought out opposition to globalisation, the undemocratic rule of global finance and multinationals that think they are above the law and shouldn’t have to pay taxes like the rest of us. If we do not take back control of our economy then we will not be able to do any of the things that any political parties promise.

The UK is the world’s fifth largest economy and yet we are told there’s not enough money for health, education or care for the elderly. Scarborough needs its hospital and ambulances, quality schools and teachers, decent housing and pensions.

Conservative and Labour are fighting the same old issues. They haven’t changed their ideas in a generation and neither have answers for the future. They both had decades in power and failed to make us strong or stable.

Some people say a vote for the Green Party is a wasted vote. Surely, a wasted vote is one for parties and policies that have already failed us? The future is in your hands. Stand with us for decent housing, schools, our NHS, our environment, and our future. We will stand up for what matters most to you. The Green Party is not funded by big businesses or unions. No one owns us, or our vote.

Elect a Tory or Labour MP and you will send to Westminster just another loyal foot soldier who will be told how to vote and what to do by his party whips. Elect me and you will have an MP who answers to two things only: my conscience and YOU.

In the County Council Falsgrave & Stepney Division, David received more than double the number of votes than in 2013.

This is because of his hard work in surveying local residents and responding to their concerns.