Yahoo News Local Elections 2024: the Conservative Party's pitch to North East Lincolnshire voters
Continuity is a key message of the Conservative Party in its campaign for North East Lincolnshire Council elections.
Local elections will be held on May 2, and 12 wards will each elect one councillor to the local authority. Waltham, West Marsh and Wolds Wards will not be electing any councillors, though will still vote in the Humberside Police and Crime Commissioner election.
Grimsby Live is speaking to leaders of the councillor groups contesting the elections. First up, Conservative group leader Cllr Philip Jackson.
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The party currently runs the council with a majority. Eleven of the twelve councillor roles up for election were won by the Conservatives in 2021.
Conservatives' overall pitch and policy priorities
On the party's overall pitch in North East Lincolnshire, Cllr Jackson said: "It's basically continuing to build on the foundations we've already put in place." This included a big focus on continued regeneration, and continued focus on street scene issues, like street cleaning and grass cutting. "We're spending more money on those in the forthcoming year," he said, highlighting announced extra cleaning in Cleethorpes in the tourist season, and in Grimsby.
A Conservative council would continue, where it can, working in partnership with the private sector, to bring investment and jobs into the area, Cllr Jackson said, mentioning the Humber Freeport. The Conservatives would focus further on "being on the side of the law-abiding citizens of North East Lincolnshire" by cracking down on crime and anti-social behaviour. He name-checked Grimsby's CCTV upgrade, saying it is "now paying dividends in terms of improved evidence for the police".
"We're also, of course, progressing with the Greater Lincolnshire devolution deal," said Cllr Jackson. "We think that's the way forward in North East Lincolnshire, bringing in more investment and more powers, devolved from Westminster."
North East Lincolnshire issues in focus
The LDRS asked about policies on several topics prevalent locally. On fly tipping, Cllr Jackson said: "We will continue to take action against fly tippers, where we have the evidence to demonstrate where the fly tipping has come from." Fly tipping is a national problem he said, and the council was above average for court prosecutions.
He reiterated alleyways were the responsibility of property owners, and mentioned the council's Clear It scheme, to support and encourage community clear-ups. "We don't think it's right for the council to step in and do all the work, and for council taxpayers in other parts of the borough to pay for that."
Asked if Clear It would return for another applications round, Cllr Jackson said it would be kept under review to see the success of the first two rounds, and the council's resources.
He was asked about their vision on housing, including HMOs. He recently asked council officers to carry out a report on HMOs in the borough, and what can be done to try to control those. "I think until we've got that report, it's difficult to say what approach we'll want to take."
"Even if you introduce greater control, that doesn't stop owners applying for properties to be converted into HMOs," and good planning reasons were still needed to refuse it. "We want to make sure we are building the right houses in the right areas," he said on new housing. More better quality housing is needed, and they wanted people getting increased better paid jobs in the area to live locally.
He also raised private empty homes, particularly in East Marsh and West Marsh. "It's been a problem in those parts of the town for many years," an ongoing issue the council needed to work with government on.
Transport and Regeneration
Cllr Jackson was asked about achieving regeneration in Grimsby, Cleethorpes and Immingham. He cited again working with the private sector to attract business, particularly the offshore wind sector and decarbonisation.
"We will be continuing to make sure we retrain local people to get the skills they need," he also emphasised. The council would continue with the Freshney Place leisure scheme, and Towns Fund schemes in Grimsby. Likewise, the Cleethorpes Levelling Up Fund-supported resort masterplan elements. This includes a new Sea Road building.
"On the back of that, we're looking at getting extra private sector investment as well, to try and make Cleethorpes an all-year round resort." Immingham area has had a huge amount of industrial investment, and a lot of new housing is being built that will regenerate it. "We have said we will work with Immingham Town Council to try and look at some town planning there," he said.
On transport, he said: "In certain parts of North East Lincolnshire, we've got a quite outdated road network." More money needed to be spent on roads, including to ensure road infrastructure supports investments in the South Humber employment area.
£120m of scrapped HS2 cash is due next April. Clarity was awaited on what it could be spent on and a plan of priorities drawn up then. The Conservative administration's top priority is a new Grimsby town centre transport hub, at Osborne and Garden Streets. If the funding could be used, they would also look at bus fleet electrification.
Grimsby's traffic issue was also raised. "As a motorist who regularly travels around Grimsby, I recognise the frustration of people," he said, adding he got frustrated himself.
Improvements were needed to the roads, and for better utility supplies to householders. Bringing about these improvements unfortunately meant "some disruption". "And we do apologise for that."
The A180 flyovers' works are mostly government funded. "That money is time sensitive in terms of getting the work done, and that means we do have to be doing quite a bit of these different roadworks at the same time." Without works, the A180 bridges would at some point not be capable of taking the weight of traffic.
To view the Conservatives manifesto for North East Lincolnshire, visit here. This includes a desire for a grammar school. Cllr Jackson said current legislation restricted it to only if an existing grammar school elsewhere wants an offshoot. "A lot of our more able children are being bussed out to Louth and Caistor every day, which can't really be sensible, we want to try and retain them in local schools."
