Green boost for Liberal Democrats as Somerset county councillors head for conference

3.04.18pm BST (GMT +0100) Fri 14th Sep 2007

Council Leader Jill Shortland & Graham Watson MEP with the Nottingham Declaration on Climate Change

LIBERAL Democrats from Somerset have welcomed the results of an audit of policies of the three main political parties that shows Menzies Campbell's party as the best for the environment.

The audit was carried out by a group of major environmental organisations, including Friends of the Earth, Greenpeace, the National Trust, the RSPB, the Woodland Trust and WWF-UK.

It awarded the parties "green lights" according to how green their policies were. The Conservatives scored zero, Labour one and the Liberal Democrats three.

Speaking to Liberal Democrat members about the forthcoming party conference in Brighton, council leader Jill Shortland said the verdict of the green groups was a great boost for the party.

"This audit has confirmed what we have been saying in Somerset for many years," said Jill Shortland. "Liberal Democrats are leading the battle of ideas for protecting the environment and cutting the pollution people cause."

The Flexi-fuel Ford Focus runs on bioethanol fuel & traditional fuel

The Somerset Liberal Democrat county group won the national party's first ever 'Green' award for initiatives such as their waste partnership (with all the district councils) and being the first local authority to add bioethanol-fuelled vehicles to their fleet.

"At our conference next week we will be debating plans that will put us even further ahead of Labour and the Conservatives. These include plans to shift more people from domestic flights to a greatly improved high speed rail system.

And we will discuss our plans for cutting income tax by 4p in the pound to 16p, paid for by shifting more of the tax burden onto pollution."

ENDS.