Tom Elliott, Mike Nesbitt and Jim Nicholson UUP
THE ULSTER Unionist Party launched its manifestos for the 2014 local government elections at the Killyhevlin Hotel in Enniskillen today.
A manifesto has been produced for each of the eleven new council areas.
Party leader Mike Nesbitt, MLA Tom Elliott were in attendance.
European UUP candidate Jim Nicholson addressed the crowd.
He said: “Last year County Fermanagh of course played host to the leaders of the largest economies and the world’s media for what proved to be a highly successful G8 conference.
“That conference showcased not just Fermanagh but Northern Ireland as a whole on the international stage.
“Showing that we were open for business both as a tourist destination, as a venue for major international events and as a place to invest with a skilled workforce.
“This will be reinforced later this week when the Giro D’Italia hits our shores in a blaze of pink.
Fermanagh is also the home county of our Local Government spokesperson Tom Elliott MLA.
“The elections to the new super councils are crucially important.
“Local government is the layer of governance closest to the people and as a former councillor I know how important that is in terms of making a difference to the daily lives of people.
“And whilst the Ulster Unionist Party opposed the 11 super council model we will work to ensure the delivery of efficient and effective local government for ratepayers.”
Some of the main points in the manifesto include:
Ensuring local community identities are not lost following the drawing up of the new council boundaries; the cost of local government reform, very conservatively estimated to be £118million, must not be passed onto local ratepayers; ratepayers should be protected from a hike in their rates following the convergence of councils with differing levels; a new rating system – realignment between the regional rate and district rate so that more of the money collected in the area stays within it; councils should use their new planning powers to adopt a ‘town centre first’ approach; councils should identify means of bringing schools together on shared projects in order to increase mutual trust and understanding in order to help achieve the long term goal of a single education system.
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