Richard Kemp selected to be Lib Dem candidate for Mayor of Liverpool

Richard Kemp has written to voters in Liverpool saying:

You will know from your own conversations that people are tired of our Mayor. He has made a laughing stock of Liverpool time and time again. The result is that Manchester is leaping ahead of us on all fronts but especially those that relate to the economy and employment. But I am not standing just because I don’t like the Mayor. I will be fighting on a range of liberal issues which are the ones on which we rescued this City and gave it a future from 1998 to 2010 when we controlled the City.

My priorities are:

1. To protect the green cultural heritage of Liverpool by imposing an immediate freeze on development of public and community green spaces owned by the Council. To protect the built environment of Liverpool by improving the standard of development in the city especially in the City Centre.

2. To create in Liverpool an open, transparent and fully accountable system of government where the people and businesses of Liverpool are fully consulted about issues which will affect their lives

3. To create high quality, high paying jobs in the City by working with the Government, Universities and the private sector.

4. To improve the quantity and quality of housing by the redevelopment of brownfield land in the city which has room to create homes for more than 70,000 people.

5. To present Liverpool both nationally and internationally as an outward facing, confident city to encourage inward investment, two way trade and incoming city-break tourism.

6. To promote radical action to address the appalling health inequality inside Liverpool and between Liverpool and the rest of the Country.

I will achieve these objectives by creating partnerships with the private sector, community sector, and all branches of the public sector. In the first instance I will seek to create a partnership with our three universities and the Chamber of Commerce to look at ‘future proofing’ our City to look at the employment, environmental and cultural changes which will take place in society as a whole and from which our City can benefit.

You can find out more about Richard Kemp’s campaign, including how you can help, here.