IN LANCASTER CITY COUNCIL DISTRICT, local Conservatives believe in honesty and integrity in local government and in accountability to the local electorate. We oppose the policies of others when we believe them to be wrong, but we think it is appropriate for local politicians to put aside purely partisan differences, and work together constructively wherever co-operation is possible in the interests of the whole district.

Local Conservatives do not endorse policies which pit the interests of Morecambe against those of Lancaster, or pit the interests of rural dwellers against those of urban dwellers. Not for us, the allocation of resources primarily to Morecambe, or primarily to Lancaster. Our policies are for the good of the whole district, and we have the collective will to implement them..

CABINET STRUCTURE FOR 2011-15

At present no single political group has enough City Councillors to form a Cabinet on its own. It is the electorate that must change this. To form a Conservative Cabinet, we need a much larger Conservative Group on the Council.

In each year since 2007, the City Council has decided that its Cabinet should be based on Proportional Representation (PR). A Cabinet based on PR does not have collective responsibility for Cabinet decisions. Conservatives believe a PR Cabinet has not been as effective as a coalition Cabinet would have been, or as effecctive as a Cabinet formed by a single political group is likely to be.

The Lancaster City Council Constitution does not provide for "an opposition" or for the "Leader" of an opposition, but this situation will change after the 2011 election - as will the ability to have a PR Cabinet - following revisions to the City Council's Constitution agreed by Council in December 2010, in accordance with relevant legislation.

Conservatives are not leading the Council at present, and have chosen no longer to participate as a minority of two in the ten member PR Cabinet - but we do not oppose just for the sake of opposing. We left Cabinet when it became no longer possible to accept being publicly associated with Cabinet decisions which we did not support.

Conservatives continue to press for the adoption of proposals which we believe to be in the best interest of the residents of our District. We were the only political group to vote against the City Council's Budget for 2011-12, so in a real sense the Conservative Group in the City Council is currently "The Opposition".