Real Change for Leicester's Castle Ward - Lewis Hastie

With Theresa May's snap election dominating the news, it's not been widely reported that there will be a Council by-election for Leicester Castle Ward on 8th June. The current Labour Councillor, Lynn Senior has resigned and am one of the four candiates standing to replace her. My party, the Liberal Democrats, is recovering from a disastrous election in 2015 and I joined the party in the aftermath of that election.

Liberal Democrats have always championed fairness above everything else. Fairness to me involves balancing the interests of many different groups in society, so that nobody is marginalised and everyone gets a piece of the pie. Let's be frank, that isn't happening under this Tory government, who seem to be getting more right-wing by the day; locally some public services are going backwards.

Labour have been in the majority of the City Council for many years and whilst Leicester has recently seen many positive events (Richard III and the incredible Premier League trophy win to name but two), I frequently hear my fellow citizens complaining about poor and expensive public transport, I read reports about some of our schools having the worst Ofsted reports in the country (which especially concerns me as a young father) and our hardworking Royal Infirmary staffare stretched to and sometimes beyond their limits.

Having lived in Leicester for almost 10 years, I've seen some of this for myself. Every day I walk to work in the City Centre via Queens Road, through Victoria Park and along New Walk. It's a beautiful route but the view is punctuated by litter, impeded by heavy, loud and sometimes aggressive trafficand in the darkness we are all sticking to the main routes for fear of muggings. This is on the whole a lovely area, but we can still strive to make it better.

Labour could be doing much more and nothing in the area will change if you vote them back in. The Conservative Candidate will most likely want further central government austerity; the Green Party's focus on the environment alone, whilst honourable is not enough for most working people in Castle.

If elected I will press hard for improvements to our schools; help for our local hospital and GPs surgeries and safety and cleanliness on our streets. In the long term I am eager to see better and affordable public transport in Leicester. There are too many cars, some routes are notoriously unsafe for cyclists and our buses are too expensive and infrequent.

However you are planning to vote in the National Election, locally the Liberal Democrats have a strong and dedicated team; we have so much to offer the city. I am a practicing solicitor and my job frequently involves fighting for a good deal. At the very least I can put up some good opposition to keep Labour Councillors on their toes and fight hard for the issues that matter to you, to me and to the city of Leicester as a whole.

Lewis Hastie is your Liberal Democrat Candidate for Castle Ward at the Leicester City Council By-Election on Thursday June 8th.

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Promoted and Published by Alan Fox on behalf of Lewis Hastie (Liberal Democrats) all at 59 St Albans Road, Leicester. LE2 1GF.