Duncan Hames for Chippenham

Duncan Hames and Liberal Democrats in Chippenham, Bradford and Melksham have welcomed plans that will make Britain a zero carbon country by the middle of the century.

The plans were debated by Liberal Democrats at the party’s conference in Brighton today (17th September 2007).

Duncan Hames, the Prospective MP said, “Liberal Democrats have long argued that we have to tackle the problem of pollution and damage to the planet. The proposals put forward by Sir Menzies Campbell that we will debate at conference will mean that by the middle of this century, Britain will be a zero carbon country.

“That will mean that we will be producing overall no extra carbon dioxide, the main polluting gas that is leading to global climate change.

“Liberal Democrats have made the environment the main feature of our conference later this month. Going green means changing for the better many of our activities. And it means the Government changing policies as well. Under Labour for example, Gordon Brown has cut the tax burden on pollution, whilst putting up the tax burden on people.

“This means that under Gordon Brown it has become cheaper to pollute. I strongly believe that people in Wiltshire will benefit from the Lib Dems’ green tax switch. At our conference we will debate plans to switch the tax burden from people to pollution.

“We will cut national income tax and scrap council tax. To pay for this, we will increase green taxes on the most polluting activities. For example, we will increase the taxes on the most gas-guzzling cars and on aircraft.

“Liberal Democrats in Chippenham are looking forward to conference. We will be meeting Chris Huhne MP, our Shadow Secretary of State for the Environment, and we will be discussing with him how we believe Wiltshire will benefit from the Lib Dem’s green plans.”

Brighton is bracing itself for the arrival of thousands of Liberal Democrats for the party’s conference next week and amongst those attending will be local campaigners from Chippenham.

Leading local campaigner Duncan Hames will be taking his campaign team with him to conference to take part in the debates and brush up on their skills in training sessions.

Amongst those going are Duncan Hames, the Candidate; Mark Packard, the Local Party Chair, Cllr Sylvia and John Doubell, from Pewsham; Cllr Janet Repton, from Bradford-on-Avon; and local campaigners Judith Cunliffe-Jones, and Rosemary Brown.

“The theme of our conference is the environment,” said Duncan Hames. “The big debates will focus on the need to cut down on pollution and to shift the burden of tax from income and onto greenhouse gas emissions.

“Our plans will mean national income tax will be cut from 20p to 16p in the pound and council tax will be scrapped. We will pay for these by shifting the tax burden onto the most polluting, gas-guzzling cars and onto aircraft that cause environmental damage.

“Over the next three weeks, people in Wiltshire will see all three party conferences in action. What is different about ours is that members take real decisions on policy. The Conservatives have discussions but no votes whilst at Labour conference, the Labour leadership either ignores votes or has stopped debates from taking place.”