Mowat Re-affirms Expenses Policy

31 December

Mowat Defends Warrington from Daily Telegraph Slur

17 December

The recent reporting by the Daily telegraph and other national news media in response to the recent Audit commission report has caused much resentment in the town. David Mowat says "to call Warrington the worst place to live in Britain is idiotic, lazy and sloppy. I publish below the full text of my letter to the daily Telegraph."

The Editor

The Daily Telegraph.

Dear Sir

I write with reference to your article on Warrington. The article asks “Is this the worst town to live in in the UK? “

The answer is no and here are some facts which explain why:

-the 2009 Cities Outlook Report (produced by the Local Government Association) ranked Warrington 8th out of 64 major UK conurbations in terms of average prosperity level. Cities such as Bristol and Oxford were ranked lower.

-according to the Audit Commission 59% of 16 year-olds get 5 or more A*-C grades at GCSE level, putting Warrington in the top 10% of LEAs in the country

-employment is in the top quartile in England: 83.1% of working-age people are economically active (ONS 2009)

-the Cheshire countryside around the town is amongst the most beautiful in the country

These facts are clearly inconsistent with your article. So have the Audit Commission got it wrong?

Not really: their red flags were in specific areas, raising focused concerns about inequality rather than absolute measures. The media got it wrong by interpreting these focused concerns in a sloppy way.

I would encourage your reporter to visit Warrington, to decide for himself whether he still believes it is the worst town in the UK. He would be made very welcome.

David Mowat

Conservative Parliamentary Candidate

Warrington South 

Under new Conservative plans, far-reaching new powers could be given to people in Warrington to protect community assets from closure and take over the running of public buildings and community assets. David Mowat, Parliamentary Candidate for Warrington South has given his backing to the new 'Community Right to Buy' which would allow not-for-profit community groups across Warrington to take over the running of struggling local facilities, from post offices to pubs to parks.

New research has revealed that under Labour, 5,400 post offices, 200 libraries and 3,500 pubs have been lost across England. In Warrington South, new figures show that the number of post offices has fallen by 13 in the last decade.

Under the Conservative proposals:

•Community groups, such as schools, churches or voluntary groups will be able to bid to take over the running of publicly owned community assets, if they can manage them more efficiently and effectively than the state.

•When a state-owned community asset faces closure or being sold, voluntary groups will have a right of first refusal to buy that asset for a fair price and maintain it for community use. The new rights to community ownership will cover assets owned by central government and quangos, not just town halls.

•The radical 'Community Right to Buy' will also allow community groups a first refusal to take over and run vital commercially-owned community assets when they shut down – for example, those post offices, pubs and shops whose continued survival is of genuine importance to the local community. The closure of the Post Office in Lymm, despite a thousand-strong petition against it, would be just one example of where this scheme could have made a difference and preserved a vital community asset.

David Mowat said:

"Under Labour, local neighbourhoods in Warrington and across the country have lost too many essential local services and facilities. Gordon Brown's Government has closed post offices and driven local pubs into the ground. People feel powerless to stop their communities losing access to vital services and facilities. So the Conservatives will give bold new powers to people in Warrington to protect and improve vital community assets and preserve the social fabric of our neighbourhoods."

Mowat  Congratulates Wolves Players during recent visit to football club.

December 5th

David congratulates members of the sucessful Wolves squad during a recent visit to the football club.