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Area a key seat, says Cameron
Friday 15th August 2008, 2:50PM BST.
Tory leader David Cameron is seen with Conservative parliamentary spokesman for Telford Tom Biggins at Sutton Hill.
Conservative leader David Cameron today pinpointed Telford as a key battle ground for the next General Election.
The Tory supremo, who stopped off in the borough as part of a whistle-stop nationwide tour, said Telford was definitely a key marginal seat.
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Mr Cameron came to the borough to honour a promise he had made to Telford & Wrekin’s Conservatives that if they seized control of the borough council he would pay a visit. He today said he was honouring that pledge.
Council leader Councillor Andrew Eade, cabinet member for regeneration, Councillor Eric Carter and borough Conservative spokesman Tom Biggins took Mr Cameron to Sutton Hill to meet residents at the community centre and see for himself the site of a planned multi-million pound regeneration.
Mr Cameron toured the estate after a meeting with about 20 residents, all members of a local working party set up to look into the regeneration.
After the meeting, Mr Cameron said: “The council leader wants the freedom to get on with the job of investing in the area and providing services for the people of Sutton Hill.
“He wants the Government to back off a little and not insist on so much auditing red tape interference and control.
“There is too much interference from Whitehall and we need more local government.”
Mr Cameron, who was last night spotted dining in the Old Orleton Inn in Holyhead Road, Wellington, said there were two absolutely key issues concerning the electorate in Telford and the country as a whole, namely the cost of living and the breakdown of society.
He said people were really struggling at the moment with rising prices and issues such as crime, teenage pregnancies and fall-outs from school impacting on families.
He said: “We want to build a stronger society and stronger families. I think the people of Telford recognise that.”
Councillor Eade said: “Mr Cameron’s visit was of immense significance to the borough and Sutton Hill in particular.
“This sends a clear message that the council and the Conservative Party are quite prepared with the issues here.
“An immense amount of work is going on with regard to Sutton Hill. We need to put resources in by way of staffing and we already have £2 million earmarked.
“We need to provide accommodation so we can move people out of the worst areas and start dealing with the problem locations.”
Sutton Hill residents have been campaigning for years for regeneration in the area, claiming for a long time they had been ignored.
The area is now one of the first to be targeted under the authority’s £23 million Borough Towns Initiative to improve areas across Telford and Wrekin.
Footage was posted on video-sharing website YouTube earlier this year highlighting problems in Sutton Hill.
Residents called for a full regeneration of the area, and in April, more than 4,000 questionnaires went out to residents in Sutton Hill asking for their opinions on plans for regeneration.
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go home you southern softie, we dont need tories here, you know nothing about regeneration, your lot caused all the problems in the first place!!
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best thing they can do with sutton hill is just burn the lot – used to live there and wat a mistake that was
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john simpson – most of the problems we see in places like Sutton Hill are caused by the welfare state and the construction of huge, poorly built council estates, which as far as I’m aware were both creations of the Labour party over the years.
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Why are labour voters so bitter?
Does anyone really believe the New Labour project has been a success?
Is it the politics of envy?
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it may be a key seat, but where are the tory policies, the last led to 10% inflation and 15% interest rates. until tories can produce policies of the 1950′s that benefit every one, the tories remain a bunch of spivs. from an ex tory constituency young conservative chairman who thankfully saw the light when maggie came to power
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To be honest – the destruction of the logical council housing to house owning scheme by that dragon, Thatcher is a cause of much of the housing problems now. In a fit of peak to diffuse council local democracy (which just happened to be opposite to her boom-bust politics she tied up all the income for councils and stopped them building new homes. Then, she pushed the instant home-owning ‘want’ to be created in society. If you rent is more than a mortgage, then people think .. why not.
So Councils with all the social responsibilities they have are by passed by iffy housing trusts who don’t always keep the stock in fine fettle. So – now that old slower but surer scheme where kids leave school – get a job on low pay, save and soon rent a house – then keep saving – then move on to buy one when they have the deposit is all gone now. This wanna be home-owners instanly has got this grand mess we have now.
Councils ain’t perfect – but can you vote a housing trust out?
Yes Harry (claiming to be a ‘squire are we?) poorly built, but if councils still had full responsibility for the estates I’m sure they’ve have been democratically forced to renew them or imprve them by now.
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Key Marginal. You know what that means – people in Telford are going to be bothered by the press a lot in the next election. Get ready to ask awkward questions of these new age Tories.
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John Simpson…are you suggesting we keep the joke of a government currently in power running the country? Labour has run this Country into the ground
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Labour luvvies are once again using the same old Stereotypical views of a Reforming conservative party!
The Mining Jobs, 3 million unemployed, the Recession. It’s all in the past, get over it!
Now we see a labour government who are having to fight off increasing Job losses, spiralling fuel/food costs, a credit crunch and increasing public spending through insignificant ‘red tape’ policies.
The ‘party for the working class’ that came into power 11 years ago has become the ‘party spongeing off the hard working taxpayer’!
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wake up and smell the bacon cameron, you are not liked in these parts, your policies of rewarding married people by taxing single people more is not going to wash in an area awash with elderly widows, single mums, etc, we need a government who cares about all the people not just their rich toff mates from eton
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I am sick and tired of reading prejudiced and offensive comments such as nos 1 & 10.
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was that diddy david cameron dressed as a penguin
touting for votes
hojin choi lee, well said
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is that tory policies on the wall or more likely graffittee for go away.
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so Telford is a key seat?
So does ‘Dave’ want the children ward in Shrewsbury like ‘Dan’ or in Telford like ‘Mark’ and ‘Telfords Dave Wright’?
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He’s got some nerve setting foot on a council estate,its the tories that are responsible for the poverty there, and we wont forget it
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I see he is backing Telford. So does that mean ‘Dan’ down the M54 is unhappy?
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well that was the biggest load of rubbish ever written by devils chair , there is no place for councill houseing in 2008 , i beg to differ on houseing association do not keep properties in fine fettle they do as i think a drive by of many owned by associations will prove , whats wrong in shared ownership ? people have more pride if they own even a quarter , they have more pride in there properties if they are kept up to scratch , i am no thatcher fan but she was bang on in getting rid of council houseing and encourageing many to buy, i believe under the tories all houseing association renters will get the right to buy perhaps labour should grab that [policy and bring it in now.
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I bet he gives it the old “this is a key seat” to every town he visits. They all say the same thing. Labour, Conservatives, whoever.
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here we have an international statesman in our midst. it has just been announced that diddy david cameron is flying off to georgia tomorrow. i don’t know, telford today, Tiblisi tomorrow. don’t think he will find any policies or votes there, better take william hague with him as he knows where it is. also take tin hats as i don’t think russia has quite finished with georgia yet!!
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Look you loonie lefties, DC knows all about telford, its the birth place of enterprise and industry i say, something us neo cons know heaps about from our share portfolios. I think telfords a classic case of a broken society full of yobbos on the dole because of liberal governments, we tories would sort them out by bring back birching and caning and hanging, and getting them out cleaning grafitti up yah, you lazy telford lot disgust me with your reliance on my hard earned taxes, we’d make you toil in the fields all day like the serfs that you ought to be, get you out of those free houses we provide for you and make you work like a dog, i say old chap any one for tennis
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There is nothing wrong with Suttonhill. As with woodside and Brookside there are some people who take real pride in their homes. However there are the scallies that ruin the area and give it a bad name. Lets hope Cameron make the council force people to keep there home clean and tidy, and also hope that the police that a greater interest in ridding the area of the troublsome few.
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He should have come to my road. I’d have made him a nice cuppa and a slice of home-made cake.
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all of a sudden its a seat they want, but they will not be honest and say how this all started and what caused this sudden turn around..
sutton hill was not going to get any money until john franklyn worked long and hard to raise the profile of a whole estate, but they do not want you to remember that
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New Labour and Cameron’s ‘New’ CONservatives are pretty much one of the same thing.
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Many a true word said in jest Tory Boy. All the chavs, shell suits, shaven headed intellectuals and tattooed beer bellies are keen to blame others for their own situation. I see the Mark Davies’s of this world are still blaming the Tories, well I have news for him and others like him, though I would imagine he still thinks they govern us, THEY WERE KICKED OUT IN 1997 Mark. Got it! LABOUR NOW FORM THE GOVERNMENT.
They are the ones who just increased the tax allowance of the middle income earners and above and reduced it for the likes of the lower income families. But perhaps the Labourites don’t know what Income Tax is.
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well if he gets tough and cuts back on the NHS and the local councils spending, all these silly wasted monies, anti smoking adverts, ”healthy wellbeing coordinator” jobs, free surgery for asylum seekers and all this recycling nonesense and health care for fat smokers who dont deserve it, and gives the money back to us in tax cuts, then he will have my vote in telford for one
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No pint in investing in Sutton Hill, brookside, Woodside etc
All 3 area’s are planning mistakes from the 70′s and rather than investing huge amounts of money into thoses area’s the best thing which could happen is for these 3 area’s to be bulldozed and rebuilt entirely again.
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If Tory boy isn’t being ironic he’s taking the p out of himself and his own party. He’s probably get kicked out by their Green party ethical committe, and Stuart fell for it. Neat!
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Read mine carefully Devils Chair. Could you be in the categories that I allude to?. Tory Boy is not a Tory, of that I am pretty certain. I fell for nothing – you obviously did.
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penny for the thoughts of the lib dem voters on the wall
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