Home Local News Candidate’s Questions – Ben Basson

Candidate’s Questions – Ben Basson

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We received many questions from our readers to put to the candidates in the election, we have below printed the questions and the unedited answers that we received from Ben Basson, Green Party Candidate. Ben’s answers are in bold.

  1. Skelmersdale has long been advertised to attracting new business and investment to the town on the back of the transport links and ease of access to the motorway networks; however the public transport links are not nearly good enough. From early evening the bus times change to being only one an hour, and there are areas of Skelmersdale which are not served with their own bus route. What can be done to fix what is in all honesty, a shambles of a public transport system?

NS, Skelmersdale

Despite what candidates may tell you they hold very little power to change what you rightly describe as a shambles of a public transport system. This situation has been ever worsening and for those of us who have to use it I feel can now be considered a crisis. The answer I’ll give you and this answer will only come from the Green Party, is that we need a fully integrated nationalised transport system. The investment required both for Skelmersdale with regards to a proper central station and elsewhere in West Lancs such as the Burscough curves issue, but also nationwide, can only come from a nationalised system. Private companies care about one thing first and foremost and that is profit. Only a government committed to improving the lives of its citizens will invest the money required to fulfil Skelmersdale’s and the nations transport needs. It is important to add, the Green Party is committed to a fully integrated nationalised public transport not only to improve the system because of its current state but also in order to reduce car use and therefore carbon emissions – this is part of a strategy and a vision for the future of the UK that again is totally lacking from the other parties.   

  1. What is your highest priority for Skelmersdale?

HT, Skem

Difficult….. transport, jobs, housing regeneration for some areas, an A&E within the Borough. I know that’s 4 but I can’t decide which should be highest priority. All are vital.

  1. What can be done to address the problems of adults from Skelmersdale having to travel to Southport for A&E services, would it not be possible to accommodate such a service in Ormskirk and if so how can it be paid for, and if not why not?

RD, Skelmersdale

From listening to Rosie Cooper at a hustings we attended it would appear that all available land that surrounded and was owned by the Trust that runs Ormskirk hospital has been sold off and there is now no area large enough to house an adult A&E with all the infrastructure that that requires. A staggeringly bad decision I think we can all agree. If one were to be built then that means an area of the current hospital would have to be built upwards in order to create the space required. I don’t see how an A&E could be built in a different location as I assume it would need to be near the other hospital facilities for when patients need to be transferred to other departments. Where will the money come from to make this happen? Only from a government who truly puts the needs of people as the basis for its very existence. Unfortunately I only see the needs of big business and corporate power being met by any of the other 4 parties. I would implore you to visit the Health section of the Green Parties policies website here http://policy.greenparty.org.uk/he.html

  1. Although the plans for the redevelopment of Skelmersdale town centre have been approved, they have been stagnant for a long time and have brought a number of doubts as to whether they will become a reality. Do you think that the delays have been as a result of any possible conflicts between the developers and resident businesses? Do you think that the plans would have been enhanced and completed if all concerned parties had worked together?

PN, Skelmersdale

To be honest I haven’t been anywhere near close enough to the discussions or know anyone who has been close to the discussions in order to make a valuable contribution on this subject. I suspect self-interest has something to do with it on one if not all sides and if I was being generous I can understand that to an extent. I can only say that it’s been too long in coming and that I’ll only be confident when there’s clear visible evidence of work having begun.

  1. Do you agree that a town the size of Skelmersdale is surely in need of its own railway station? If so how, can this be brought to Skelmersdale and where would the location of the railway be of the most benefit to the town and its residents? If you disagree, what are the reasons that you believe would prevent Skelmersdale having its own station?

AL, Skem

Skelmersdale certainly needs its own railway station and I would refer you to my answer to the first question as some answer to this. Best location I’ll leave to town planners and focus groups to decide but clearly somewhere relatively central. The thing that I think may well prevent Skelmersdale having its own station is again in my answer to the first question and that is that I don’t see that kind of investment for the projected usage coming from the private sector and only a government committed to its people and a nationalised system would deliver what Skelmersdale needs and that isn’t going to come from the ‘privatise everything’ parties.

  1. With the immediate increase in knife crime are there any immediate plans to tackle the increase in numbers, or will there be a longer term plan aimed at bringing the number down?

CT, Skem

Well in the short term having more police actually on the ground, within communities not in their cars would be a start. That would mean stopping cuts to the police force but with certainly the 3 main parties committed to the failed ideological project of austerity then that doesn’t bode well. In the long term it has to be about education, provision and hope. We have to reach people from a very early age and instil in them an ethos of cooperation, empathy, solidarity. Our schools shouldn’t just be exam factories churning out disaffected young adults who see no future. Our schools should be about creating well rounded and adjusted people who understand the importance of relationships, from close loving relationships to those relationships with the wider community. There also has to be the idea that they can achieve something and their life has importance. Jobs, meaningful jobs can provide this, not part time zero hour contract jobs but real jobs. Something they can plan their life around and not be willing to throw away with a stupid act of violence. Finally I would call for a rethink of our drug laws. So much violence stems from the way we deal with or rather don’t deal with drug issues. The ‘war on drugs’ has not reduced the ability to obtain drugs; all it does is criminalise our young people and further alienate them from society. Take drugs out of the hands of criminal gangs and you take young people away from criminal gangs and associated criminality and violence. It is this broad holistic view that I think is required but again and I know I’m in danger of sounding like a broken record, I don’t see any of the other 4 parties genuinely tackling this issue other than to treat the problem rather than the symptom.

  1. As a small business owner in Skelmersdale, working with the ECO and Green Deal schemes and struggling due to the actions of the energy companies, what is your policy on green energy; incentives, grants and subsidies for homeowners and landlords and Green Deal finance? How do you plan to tackle these issues in a way that will help Primus Energy to sustain and grow within Skelmersdale, creating jobs and helping individuals?

PF, Skelmersdale

As I’m sure you know, renewable energy underpins the Green Party’s strategy to tackle the environmental, social and economic crises that we face as a nation but also as a species. We feel you can’t tackle these crises individually but rather collectively. Under the Green Party the energy system will be reorganised to ensure full democratic control, with local communities generating and supplying their own energy needs. Local councils and communities will have a key role in planning efficiency programmes, and organising local energy supply and distribution. Eradication of fuel poverty will be a priority: about a fifth of households currently suffer fuel poverty in the UK. Innovation in energy efficiency, renewable energy and energy storage will require rapid training and upskilling of the workforce needed to design, construct, operate and manage radical change to the current energy system. Restructuring the UK energy system will significantly boost employment. Investment in energy efficiency and renewable energy will generate market value in products and innovations worth hundreds of billions of pounds. An energy efficiency fund will be supported by an improved system of carbon taxes to help the design, upgrading and construction of better homes and buildings, energy efficient industry and to expand renewables. A green government will separate energy generation from supply and retail. We will legislate to separate large energy generators from suppliers. The price of power will continue to be set according to the wholesale market where we expect the majority of electricity to be traded. Renewables (wind, wave, tidal stream, solar and hydro) will receive a fixed price feed-in tariff. Flexible renewable generators that can decide when to operate (biogas, tidal stream) will receive a premium feed-in tariff to incentivise provision of capacity at times of peak demand. Demand reduction will be incentivised through demand-side feed-in tariffs available to customers and third parties acting on behalf of customers, working alongside the system of tradable energy quotas. We will remove existing market barriers that prevent demand-shifting by large energy users and aggregators working on behalf of or supplying small end-users. Community and decentralised generation will be supported by fixed price feed-in tariffs. All of the above feed-in tariffs will be reduced gradually, in accordance with each technology’s cost reduction curve. Sufficient time between the announcement of revised tariffs and their implementation will be provided for industries to plan for any reduction in tariff rates. The Green Party will outlaw ownership of energy retail by profit making companies that have a stake in energy production, unless the generation is wholly renewable. The current pattern of vertical ownership has worked to concentrate market power into an oligopoly, to the detriment of energy conservation and price competition. Vertically-integrated energy companies will be required to divest their ownership in energy retail (currently the least profitable aspect of the energy industry). Energy retail will be conducted by community-owned, municipally-owned or cooperative not-for-profit regional monopolies and we will require open-book accounting practices to ensure fair pricing, sufficient investment and good value for consumers. This is just part of the Green’s energy strategy and I feel your business and many others would be able to prosper and grow within this proposed system.

1 COMMENT

  1. You stated the other 4 parties only treat thesymptom not the illness. Id suggest you read my response. Thanks

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