Wiltshire County Council Election 2005
5th May 2005

Toby Sturgis Conservative
Wootton Bassett South Division
Tel: +44(0)1249 720433
Fax: +44(0)1249 721103
Mobile: 07801 239778
Email: ts@idover.fsnet.co.uk

Dear All
It has been a privilege to serve as your County Councillor for the last eight years and I hope you feel my common sense and honest approach has provided you with sound representation. With 25 years of experience at Parish, District and County level I am convinced that all tiers of local government have to work together to control inappropriate development and protect our historic market town and the surrounding countryside.

With the increasing threat of more housing being dictated by Mr Prescott and the unelected Regional Assembly your local team of James Gray as MP, Mollie Groom and I, as your County Councillors, and Allison Bucknell, Peter Roberts and Chris Wannell as your District Councillors are in a strong position to put the case for rural Wiltshire to be protected from the expansion of Swindon.

Having secured a reduction in the number of houses, an enlarged Rural Buffer and a dear indication that future expansion of Swindon should be to the East in the past I will continue to fight for this through the Swindon Steering Group, where I am chairman, which has been set up as a planning advisory body to the Assembly.

Your vote in the County Council Election on 5th May is important and will influence your quality of life and I hope you will be able to give me your support.
Yours sincerely,
Toby Sturgis

Working for the Wootton Bassett South Division

Toby, an experienced councillor born in North Wiltshire, is keen to continue to protect the environment and is now able to act as a full time councillor having reduced his farming interests. His role in the Cabinet at the County Council and being a District Councillor put him in a strong position to deliver his priorities.

4 Priorities for action:

• Protecting The Area From Inappropriate Development

• Continuing Our Road Maintenance Programme

• Increasing Recycling

• Working In Partnership to Provide Better Services

Continuing to Work for Wiltshire

Conservatives will continue with a prudent financial policy to ensure excellent services while maintaining council tax at one of the lowest levels of all county councils. We will continue to work in partnership with all service providers in the public, private and voluntary sectors, to ensure the most economic and effective use of public money. We will further extend our communication with Wiltshire's residents to determine what is important to them and ensure that they are involved in our decision-making processes, which will be carried out in a transparent way.

We have been independently assessed as a good council with a Tour Star rating for our use of resources and placed at the top of all counties for a basket of 50 key indicators of service despite having one of the lowest spends per head of population.

We will ensure that this trend of increasing independent praise for the council, and increasing public satisfaction with the services we provide, continues over the next four years.

ENVIRONMENT

The Conservatives will.. Continue to invest in the county's roads. Building on the recent 30% improvement. Further improve their record of reducing road accidents by 10%. Improve access to better public transport for the rural population. Reduce the impact of traffic on towns and villages. Increase recycling of household waste to 33% and develop "waste to energy" facilities.

EDUCATION

The Conservatives will: Continue to invest to provide excellent education in even better schools. Continue to improve achievement at all Key stages. Continue to replace mobile classrooms with modern buildings. Develop a readily accessible and relevant youth service.

SOCIAL SERVICES

The Conservatives will: Ensure that Wiltshire remains the safest county in which to live. Continue to reduce waiting lists, now at their lowest levels for many years, for the elderly wanting to enter residential or nursing homes. Provide additional home care to increase personal independence. Continue the integration of Education, Social Care and Health services to improve family support.

CUSTOMER SERVICES

The Conservatives will:

Extend council service contact points across the county.
Promote further use of the council's web site to retrieve information and facilitate applications for service.
Establish a customer care centre to ensure that at least 80% of enquiries are answered at the first point of call.
Increase the facilities available at Libraries.

CONSERVATIVE POLICIES WORK FOR YOU

Ensure that the Authority continues to be recognised for it's strong financial management.
Ensure that Wiltshire's residents are involved in decisions that are important to them.
Lead the regeneration of our towns and listen to, and support, the rural communities.
Listen to the views of our older residents and provide for their growing- needs in an affordable way.
Continue to give young people a voice in determining the future of Wiltshire
Ensure that "hire continues to be one of the top performing-counties in the country.