Steve Bolter Liberal Democrat for Bumpstead Ward Complete

Online Version (1st)

History and background. Steve is a retired Physics and Maths further education lecturer. In his home ward of Stour Valley South (a Braintree ward on the Suffolk border, very like this one), he came second to the Conservatives in the 2015 Council Election. Before the boundary changes, his home Ward was Hedingham and Maplestead. When Steve was a District Councillor for Hedingham and Maplestead, the Cabinet system had not reached Braintree. More District policy was developed in all-party committees and work groups. Steve served on: Modernisation, Environment, Planning, and Area (which includes Bumpstead). He is “non tribal” and enjoyed working with members of other parties. Notable successes were making Hedingham flood relief lagoons a priority, working with a Green Party councillor and others to advance Braintree Council’s environmental policies, and persuading the Council to oppose a second runway at Stansted. Steve is Vice Chair of the Green Lib Dems (an environmental group within the Liberal Democrats that predates the Green Party) and has taken an active role Lib Dem energy and climate change policy formation. His current term ends in March. He will not stand for re-election to that post if he is elected your District Councillor. He is his ninth year as a Parish Councillor. His most notable achievement was to get a grant, to enable the Parish to engage a small company to bring microwave link Broadband to Gestingthorpe in 2008. Quite independently of “Superfast ”, this service has just been updated to Superfast Broadband, with domestic rates of 32 Mb/s available. Steve will press for speedy improvements to Broadband in Bumpstead, prioritising areas with less than 2Mb/s.

Steve Bolter was also involved, as a District and as a Parish councillor, in bringing six, housing association, low energy, affordable homes to the Parish.

Steve says - The Draft District Plan has allocated extra housing land for Steeple Bumpstead. I strongly support the Council’s principle of refusing extra development outside the agreed Village Envelopes (except for small scale “rural exemption site” affordable housing, reserved for local people). I am thus back the Council’s refusal of the Gladman Developments Ltd application for housing off Road, Steeple Bumpstead.

In unparished Braintree town, the District Council provides services that are provided by parish and town councils in the rest of the district. Equity should be maintained by payments from the District to its parishes and towns. With reducing Government grants, allocations to parishes are easy things for Districts to cut. If elected I will be working to make sure that Steeple Bumpstead, Sturmer, and are properly supported by the District.

Currently the rural north of the District is entirely Conservative. (There are two Halstead Residents’ councillors for the town.) No Party (not even the Lib Dems!) can have all the best ideas. A spec of Lib Dem gold in a sea of blue can be a very useful stimulus, and help all rural Councillors press for our interests, just as it did when Robert Bolton and I were on the Council together. [I was pleased to learn it was a move to Wales, and not a health problem, that caused Robert’s resignation.]

I believe that local role of district councillors extends beyond district matters, to making sure local residents are properly served by other bodies. I will thus work to ensure that local NHS services are maintained, and that county boundaries are not a barrier to proper NHS and social care. It is important that there is proper communication over Bumpstead patients, between NHS hospitals in Cambridgeshire and Suffolk, and Essex social services.

With the rapid rise in Liberal Democrat membership since the Referendum, the Liberal Democrats want to re-establish the Party in the north of Braintree District.

Steve Says:- This election is to choose your representative on Braintree Council, but, as the media will be using this month’s elections as a guide to the state of the parties, after others’ leadership changes, I have included a little about national Lib Dem policy on the next page.

I invite you to contact me on [email protected] Any developments in the campaign will be on news page http://braintreeandwithamlibdems.org.uk/en/page/local-news or on the same sites Braintree/Bumpstead page Steve Bolter October 2016

Published by Steve Bolter, for Braintree & Liberal Democrats, 54 Grymes Dyke Way, Stanway, CO3 0QT Printed by Liberal Democrats, Magdalen Hall, Wimpole Rd, Colchester CO1 2DE. Liberal Democrats

Steve Bolter for Bumpstead Ward

The Liberal Democrats are working for a greener world, a stronger economy and a fairer society.

Only a green, environmentally sustainable, economy can be a strong economy in the long term, and thus be fair to following generations.

Only in a world at peace, can economic strength be harnessed to maximise human happiness.

We believe that the European Union has been central to combating rapid climate- change, protecting the natural world, conserving resources, and bringing peace and stability to Europe and the wider world. We wish to remain as closely linked to the EU as possible and support the UK adoption of EU Laws as the default position. We will resist any attempt to dilute environmental and social protection.

Liberal Democrats – ahead of the game

Lib Dem Vince Cable was the first MP to take the impeding 2008 banking crisis seriously. The Lib Dems were the only major party united in opposition to entering the Iraq war. Charles Kennedy and other Parliamentarians led a Lib Dem contingent of thousands, on the biggest of the anti-Iraq-War marches. Lib Dem Ed Davy, as Coalition Minister for Energy and Climate Change, gave a real boost to energy saving and progress toward a low carbon UK. He led the European Council of Ministers in their preparations for the 2015 Paris Summit, which resulted in the 195 nation agreement to cut Greenhouse emissions. Something his successors have yet (12rd Oct) to ratify. Lib Dems have been consistently and undividedly for the European Union. Now that the Government is committed to giving away our share of sovereignty over the EU, Steve hopes that we will be able to ensure that, when Government negotiates on trade, major parts of our UK sovereignty will not be transferred to transnational corporations. The Liberal Democrats have called for democratic input on any Brexit deal before irreversible decisions are made.