With the Warwickshire County Council elections taking place on Thursday 1 May, the Local Democracy Reporting Service spoke to each of the political parties vying for power at Shire Hall about why they should gain your vote.

Conservative leader of the council and councillor for Stour & the Vale, Izzi Seccombe, OBE, sets out her stall to return to power.

What are your policy priorities?

Our priorities are around supporting our economy. Businesses are feeling uncertain and under a degree of pressure at the moment but we have had a strong economy in Warwickshire and we want to make sure we make the most of that.

We want to look after the vulnerable people in the county. Trying to do that with less money from the government is a challenge but we are trying to be imaginative all the time, finding different ways of doing things.

Very often, finding a different way out of economic challenges can be a positive for people. That has certainly been proven in the past through the creation of extra care housing and the children's homes that we are now seeing emerge that are better for our children.

Overall, we want to ensure that our taxpayers get the best value for money. 

The council has well-documented financial pressures – how will your party fund its ambitions? 

We are always trying to find different ways. We have capital borrowings which we have tried to use to drive down the demand for services or reduce the revenue costs of those services, so spending money to save money in the long term. 

I have referred to the extra care housing and children's homes, we have rolled out those programmes because the private market place has called the shots. We needed to put some competition into that market place to get the best value for taxpayers and we have done that. 

It is also using capital spend where we can to bring income into the council. Growing our economy is not only a good thing to do for jobs and skills, it is the creation of business rates within the county.

We have a range of business units that we let for start-ups and grow-ons, which are always something like 98 per cent let. They have proved incredibly popular, and we are looking to expand that offer. It is good for business, and it is good for the council.

What does a vote for your party represent? 

Protecting the universal services that we have managed to maintain. It has been tough but we have managed to maintain a lot that are used by most people, things like country parks and libraries.

Fewer people use the services we provide for vulnerable people and for me, it is about protecting our universal services alongside that, ensuring that we hang on to as many of those as we possibly can. 

Change happens, I realise that, but we want to hold onto the things that we know our people value. 

Over the past 12 years, we have shut one library but opened another so we are in the same position. That is almost unique, certainly very rare, in the world of local government in the current climate. 

People want their local libraries, country parks, roads and highways and bus services to access various parts of the county.

What would success look like for your party? 

Returning as many Conservatives as we can so that we end up with an administration that we can run.

It is going to be tough. People have been well bruised by politics over the past few years. Largely it is national politicians that do us no favours and I recognise that I am not immune from all of my frustrations but I have to say, this election is about your local council. 

By and large, we have done a good job for taxpayers and we want to continue to do that. We need people to vote for us to ensure that continues to happen. 

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