Conservative Council Candidates Manifesto:

• No inflation-busting council tax rises - We pledge not to increase the borough council's council tax precept by more than 2.9% or the rate of retail price inflation, whichever is lowest, for the next financial year. The Canvey Island Independent Party run Canvey Island Town Council have previously increased their council tax precept by over 4%. Another reason not to let a Canvey Island Independent dominated independent coalition not to run be in charge of setting your council tax next year!
• Protect front-line services - Councils across the country are facing tight budgets. We will work with other councils to cut costs and share back-office services to ensure there is no compromise in the quality of the front-line services we rely on every day. We will also work to transform and improve revenue generation from the Council's commercial assets and to secure more grants from the Government and other sources for specific projects.  Services like bin collection, council housing, leisure and environmental health will be protected under the Conservatives.
• Keep the Council's books balanced - For every year the Conservatives controlled the Council we presented a balanced council budget every year despite restricted funding. Neither of the Independent parties have pledged to protect front-line services and want to spend your hard-earned taxpayers money on vanity projects like looking into the feasibility of building a lido by the graveyard at Woodside. With every council facing increasing costs, it is more important than ever to balance the books and prioritise frontline services.

• Making council business more transparent and accessible - We will make council business of the council more accessible to residents and reform the Council's constitution to ensure more decisions come before elected representatives and are not made by council employees. We will also publicly publish attendance figures for Councillors at council meetings and committees quarterly so you can batter hold your Councillors to account.
• Bring back the establishment of an Investigatory and Disciplinary Committee for Senior Officers to another vote - The Peoples Independent Party and the Canvey Island Independent party prevented the establishment of cross-party disciplinary, investigation and appeals committees for Senior Council Officers by voting in block against it and pledging to boycott the committees at a council meeting in November. We believe it is right that complaints against senior officers should be heard and decided by members and that it should be done in a fair and transparent way. We believe this was fundamentally undemocratic and that elected officials should have a fair and transparent mechanism to hold Senior Officers to account. We will bring the establishment of the committees back to a vote of the full council as soon as possible and seek the support of individual independent councillors rather than their party leadership.