Read more at KentOnline.
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00Well one party that certainly did put its big beast out in quite a bizarre way
00:03was the Liberal Democrats and we've got a look now at Ed Davies' visit to Kent
00:08as part of his adventurous campaign. We'll see that now.
00:12Oliver what can you tell us from today?
00:16Honestly Abby I should be in Victor's sport for the amount I ran around today chasing off the Liberal
00:20Democrat leader and his parliamentary candidate and it is, and although he
00:24did stumble a bit throughout his obstacle course here, lots of running
00:29around on his part, he did bounce back a bit like the polls have bounced back in
00:33Liberal Democrats' favour earlier this week when they launched their campaign.
00:36They saw an increase in their point percentage, a vote share in some polls at
00:40YouGov earlier this week when they launched their campaign which sees a lot about green
00:45spaces being mentioned. Obviously as you see around me on a very rainy day in
00:49Tunbridge Wells, lots of greenery and it is a very rural county. We are part of
00:54the Greenbelt here and also an area of natural beauty, the High Weald area of
01:00natural beauty in fact. So wildlife, housing, big issues as well as access to
01:07green spaces. But we have heard in this local area just near Bewell Water about
01:12campsites being a disruption to local wildlife and I put that to Ed. Is his
01:18party doing enough to bridge the gap between recreation and conservation?
01:24I think it's a really important balance to strike and the way you do it is you work with the local community, you work with the
01:30environmental experts. I think it really is important that people have greater
01:34access to green spaces. The Liberal Democrats take a very different approach
01:38which should really reassure people worried about the Greenbelt. We take a
01:41community-led approach, so the community is very much at the heart of that and it
01:46means that you deal with the infrastructure issues, whether it's social
01:49infrastructure or the physical infrastructure at the same time and you
01:52get the housing community needs. Where our approach has been applied in this
01:56country and elsewhere, it's been fantastic. It's produced great quality
02:01housing but in places that mean the environment can still be protected. This
02:06is possible but not under the Conservatives approach where developers
02:10hold all the power. It's not just about the manifesto here. Obviously he's here
02:19on behalf of his parliamentary candidate, Mike Martin. Tunbridge Wells is a target seat.
02:23They're hoping to bridge the gap with some of those Conservative voters who have
02:27voted Conservative for a long time. Neil Mahapatra has recently come out as a
02:33local candidate in the profile to the KM, slightly critical of Rishi Sunak in it
02:38and it's going to be a tightly fought contest. There's very little in it and I
02:43asked Mike Martin earlier today if he's the right man for the job to turn that
02:47polling gap around. Some polls are saying that the Conservatives are
02:52slightly ahead of the Lib Dems. Other polls are saying the Lib Dems are
02:55slightly ahead of the Conservatives. All of this is less than 1%. It's within the
02:59margin of error. Basically Tunbridge Wells is too close to call. It's neck and
03:04neck. You've got two choices. You can vote Tory or you can vote Lib Dem. None of the
03:08other parties can win and no matter who you are in Tunbridge Wells, most people
03:14look at that choice and think that they want change, they want a fresh start and
03:17a fresh start in Tunbridge Wells means voting Lib Dem.
03:21Oliver, thank you very much for all the latest.