On Thursday 8 April we held a hustings event at Chester Skills Development Centre. We invited Christine Russell (Labour) Stephen Mosley (Conservative) and Rob Jordan (Liberal Democrats) to be on the panel.
The aim of the meeting was for service users to ask questions and get answers from the panel to help them to decide who to vote for in General Election on 6 May. Questions put to the panel covered international, national and local issues as well as questions on disability both personal to the questioner and environmental. I asked the panel what the difference between their party and the others was on local issues while Gary Fisher asked why Chester no longer had a football team or theatre.
Christine replied, “I think it is really sad that Chester does not have a football club, and we should get behind the Chester football fans with a view to starting a new club." She also felt that the Gateway theatre needs to be refurbished and should be reopened. Stephen's reply was: “If we were to open the Gateway theatre if would cost £300,000 as it does not comply with Disability Discrimination Act 2005.” Rob added, “I was on the committee when the decision was made to close the Gateway after a lot of performances were cancelled." He added it was a cross-party decision to close it.
Karen Doyle's question to the candidates was how they would improve the access in Chester City centre for disabled people. Stephen replied, "Central Government had said we were spending too much money on the roads." Rob added that he used to work for the council and was told by the council to stop brushing the streets to save money on the budget. Christine added that the local council had been given £1.5m to fix the potholes around the city by the Department of Transport.
Rob Lowe asked about the Afghan war while Wendy Howarth wondered how the panel might go about monitoring and enforcing the Disabil-ity Discrimination Act. Liz Evans asked how the image of politicians might be improved given the recent scandals over expenses and lobbying for cash and Lucinda Roberts from Scope HQ in London asked what the panel could do to remove the barriers to disabled people who want to stand for election?
Liz Evans said, “I really enjoyed meeting the politicians and being part of the debate.”
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