00:00Reform UK has gained the Skegness Urban District Society in the latest announcement ahead of the Lincolnshire County Council elections in May.
00:11Danny, there's been speculation for a few weeks that SUDs were moving over to Reform UK.
00:19You've now announced that this is so. Can you tell me why?
00:26Well, the political landscape is changing now and a local party is going to have less power.
00:32So if you want to have more power for the residents of our area, then we need to get a seat at the bigger table.
00:38We've now found a national party that actually aligns with our views, which we've not had in the past.
00:46So now we feel that we can align with those and they support Lincolnshire like we do.
00:53Now, when you formed in 2018, you were very clear that you were non-political and you wanted to fight for local people
01:03and against the assets that had been taken away from the town to fight for those, try and get some back.
01:11Do you think you've been able to achieve any of that during your time?
01:17We've achieved a lot. I mean, we've kept the council tax down in Skegness, well below the levels that it was in previous years.
01:24But like I say, a lot of the stuff that we want to achieve is you need to be on the county council to achieve these sort of things.
01:32And the only way to get elected onto county council is if you're in a bigger party, so to speak,
01:37because local parties are great for the local area, but you can't have the say or the power to actually change things.
01:46Now, you are standing against Councillor Colin Davie in the county council elections in the Inghamalls rural ward.
01:56He is a local and he has been one of, as you know, you must be aware of, biggest critics during the past few years.
02:08What would you say to him now?
02:11Well, he's been a critic of us because he doesn't like anyone unless they're in the Conservative Party.
02:17Well, unfortunately, times change. The political landscape changes.
02:22And, you know, people year after year, decade after decade have seen what the Conservative County Council has done to our area.
02:31The roads are riddled with potholes. There's no bypasses coming in.
02:36And, you know, people have had enough and they want change. And that's why we're offering change.
02:43Is this the end of Suds?
02:46It's the end of Suds right now because we're aligning with a bigger party and that bigger party will give us more power to do what we want to do.
02:56And so the residents are still going to get the same representation as they've always had.
03:02But we've now got the big brother party looking after us. So, yeah, I think Suds will finish, but reform will continue.
03:13It's always been a huge honour to serve the people in the area I was born into.
03:19I'm always respectful of the way people feel about life and society.
03:27I know people are very unhappy at the moment with the way the direction of travel of their country in particular.
03:34They expressed that last year, but that doesn't change anything.
03:38We now have a government which is, I would say, extreme. And that's probably being kind.
03:46I think it is a government that hates Lincolnshire and places like Lincolnshire.
03:51It is a government that hates the countryside and hates the fact that we have farming as one of our key things.
04:00Farming has been under attack like I've never seen any sector attacked before.
04:05It's a disgrace.
04:08And obviously we are inundated with pylons, solar farms, substations and all the other rubbish of Ed Miliband's Net Zero campaign.
04:19So people don't feel happy, but elections on May 1st are about local issues.
04:27The mayor or the councillor is not going to change the government's position on immigration or on any of the big national issues.
04:37What you're doing is voting for people who are going to fight and stand up for the local community and have a clear plan to do so.
04:45Four years ago, when we had elections last time, Conservatives on the county council had a very clear manifesto.
04:53We talked about what we're going to do, how we're going to do it, and what areas would be protected and what areas we would look for savings in.
05:02Simply because you cannot propose to do something without justifying how you're going to do it.
05:08So the problem in local elections, most political parties, and I know this will be the case with my friends at Suds and Stednest who are now becoming reform,
05:16they'll just talk about the national issues and expect everyone to jump on the Nigel Farage bandwagon.
05:22That isn't the answer. The answer is how are you going to manage the council so you set council tax as low as possible.
05:29We are in a cost of living crisis. We've set one of the lowest council tax rates in the country this year.
05:34We're one of the lowest council tax areas in the UK because we manage things well.
05:39We have our own department of government efficiency. We've taken over £400 million in savings out of the council in the last decade.
05:48That money has been reinvested into supporting the services that people rely on.
05:53We have a massive elderly population on the coast.
05:56Our care bill alone, the care costs of the council cover £280 million a year.
06:03That has to be done. We can't leave vulnerable people on their own. We have to support them.
06:09And we do so very well. Education is an excellent service.
06:13Most of our services are graded good or outstanding.
06:16We're fixing more miles of road now than we've ever done.
06:20And we're fixing them in a better way than we've ever done.
06:22There's always more to be done. But the answer is, you know, I'm very happy to debate publicly with any political party.
06:31But I want to debate on what they're going to do and how they're going to do it.
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