Green boost for Liberal Democrats

12.00.00am UTC (GMT +0000) Fri 21st Sep 2007

LIBERAL Democrats from Eastleigh have welcomed the results of an audit of policies of the three main political parties that shows Menzies Campbell's party as the best for the environment.

The audit was carried out by a group of major environmental organisations, including Friends of the Earth, Greenpeace, the National Trust, the RSPB, the Woodland Trust and WWF-UK.

It awarded the parties "green lights" according to how green their policies were. The Conservatives scored zero, Labour one and the Liberal Democrats three.

Local MP Chris Huhne has been a key figure in shaping these policies as Liberal Democrat Shadow Spokesman for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.

He said 'We are the only party with comprehensive, fully costed proposal for tackling climate change across all sectors. At conference we passed motions backing proposals for Zero Carbon Britain. I am heartened that our policies have been recognised by the Green Alliance as being way ahead of the other parties."

"We have also passed plans that will put us even further ahead of Labour and the Conservatives. These include plans to shift more people from domestic flights to a greatly improved high speed rail system. Our green tax switch proposals will allow us to cut income tax by 4p in the pound to 16p, paid for by shifting more of the tax burden onto pollution."

"This audit has confirmed what we have been saying in Eastleigh for many years," said Chris Huhne. Liberal Democrats are leading the battle to protect the environment for future generations.

This week Eastleigh council won a Valpak recycling award for its community education project in Pilands Wood, Bursledon. Two years ago Eastleigh received the award for being the best council in the South East on Sustainable Energy.

Chris Huhne said 'The hard work of Louise Bloom and my Liberal Democrat colleagues on the council, is paying off. The Combined Heat and Power Plant is now fully functioning supplying electricity and hot water to Eastleigh's Leisure Centre and hot water to the Civic Offices. The Liberal Democrats are raising the green stakes across the country and here in Eastleigh'