I NORMALLY like to offer sincere congratulations to the winning candidate in a New Forest District Council by-election. Sadly, I cannot do so in the case of the recent battle between the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats in the Fawley, Langley, Blackfield and Calshot division.

One expects glossy leaflets, with the local MP shaking hands, and a ringing endorsement of the Conservative candidate. However, the Tories were so desperate to hold the seat that they have now resorted to frightening older voters with outright lies and even wasting police time to pull off political stunts.

The Tory literature claimed that voting for the Lib Dem candidate would mean the loss of the weekly waste collection system. This has never been Lib Dem policy. In any event, with a Tory majority of 56 members on a 60 seat council, how could three Lib Dem Councillors impose it, even if we wanted it?

The same is true of the council tax claim. It is Lib Dem policy to reduce council tax (in much the same way as the Lib Dems manage things at Eastleigh). However, the Conservatives claimed that a Lib Dem vote would mean a rise in council tax. I know that a lot of elderly people were conned into voting for the Tory candidate this time around, because they have told us so.

Quite apart from distorting our policies, they portrayed our candidate as having committed a criminal offence, by using the device of reporting him to the police, for no other reason than his home address is some 15 miles away from the ward he seeks to represent. The fact that their own candidate lives 13 miles away did not stop them from wasting police time. This was an outrageous action and represents a new low for the Tory party who, it seems will sink to any depth to maintain a monopoly of power at all levels of government,

Cllr David Harrison

Leader, New Forest District Liberal Democrats