Dear john,

Tomorrow voters across Blackpool North and Cleveleys will have the chance to shape the future of their community. It is local election time once more and I do not need to remind you how much is at stake.
 
You may think that more politics is not what anyone needs right now. We had three general elections in four years, let alone referendums and other local elections. Then we have had covid, and a cost-of-living crisis emerging from both that and the invasion of Ukraine. It would be understandable if people they have had more than enough to deal with.
 
So what can I say to persuade you to head to the polling station in and support the Conservatives? These are local elections and the outcome will determine how your local services are delivered and how investment is directed.
 
If you are voting in Blackpool, it is perhaps timely to remind you the council has been Labour-run for more than a decade. As your MP, I’ve worked hard to bring hundreds of millions of pounds of Government money that will help grow our economy, revive our town centre and create jobs and growth. No town has had its own cabinet sub-committee before, but thanks to the Conservatives, Blackpool has. 
 
Just think how much more we could deliver with a Conservative MP and Conservative-run council working side-by side.
 
With an exciting and ambitious agenda, we want to protect what makes Blackpool special whilst meeting the local challenges. Whether that is ensuring every child of primary school age will receive a free school meal, to using properly new anti-social behaviour powers to crack down on noise nuisance and get rid of problem tenants, to ending years of neglect, investing to tackle problem empty properties and turn them into new family homes.
 
Critically, unlike Labour, we will safeguard Blackpool’s parks, playgrounds and green spaces from the sort of scheme Labour tried to inflict on Stanley Park.
 
If you’re voting in Wyre, you will already be benefiting from the higher level of services and lower level of council tax delivered by a Conservative council.
Conservative-run Wyre is a well run Council offering value for money – and at a time when many worry about the levels of Council Tax, that really does matter.
 
It’s important that I as the MP have a strong team of councillors working with me in each ward as we achieve far more when we all pull together.
 
From expanding the medical centre in Thornton, driving extra capital investment into Cleveleys town centre, to progressing the reopening of the Fleetwood-Poulton line – all this has happened because of co-operation between MP and Councillors.
 
The alternative is actually not an alternative. It’s a Labour Council that wants to see eco-homes built on our remaining green spaces, and takes thousands of pounds from local developers like Storey Homes. I don’t want to wake up and find Cleveleys has merged into Fleetwood, Thornton into Poulton. That’s too big a risk to record a protest vote.
 
Wherever you are casting your vote tomorrow, I hope you will share my view that local government should always be about putting people first, and politics last. Yes, it comes into it at election time when you have a real choice – but it should never be what motivates us.
 
Please use your vote for Conservative candidates and for a Conservative Council which will cost you less, deliver more, and put your needs first.

Yours sincerely,


Paul Maynard MP
 
PS. Don’t leave it to someone else to vote as they may be leaving it to you.
 
PPS. Please remember to take your photo ID to the polling station, you won’t be able to vote without it