Green Boost For Liberal Democrats As St Albans Members Head For Annual Conference

12.00.00am BST (GMT +0100) Sat 15th Sep 2007

Sandy Walkington has 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.

Speaking at a meeting of St Albans Liberal Democrat members to discuss the policy motions being debated at this week's party conference in Brighton, Sandy Walkington, Liberal Democrat parliamentary candidate for St Albans, said the verdict of the green groups was a great boost for the party.

"This audit has confirmed what we have been saying in St Albans for many years," he said. "The other parties make great green claims, but the reality is that there is almost no substance in their rhetoric. I joined Friends of the Earth in 1973, the same year that I joined the Liberal Democrats. My politics and concern for the environment and sustainability have always gone hand in hand. I am proud that Liberal Democrats still lead the battle of ideas for protecting the environment and cutting the pollution people cause.

"The ground-breaking Smallford eco-house and the council's green travel plans are all further evidence of our commitment to achieving hard results.

"At our conference next week we will be debating national policies 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.

"And we will discuss our plans for cutting income tax by 4p in the pound to 16p, paid for by shifting more of the tax burden onto pollution."

ENDS

For more information, please call Sandy Walkington on 07802 177317