Council elections: Labour launch youth manifesto in bid to attract young voters

As well as post election pledges, the party in Falkirk released a Youth Manifesto with promises of what the party will do for young people including appointing a Child and Young Person’s Champion, bringing them into decision making; tackling mental health problems and investing in opportunities for young people.

The Youth Manifesto is believed to be the first of its kind in the country.

Local members were joined by Labour MSP Richard Leonard as they set out their plans for a Labour-led Falkirk Council.

He said the manifestos showed a group of candidates who, if elected, would “think big and act radical”.

He added: “ From now until May 5, the SNP will keep quiet about independence. If elected you will hear nothing else. But this election is not about the constitution it is about who runs our local services. £200 million has been stolen from the people of Falkirk. As we come out of the pandemic we need more investment not cuts getting deeper.”

The candidates were told the manifestos had been drawn up after consultation with members, with trade unions and with affiliated organisation and had a focus on wealth building instead of cash cuts, job creation instead of job losses and a commitment to new ways of thinking instead of the tired old politics of division.

Labour Group leader Robert Bissett said: “We must move away from the disastrous Tory and SNP austerity policies coming out of Westminster and Holyrood and accepted so readily by SNP and Tory councillors here.

“Labour-led councils like North Ayrshire in Scotland with its council-owned renewable energy and other innovative schemes and Preston down south where community wealth building is being shown to work, have led the way.

“We will look to them as examples of how we can turn Falkirk around. Our candidates offer the chance of a forward-looking mix of enthusiastic young people dedicated to their communities and experienced activists who have shown their commitment to getting the best for local people.”

“We need to invest in our town centres and work with businesses to attract people to them. But that doesn’t need a £45 million spend, costing us an extra £1 million a year for half a century, on an SNP vanity project. Hypocritically they claim this is about saving jobs. At the same time they’ve overseen hundreds cut from the local authority workforce and, as a result of their latest Tory-supported budget, more to come.

“The SNP want to make this an election issue. We believe the public sees through their tactics. This was the wrong project, in the wrong place at the wrong time. The cost would have multiplied the cuts to community facilities we are seeing across our communities, stripping our villages and small towns of the facilities they need.

The Falkirk manifesto can be found at here and the youth manifesto here

Labour candidates are: Bo’ness and Blackness - David Aitchison; Grangemouth - Alan Nimmo; Denny and Banknock - Alf Kelly and James Marshall; Carse, Kinnaird and Tryst - Margaret Anslow; Bonnybridge and Larbert – Jack Redmond; Falkirk North - Robert Bissett and Robbie Burgess; Falkirk South - Euan Stainbank; Lower Braes - Anne Hannah; Upper Braes - Siobhan Paterson