New plans to help people in Waveney save and run community facilities

Peter Aldous has given his backing to the Conservatives new "Community Right to Buy" plans that would allow not for profit community groups across Waveney to take over the running of struggling local facilities, from post offices to pubs to parks.

Peter Aldous, the Conservative Parliamentary Candidate for Waveney, has given his backing to the Conservatives new "Community Right to Buy" plans that would allow not for profit community groups across Waveney to take over the running of struggling local facilities, from post offices to pubs to parks.

A feature of the past decade has been the alarming rate at which community facilities such as pubs and post offices have closed. This has had a disastrous effect on local communities, with both the loss of jobs and the loss of vital services to the most needy.

Pubs, which are over taxed and over regulated, continue to close at an alarming rate and Waveney has lost over a third of its post offices since 1999 (from 28 down to 18).

The Conservatives, recognising the vital role that such facilities provide, have set out proposals that will give people in Waveney the powers to protect community assets from closure and to take over the running of public buildings and community assets.

Under the Conservatives proposals:

• Community groups such as schools, churches or voluntary groups will be able to bid to take over the running of publicly owned community assets, if they can manage them more efficiently and effectively than the state.
• When a state owned community asset faces closure or being sold, voluntary groups will have a right of first refusal to buy that asset for a fair price and maintain it for community use. The new rights to community ownership will cover assets owned by central government and quangos, not just town halls.
• The radical "Community Right to Buy" will also allow community groups a first refusal to take over and run vital commercially- owned community assets when they shut down - for example, those post office, pubs and shops whose continued survival is of genuine importance to the local community.

Peter Aldous said: - "Under Labour, local neighbourhoods in Waveney and across the country have lost too many essential local services and facilities. Gordon Brown's Government has closed post offices and driven local pubs into the ground. People feel powerless to stop their communities losing access to vital services and facilities. Therefore the Conservatives will give bold new powers to people in Waveney to protect and improve vital community assets and preserve the social fabric of our neighbourhoods.