As part of The Gazette’s coverage of this May’s all-out elections, we are giving each of the political parties standing in Basingstoke a chance to make their case to you, the voters, in their own words.

This week, you can read about the manifestos of Labour, Liberal Democrats, the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition, and the Women’s Equality Party.

Here, Labour leader Andy McCormick writes about his plans should Labour win power.

They are currently the second largest party on the council.

Our top priority is to breathe new life into our local economy, following a 10% contraction in 2020 due to the pandemic. We will work with all partners and parties to draw up a Town Centre Rescue Plan.

We will support the Anvil and Haymarket, and the amateur productions that use them, reversing any theatre grant cuts proposed this year by the current administration.

We support Basingstoke Town Community FC returning to the Camrose. We also support the ice users and will pursue all options open to keep ice in Basingstoke.

We will restore our 5-year housing supply to help protect our outlying greenfield sites from opportunistic development. We will commit to at least 40% affordable housing on all new builds.

We will push for the highest possible environmental standards for new builds.

We want to keep our NHS public, not privatised with bits sold off to the USA. We want to see a surgery in every estate or adjoining estate in Basingstoke. We want a duty doctor in every surgery, and an end to patients having to travel miles to go to multiple surgeries.

We will establish a local health scrutiny panel.

We will aim for at least 90% of all school pupils to be able to go to school on foot or by bicycle instead of getting lifts or using buses. Every local school should be a good school.

We want to see a massive improvement in pedestrian and cycle provision so that more people can go to work, school, or access local services under their own steam and not have to use the car.

We want regular, affordable bus services serving not just the town centre but out-of-town hubs such as the hospital, leisure park, and our district centres such as Chineham, Brighton Hill, Tadley, Overton and Whitchurch.

We are committed to making Basingstoke and Deane Carbon neutral by 2030, helping people switch to electric cars, install solar panels, better insulation and zero-carbon alternatives to gas boilers. Massive investment in charging points and making all the council buildings carbon neutral. We will also champion local renewable electricity generation schemes.

We aim to radically transform our recycling, aiming for zero waste and a cyclic economy, as is starting to happen in Denmark.

We will push for more police to tackle crime.

We will commit to ending violence in the work place, especially against shop workers.

Andy McCormick, Basingstoke Labour leader