West Berks Lib Dems head for conference

11.17.51am BST (GMT +0100) Mon 10th Sep 2007

West Berkshire Lib Dems are heading off to conference at Brighton

Brighton is bracing itself for the arrival of thousands of Liberal Democrats for the party's conference next week and amongst those attending will be local councillors from West Berkshire.

Leading local campaigner and district councilor David Rendel will be taking his campaign team with him to conference to take part in the debates and brush up on their skills in training sessions.

Amongst those also going is Councillor Tony Vickers.

"The theme of our conference is the environment," said Councillor Vickers. "The big debates will focus on the need to cut down on pollution and to shift the burden of tax from income and onto greenhouse gas emissions.

"Our plans will mean national income tax will be cut from 20p to 16p in the pound and council tax will be scrapped. We will pay for these by shifting the tax burden onto the most polluting, gas-guzzling cars and onto aircraft that cause environmental damage.

"Over the next three weeks, people in West Berkshire will see all three party conferences in action. What is different about ours is that members take real decisions on policy. The Conservatives have discussions but no votes whilst at Labour conference, the Labour leadership either ignores votes or has stopped debates from taking place."