THE leader of Gloucestershire Liberal Democrats says the party is "very optimistic" going into next month's county council elections following two Cotswold by-election wins.

In September and February the Lib Dems won two seats on Cotswold District Council (CDC) representing Stow-on-the-Wold and Fairford North.

With the party bidding to take control of GCC in the May 4 elections, they released their manifesto last Friday (March 24).

"Our view is they've [the Conservative administration] failed,” said Cllr Paul Hodgkinson, leader of Gloucestershire Lib Dems.

“12 years is enough time to make your mark to change things and they haven't,” he said, adding: “The tide's turning.”

The Lib Dem mantra is "getting the county back on track" and the party's three main priorities are fixing the roads, boosting the economy and improving health services.

Wilts and Gloucestershire Standard:

Cllr Paul Hodgkinson

GCC's contract with highways managers Amey runs out later this summer and Cllr Hodgkinson said: "We want to see a change."

He said "one of the options would be to bring everything back in house" but that all options need to be considered before "rubberstamping an extension to the existing roads contract".

Replacing faded white lines on a particularly notorious stretch on the A429 took 15 months after it was reported, said Cllr Hodgkinson.

"That emphasises to me that we've got to cut through all this bureaucracy."

There will also be a dedicated budget for pavement fixing, while more pressure is to be put on the government regarding the A417 Missing Link, as well as a bigger emphasis on road safety, if the Lib Dems win the election, he said.

In order to boost the county's economy, Cllr Hodgkinson said the Lib Dems "want to try and boost its identity and sell it throughout the country and the world”.

"It does tend to fall between the gaps of the South West and the Midlands.

“People don't know much about Gloucestershire,” he said.

"The other issue is it kind of lags behind some of the rest of southern England when it comes to things like productivity levels.

“We want to attract businesses into the area.”

Referring to the party’s aim to improve health services, Cllr Hodgkinson said: “There’s massive pressure on social services and that in turn puts a huge pressure on the NHS."

“All the time I come across cases where someone is in hospital, they've had their treatment, the NHS actually want to get them back home, they can't get them back home because the social care isn't in place when they're back home. It's a Catch-22.

“You have to have the two services linked up better so we can get people out of hospital when the treatment's done, which frees up hospital beds, takes the pressure off.”

He went on to say: “We will also help vulnerable people by joining up health and social care services and invest in young people’s mental health.”

Visit gloslibdems.org.uk for the full manifesto.