We are reaching out to all candidates in our constituency ahead of the Scottish Parliament election on Thursday 7 May. We are sharing our Manifesto for Larkhall and asking the candidates to support our town with the challenges and opportunities ahead of us.
Alexandra Herdman is the Scottish Conservative candidate.
Click here to watch videos with the candidates who have met with us so far.
Will you support communities when large organisations like banks make decisions that impact communities?
Obviously it’s a real shame that the last bank closed in Larkhall. The problem is that there is no mechanism and so being able to find solutions is absolutely the way that we need to go. It’s a private business, you can’t stop things like this unfortunately. But there is always going to be an alternative solution that will be able to help people, such as a community banking hub. So I’m absolutely a huge advocate for keeping going until there is a solution is a solution that suits everybody.
Will you help to improve our parks and open spaces?
Green spaces have been proven to improve people’s mental health as well as their physical health. I am a real supporter of improving what we have.
In my own village, as part of a group, I was able to improve our park, which is now gone from something that was from, I think, the 50s to this fantastic brand new park, which the local children are absolutely thriving by using. So anything that we can do to create plans, to raise funding, to raise awareness, is definitely really important. And I will do everything that I can from my learning experience of getting the park over the line and getting that built this year.
I also recognise that healthcare really has been taking a big hit so anything that we can do to mitigate health problems at the offset is actually even more important. We are lucky to be surrounded by so much green space and I think that accessing it is sometimes the issue. People just don’t know how and where and what’s there and perhaps a little bit more knowledge on the countryside code.
So yes it’s all really important and I’m really glad that you have got that on your focus and it’s clear that if that’s been mentioned by the people of Larkhall that that’s really important to them and again I’ll be fighting for that.
Will you support long-term, sustainable funding for the third sector?
Multi-year funding settlements are absolutely vital for multiple services, but it is always the third sector and the volunteer world that really gets hit the hardest when funding stops. I’ve been a volunteer over many years, I understand the complexities and difficulties within the world of volunteering and it is hard for people to continue to give their time when resources continue to be reduced and reduced.
I would do absolutely everything I can to support the third sector. Without the third sector, our societies would be completely worse off because of the amazing work that they do. So anything that I can do to help with that, 100% I’m for.
Will you support our employability project in Larkhall to help people into work?
One of the best ways to boost both the national and local economy is through employment and jobs provide the best opportunity for the local economy to grow and to bloom. Employability services are an extremely important part of that. There are people with multiple issues that will be preventing them from accessing and getting employment. So, yes, anything that we can do to help people into work and to support families who need it I would be very very much in support of.
Do you support strengthening community councils to improve local democracy?
The Scottish Conservatives are generally much more in favour of local decision making and devolved powers. To be honest we’ve just seen a more centralised government over recent years from the SNP centralising powers. So local decision making for local people so if that was to take form through different powers for community councils I’m sure that would be a really sensible solution. But there are also other ways of devolving more and more local powers and giving more decision making so anything that we can do for people of Larkhall to have more control over what happens with their local area, I’m absolutely all for it.
Will you fight to improve our roads and pavements?
In the Scottish Conservative Manifesto, potholes and funding for them has been a key priority. Potholes are such an issue both for private car users and for businesses and so improving them and getting the roads resurfaced is vitally important.
Safe pavements for both pedestrians and for other road users, having safe access to pavements, and safe curbside accessibility for your delivery drivers so that everybody is able to access the high streets and the local areas without danger, is vitally important. So, yes, I will do everything that I can to ensure that this is a key priority and funding is available for it.
Is there anything else you’d like to add about Larkhall or our manifesto?
I just want to say thank you for the work that you’ve done in gathering the evidence and the surveys. If there’s one thing I know, you can’t really get anything done with government or decision makers without an evidence base so just well done to all of you for putting that together and putting this manifesto together.
South Lanarkshire is a fantastic place. We’ve got so much opportunity around us And so being able to liaise with a great organisation like this who is obviously working at the heart of the local community of Larkhall, I will be delighted to be able to do that if elected on the 7th of May.