In the current economic climate we are all having to make savings to keep up with the many bills which each household is facing.  On a national level, the Government is taking action to address the £1.1 trillion black hole which represents the legacy that my Party inherited form the former Labour Government after 13 years.

However, such is the extent of our public sector net debt that we are still adding around £120 billion each year in the form of an annual budget deficit.  Despite necessary cuts in Government Departments, not only is our nation’s bank account in overdraft each and every month, but we are also calling up our bank manager to increase it on a regular basis.

Now other political parties talk about ‘austerity’ and suggest that this is all unnecessary; that we can develop an alternative route to strong economic growth.  Whilst I have no doubt that they are sincere in their convictions, I cannot subscribe to the Keynesian model which Ed Miliband picked up at university and through his years in the public sector working for the likes of Gordon Brown.

The idea that we can simply spend our way out of economic difficulty holds no sway for me.  It reminds me of watching Labour politicians stand up at the dispatch box between 1997 and 2010 and talk about ‘investment’.  It made me angry because I knew that this was not investment of any kind, it was high public spending which was borrowed, or as many of us remember, outrageously financed by selling off our nation’s gold reserves at the bottom of the market – what do you expect when you tell the proverbial Gordon Gekko of our intention to sell the day before!

Now we have the Labour Party showing its true colours once again.  Ed Miliband talks about ‘short term borrowing’ to finance his extortionate spending commitments which will supposedly pay for themselves across the ‘medium term’ should Labour ever be in charge and in Government again.  I have got some news for you Ed; we are still waiting on this return on our ‘investment’ from the end of the 1990’s!  Whilst on the subject of Ed Miliband, the next time he visits our lovely City he should look at the top of the Hill – there is a Cathedral and hence I hope the local Labour Party point out to our visitor from Doncaster that we are a City not a town!

The Labour Leader visited Lincoln ahead of last week’s election results, which saw us lose some of our valuable Councillors who have put in a tremendous amount of effort and time during their terms to make their communities a better place to live in.  As is often the case with local elections, they bore the brunt of the electorate’s ire – the c.25% who voted – and unfortunately took the opportunity to register a protest against central Government.

However, rather than opposing deficit reduction (as evidenced by the relatively few number of gains for Labour), voters were concerned that Westminster politicians, or at least those in power, have moved away from traditional conservative values.  The reluctance to provide for an earlier EU referendum and the side-lining of religious beliefs when the Coalition introduced plans for same-sex marriages illustrate this shift; and I hope that the Leader of my Party, the Prime Minister, and those around him, recognise the need to return to our core values and our wide range of supporters – we are proudly a ‘broad-church’ Party.  I for one will continue to raise these issues when he meets with me and other representatives of the 1922 Committee Executive and at the other opportunities that present themselves.

I am not going to suggest for one moment that the path to economic recovery is going to be easy and the Conservative Party is certainly not going to try and sell you a quick fix like the other political parties; however I am going to promise the people in my constituency and the City of Lincoln that we can come out of this economic situation if we stay the course, and maintain our commitment to balance our nation’s finances – with our Party showing it’s own true colours once again, doing the best it can for our Country.

Today, elections will be held in 34 local authorities in England including for all 77 seats at Conservative-controlled Lincolnshire County Council.

Over the last several weeks, in anticipation of today’s local elections, I have spent many evenings and weekends with Conservative Council candidates knocking on doors and speaking to voters.  The economic downturn and the measures the current Conservative-led Government has had to take to deal with the largest budget deficit in the G20, bequeathed to us by the previous Labour Government, are not an ideal backdrop for fighting a local County Council election.  This evening it all comes to fruition.

The last four years have been very tough for the people of Lincolnshire while the nation remains in the grip of a prolonged and severe economic downturn.  The Conservative-controlled County Council has played its part in reducing the national annual borrowing requirement inherited from the previous Labour Government.  The County Council has already indentified and delivered savings of £125 million as it plays its part in restoring our nation’s finances.

At the same time as finding these savings, we must remain committed to protecting important frontline services, securing improvements, championing Lincolnshire’s economy and culture, as well as keeping our Council Tax low.

In the past four years, on the whole, my Conservative colleagues have delivered all of their 2009 manifesto commitments, and have promoted debate on issues that matter to us locally in Lincolnshire such as wind turbine proliferation, coastal defences for both residents and our farmland, and a referendum on Britain’s relationship with the European Union.  All of which have an important bearing on our quality of life.

To rise to future challenges we will have to become even more efficient and innovative.  We must also be open minded about different ways of providing services at the same time as protecting and enhancing them.  For me, the current leadership at Lincolnshire County Council are doing an outstanding job for all of the people in our County.  I especially am thankful that in my first three years as a Conservative Member of Parliament, the Conservatives at Lincolnshire County Council have helped deliver improvements in many areas of our City. Our highways in and around the City are a priority and the County Council have helped tremendously with the campaign to ensure we have an Eastern Bypass joining up with the southern section to the western bypass. The County Council are funding an East-West link road to join our two flyovers south of the railway line in the City Centre to ease congestion and also provide a solution to enable suitable footbridges to be feasibly constructed on both the High Street and Brayford Wharf East level crossings.  I hope to continue working closely with the Conservatives on Lincolnshire County Council to achieve much more like the £17m improvements to the Castle and ensuring we retain local services such as the Lincoln Prison when under threat from other agencies’ decisions.

Elections are by their very nature are, of course, politically tribal affairs – that is the essence and reality of democracy.  The political parties contesting the local elections have different views about the past and different proposed policies for the future.  All of the candidates taking part, certainly for the mainstream parties, are, I feel, similar in at least one crucial respect: they all want to improve their local community and the quality of the lives of the people living in their community.  As a former Parish Councillor, Borough Council Candidate, a school governor at various schools, a magistrate since 1999, a former Board Member of Lincolnshire Drainage Boards and, of course, a Member of Parliament, this sense of public duty is one that I entirely understand and share. Our County of Lincolnshire has a proud history of public duty from its elected citizens who all deserve our respect – as do those who put themselves forward for election to such positions.

It was King George IV who once said: “The highest of distinctions is service to others.”  Each of the candidates standing in today’s elections in Lincolnshire would like to serve the people in their local community, and our County.  I would urge everybody who has the opportunity to vote today, to do so, for whichever Party.  It isn’t too much to ask.

Transport is arguably the central issue that impacts most, often detrimentally, on the lives of my City of Lincoln constituents, businesses and organisations in our City and many people in the rest of Lincolnshire too.  In this column, I thought I would update readers on some of the particular transport issues that I and my colleagues at Lincolnshire County Council have been working on, along with the City Council and others.

The rail level crossing that dissects Lincoln High Street is the cause of a great deal of concern.  This is particularly the case in respect of Network Rail’s proposal to increase the current 20-23 minutes per hour the barriers are down each day to 40+ minutes per hour so that long freight trains can pass slowly through our beautiful City.  Such an increase in barrier down time will not benefit anyone in Lincoln at all. I have been seeking to persuade Network Rail, even long before I was elected to Parliament, that the Lincoln High Street Level Crossing requires more appropriate timings, as well as a re-instatement of a ‘fit-for-purpose’ pedestrian footbridge.  I will carry on working closely with Network Rail and other elected representatives of the City and County Councils, and their officers, to ensure that constructive engagement on behalf of my constituents continues and progresses towards a positive conclusion in the near future, not least ideally for Network Rail to re-examine their plans for so much freight to pass by rail through our City.

I know many of my constituents in, and visitors to, Lincoln will be pleased to learn that planning permission for the footbridge at the Brayford Wharf Level Crossing has now been granted.  This is great news and will help to reduce risks at this crossing for pedestrians.  I also understand that Network Rail are further progressing negotiations with owners of some buildings at the High Street location to allow them to proceed with planning permission applications and ultimately a footbridge at that location also.  This has been a long time coming and I believe it was only through the tenacity of my actions and questions raising the safety aspects of a busy level crossing in the heart of our City that has led Network Rail to spend a considerable sum of their budget in alleviating the problems Network Rail actions have wrought upon our City.   The Lindumgate proposal is a Co-operative and others’ development initiative and I gather, whilst being developed over a good few years, is now also likely to be realised imminently.  The proposal brings the bus station and train station together and includes a footbridge over the railway to the east of the station.

Another real area of concern is Lincoln’s direct rail links to London, and cross country to other towns and Cities.  There has for many years been a lack of credible, reasonably fast, direct train services from Lincoln to London.  Under the last Labour Government, the City of Lincoln was promised seven daily trains to-and-from London.  Sadly, this promise was not brought to fruition.

It is economically imperative that we have more direct trains for the growth and sustainability of our local economy.  Lincoln is one of the fastest growing cities in the UK, with successful and fast growing higher education facilities, a strong small business community combined with expertise in manufacturing and agri-food, and plans for significant housing and economic growth in the medium term.  All these positives could be further enhanced by more regular daily and weekend direct services to our capital City.  Chester is a City similar in many ways to Lincoln, and their economy has seen no stagnation during recent years, just strong growth, felt in part by many to be due to the advent of regular quick and direct rail services to and from London, despite the closeness of Crewe.  To achieve the same level of service to Lincoln that Chester enjoys would be a wonderful boost for the City, County and business and organisations such as Siemens, Dynex, the University and many others.

Now that private companies have been invited to bid for the East Coast rail franchise, I will be urging the Government over the coming weeks and months to give very careful consideration to the proposed number of direct, reasonably fast train services between Lincoln and London when deciding which services should be specified within the latest version of the franchise.  We need to ensure that there is appropriate capacity available, ultimately with such factors as Lincoln’s connectivity playing a part in the decision as to which company should eventually win the franchise.

Finally, the Conservative-led Government’s announcement that the Lincoln Eastern Bypass has finally been given the go-ahead is fantastic news for my constituents in the City of Lincoln as well as for the people of Lincolnshire and the East Midlands.  It seems that, all being well, the building of the Bypass is likely to be completed in 2016/17.  This decision owes much to the unceasing work of both officers and elected Members at Lincolnshire County Council over many years and the unwavering support of many organisations and business representatives in the City, including the various administrations of the City Council.  It was at one point a possibility that this project would fall off the list of those infrastructure projects being considered for Government funding, and that would have lead to further delays as had been experienced under a Labour Government for 13 years.  I am proud that, with the support of so many in our City and County, I was able to lead the campaign to ensure the Department of Transport knew of the need and sound business case that backed up the requirement for Lincoln to have an Eastern (and Southern) Bypass.

After 13 years of a Labour Government that consistently failed to deliver the transport network and infrastructure our City, County and Region need and deserve, we have, at last, a Conservative-led Government  that is listening to, and delivering for, the people of Lincoln and Lincolnshire.  Long may that continue and that the people of our County can enjoy the benefits that such improvements bring.