We have heard a lot from the politicians in Westminster saying that politics is broken in this country. The politics they are talking about their own bubble filled with Moats, dog food and flipping second homes. While interesting to them, they are overlooking the bread and butter issues for the people of Bucks.

Here in Buckinghamshire the Liberal Democrats, the youngest mainstream national party at 21 years of age, feel that in Bucks politics has been an unbroken record of 120 years of Conservative rule. The Liberal Democrat manifesto for the county council elections puts forward a major rethink on the way the local politics works in Bucks. Our manifesto delivers fairness, equality, liberty and community to all and is unambiguous, countywide yet local and can be delivered within our means.

The Liberal Democrats believe that financial prudence within our means is key to the success of Bucks in these hard pressed times. A Liberal Democrat administration would put the county council on a diet.

It’s a fat organisation that needs to be made thin. It carries nearly 500 job vacancies in county hall which will never be filled and for which budget has been set aside and has the same amount of staff as when Milton Keynes was part of Bucks. The Liberal Democrats would carry out a full review of posts and the financial position of the council and use the released funds to deliver real benefits and value for money to the taxpayer and residents.

Council tax has been going up year on year while inflation has plummeted and front line services have been cut to service a budget surplus of nearly £20m with the leader having a £3m personal fund at his disposal. The Liberal Democrats would use this money to reverse the 11% budget cuts in the Adult Social Care and Schools and Children’s Services budget where only £221m of the £472m budget actually goes to schools. This would enable us to create a personal learning fund for each individual child so that every child really matters to us no matter what their background.

We will carry out a review of transport policy delegating local transport decision to local people. We would introduce a freedom pass for teenagers across Bucks and introduce a free taxi pool service for senior citizens for medical appointments.

There are wasted millions spent on potholes and PR which it seems has been an exercise in throwing money in a black hole with £2.7m used on self advertising. We will tackle potholes and damaged footways without all the costs of PR.

We would introduce a freight strategy that would see for the first time rules to prevent lorries driving through our small villages, where possible, which would improve the lives of our residents, reduced wear and tear on rural roads and improve the lives of thousands of residents.

Finally waste management. We would work with district councils to deliver a county wide waste strategy that will reduce the miles waste has to travel and deliver an increase in recycling rates, making a real green change to Bucks.