Buses, policing and schools top agenda at student hustings
Local elections candidates told college students their top priorities should they be elected.
Improving bus services, tackling knife crime and providing better schools are among the key local issues highlighted by candidates hoping to secure residents’ votes at next week’s local elections.
City of Portsmouth College hosted a hustings on Friday (April 24), giving students the opportunity to question candidates ahead of Portsmouth City Council’s local elections on May 7.
The event, hosted by politics lecturer Steve Fitzgerald, featured candidates representing Labour, the Green Party, Reform UK and the Liberal Democrats, and students asked the candidates what their main priority would be if they were to win a seat.
Jay Mercer, Green Party candidate for St Thomas, said their number one priority is buses, and working towards a nationalised, council-controlled bus network.
However, they admitted they “couldn’t achieve it on day one” and suggested a focus on providing bleed kits around the city.
They said that “knife crime is a big problem for a lot of people around the country” and that people should be able to access aid as quickly as possible.
“We can get those installed quite easily, quite readily across the whole city.”
Joe Standen, the incumbent Reform UK candidate for Paulsgrove, also raised concerns over knife crime: “I don’t know why it’s happen over the past two or three years but there appears to be more knife-related incidents.”
He said he would work with Hampshire Constabulary and the Mayor of the new Hampshire and Isle of Wight Authority to address it.
He argued that “rehabilitation is the answer” for most knife offences but also encouraged the use of deterrents to prevent people from using a knife in the first place.
Matthew Holland, Labour candidate for Drayton and Farlington, said he wanted “Better educational opportunities for young people because so many people in the city are let down by not having access to decent secondary provision.”
He criticised how “crumbling and decrepit our school buildings feel”, recounting seeing plaster peel off the walls of his old maths class.
He argued for this as an Oxford University graduate, something he was “privileged” to achieve, and said he wished that every pupil “has an equal opportunity” to him.
Steve Pitt, Liberal Democrat candidate for Milton and the current leader of the council, said the city would “need more police on the streets in order to be better at engaging in communities”.
“I do want police out there engaging with young people and young people feeling like they can actually talk to a police officer and communicate the concerns they have because I think that’s become disconnected.
“Police engagement with younger people when I was a kid is much better than it is now.”
He added that his number one issue is Local Government Reorganisation, which would merge the city council with Gosport, Fareham and Havant to create a larger council providing services in all of those areas.