I am very sad that the Conservatives have continued to smear me in this campaign by alleging that I have demanded a cut in highways sending. Given that I have been campaigning on roads and highways for no less than 16 years, this was anyway unlikely.

Where, of course, the Tories made a fatal mistake was to assume that my words were not recorded anywhere: but full council meetings are recorded and my speech is now available (see below). This makes it clear that I proposed both a gross and a net increase in highways spending, as was anyway clear from the amendment tables, which have been on HCC’s website since February.

I have demanded an apology and may have to report at least once councillor to his council’s Standards Committee. All of this does no good to politics – but we have to keep it clean.

My speech: chris-white-budget-speech.pdf

Our budget amendments: liberal-democrat-amendment-to-budget.pdf