In the third part of getbracknell's series of interviews with the borough’s General Election prospective Parliamentary candidates, Hugh Fort spoke to Liberal Democrat Ray Earwicker on his hatred of council tax and his disappointment with local Tories.

Ray Earwicker is a well-known face around Bracknell.

Having sat as the sole Liberal Democrat on Bracknell Forest Council, he was a lone voice against the Tory administration, who regarded him as something of a troublemaker.

Now he’s trying his hand at national politics and has been busy canvassing opinions around the borough.

He has made no secret of his disappointment at what he sees as a lack of investment in the area by the council and is disgusted with Labour’s handling of the economy, but admitted trying to win the seat was a “David vs Goliath” battle.

He said: “The Tories in Bracknell are very much inclined not to spend any money, when to be honest, Bracknell needs it.

“When we [the Lib Dems] had council control, we put out a survey to people to see whether people would be prepared to pay a bit more on their council tax for better services.

“A lot of people said they would, and we were able to get things like the Sandhurst Spot built.

“The Tories are obsessed with low council tax, even though they always put it up by a lot.

“I would like to add, I am not a fan of council tax, it’s a very aggressive tax based on property value rather than income.

“We would rather see some form of income-based taxation.”

Ray has lived in Sandhurst for 30 years, but said: “Nothing much changes, there’s talk of a Healthspace, nothing has happened and they already having to cut what they initially planned.

“The town centre has been talked about for years, but nothing has happened.

“I’ve said before, Bracknell town centre is really a blight on the South East – if you look at the area around the old 3M building it’s horrible.

“I was always in favour of a more modest redevelopment, like the one in Camberley.

“This is one of the most affluent areas around, the council has no debts, but insists on living like a pauper.”

He added nationally he felt Labour had made a real mess of the economy and said it would “be a hard two or three years” while whoever gets in to power tries to reduce the national debt.

He said, if elected the Lib Dems would look to reform the “first past the post” election system, as well as ensuring people on small salaries would pay no tax.

The party’s policy on education is to reduce classroom sizes and “let teachers get on with the important business of teaching”.

He said it was a massive challenge to dent the Tory domination of Bracknell with his “small but hard-working” campaign team but he would continue to work hard to try to “present alternative idea and debates” to the voters of Bracknell Forest.

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