I feel duty bound to clear up some untruths coming from our borough’s elected representatives. The Lib Dem council last year approved a new Local Plan which was years late and therefore out-of-date. In doing so, they failed to even try to negotiate housing targets, despite their ability to do so being confirmed by the Housing Minister in the House of Commons in answer to a question by local MP Dean Russell.

Rather than own up to and apologise for their gross negligence and incompetence, in my view an appalling failure to fulfil an important duty to the town, recent Lib Dem leaflets have cited mayor Peter Taylor falsely accusing the Government of “forcing more development on Watford” through “unfair housing targets”.

The reality is that those are the same housing targets he and his council failed to challenge and negotiate in their new Local Plan, which should have been renewed years ago. The only development being forced on Watford is ‘Taylor’s Towers’, the high rise flats the Lib Dem council authorised despite petitions in opposition signed by thousands of local residents.

Once again, Teflon Taylor is wasting taxpayer time trying to shift the blame for his and his council’s own dereliction onto others.

Peter Taylor cannot treat the rest of Watford as if we are fools. The overdevelopment scandal is the Lib Dems’ fault, and no-one else’s. Only a new Conservative mayor and council can fix the mess they have caused.

Binita Mehta-Parmar

Conservative candidate for Watford mayor