Green boost for Liberal Democrats as Oldham Borough heads for conference

4.40.00pm BST (GMT +0100) Thu 13th Sep 2007

LIBERAL Democrats from Oldham Borough have welcomed the results of an audit of policies of the three main political parties that shows Menzies Campbell's party as the best for the environment.

The audit was carried out by a group of major environmental organisations, including Friends of the Earth, Greenpeace, the National Trust, the RSPB, the Woodland Trust and WWF-UK.

It awarded the parties "green lights" according to how green their policies were. The Conservatives scored zero, Labour one and the Liberal Democrats three.

Speaking to Liberal Democrat members about the forthcoming party conference in Brighton, Elwyn Watkins, parliamentary spokesperson for Oldham East & Saddleworth, said the verdict of the green groups was a great boost for the party.

"This audit has confirmed what the Liberal Democrats have been saying in Oldham Borough for many years," said Elwyn. "We are leading the battle of ideas for protecting the environment and cutting the pollution people cause.

"At our conference next week we will be debating plans that will put us even further ahead of Labour and the Conservatives. These include plans to shift more people from domestic flights to a greatly improved high speed rail system.

"And we will discuss our plans for cutting income tax by 4p in the pound to 16p."