Meet your candidates: Islwyn

Irene James, Labour

I am the daughter of a miner. I live in Cwmcarn and teach in a primary school in Risca. I believe that investing in the health service, schools and providing real jobs is vital to improving our community.

The only certain way this can be achieved is between a Labour -led Assembly working in partnership with the Westminster government. While much has been achieved in the first four years of the Assembly there still remains a lot to be done.

I want to see our NHS providing care free at the point of use according to need, funded from general taxation. A well funded health service with more doctors and nurses and free prescriptions for all. Islwyn has a huge legacy of ill health such as heart disease and bad chests.

We have all heard of people who have to choose between the items the doctor has prescribed because they are unable to afford all the items they need. This makes no sense to me; it is bad for the individual and bad for the NHS. That is why Labour is promising to abolish all prescription charges.

Only Labour is prepared to crack down on crime, violence and nuisance neighbours. I want to see more investment in Islwyn for CCTV cameras, schemes to protect our homes and to discourage street nuisance. Prevention is far better than cure.

We have seen class sizes fall to 30 or under for all infant children and I want to see this extended to junior classes. As a teacher myself I want to see more opportunities for our young people, and no one leaving school without any qualifications.

We need to reduce bureaucracy in identifying and educating children with Special Educational Needs. After many years of under-funding we need more funding for our school buildings.

Everyone deserves the right to a job. Labour's New Deal has been very successful in Islwyn at reducing unemployment, as has Objective One funding. I want to see these continue and full advantage taken to continue to provide better jobs for the people of Islwyn.

I have lived in Islwyn all my life, I know the people here and I believe they deserve the best. If elected I will do all I can to make sure they get it. *Also standing in South Wales East

Terri-Anne Matthews, Welsh Conservative Party

Children in Islwyn will benefit from improved health services if the money saved by cancelling the new Assembly building is used to fully fund the new children's hospital in Cardiff. Of all the parties in the Assembly, only the Welsh Conservatives would do this.

The Lab/Lib Welsh Assembly Government has some other interesting examples of how to waste public money like setting up mini embassies in exotic locations throughout the world.

This month, Islwyn residents will start to pay the increased national insurance payments. Taxes under Labour have increased this by the equivalent of £44 a week for every man, woman and child in Britain since 1997. With all this to contend with, what if the Welsh Assembly were allowed to raise its own taxes as well?

The Richard Commission is due to present its findings, after the Assembly elections. It is considering the possibility of tax-raising powers for the Welsh Assembly. The Welsh Conservative Party is again alone in opposing any increase in powers and strives to make the Welsh Assembly Government effectively use the powers it already has. Islwyn is a predominately English-speaking area.

Whilst we wish to encourage those pupils who choose to study welsh, The Welsh Conservative Party would allow schools and parents to decide whether Welsh should be a compulsory subject for key stage four. We would also abolish the Welsh Baccalaureate, which is being trialled with some of our 17-year-olds from September, before expansion throughout Wales.

We all know Islwyn residents who have waited an unacceptably long time for consultants' appointments, outpatient treatment or for an operation. The Welsh Labour Party manifesto makes the astonishing claim that 'for most people treatment is available within an acceptable time'.

Try telling this to one of the 12,382 Welsh patients waiting over 12 months for inpatient treatment or the 76,399 Welsh patients waiting over 6 months for outpatient treatment. This is NOT an acceptable length of time to have to wait for treatment. The Welsh Conservative Party would take steps to relieve bed blocking, as since 1999, 2,000 care home places have been lost in Wales. We would increase fee levels payable to residential and nursing homes and end the practice whereby local authorities pay the independent sector lower fee rates than council-owned homes.

Plaid Cymru's AM Phil Williams has been quoted as saying: 'With the possible exception of the Tories, all parties have pretty similar outlooks really'. On May 1, make the difference for Islwyn, vote for Terri-Anne Matthews, the Welsh Conservative Party candidate. *Also standing in South Wales East

Brian Hancock, Plaid Cymru

ON April 2 I launched the Hospital for Islwyn campaign; something Islwyn has been promised for 30 years. Islwyn still waits. I am committed to increasing the capacity of our healthy services to deliver speedy effective treatment to the sick, the promotion of healthier lifestyles and tackling the poverty that causes ill health.

Our NHS has had six reorganisations in 13 years, when they should have been concentrating on increasing beds, nurses and doctors. We will make this happen. Plaid policy since 1994 has been to abolish prescription charges. Every request to abolish charges has been refused by the Labour government in Cardiff. I welcome their change of heart, overdue as it is.

Over 90 per cent of all businesses in Wales are small and medium enterprises (SMEs). As party spokesperson for SMEs, I recognise the need for the government to support such enterprises. For too long we have been over dependent on inward investment.

We need to shift the focus to targeting home- grown companies, with potential for growth and ability to offer quality jobs. I have been actively involved in helping business enterprises to start in Islwyn, and I see huge potential for attracting more.

Our post office network is under threat. As party spokesperson for post offices, I have campaigned to protect them, as a vital element in our communities, believing that they will be important in the future, offering a wide range of services including information and advice systems.

In education, I hope to see integration of schools with their communities, developing them as resources for those communities, abolition of current tests for 11 and 14-year-olds, a reduction in bureaucratic constraints on teachers, and development of a recruitment and retention strategy. I am committed to strengthening Welsh higher education and its contribution to the life of Wales.

Regeneration and renewal of the Monmouthshire and Brecon Canal, including the Crumlin arm, is a priority.

I support calls from Welsh police chiefs to devolve control from London to Cardiff, thus Welsh problems can be resolved in Wales.

I also support the transfer of transport responsibilities to Cardiff. I have long campaigned for the restoration of the Ebbw Valley railway, and I know that most people recognise the need for the line to go to Newport first, but because we lack power, these decision are not ours. The Assembly needs more power.

Huw Price, Welsh Liberal Democrat

BEFORE I explain why I think you should support the Welsh Liberal Democrats on May 1, let me tell you a little bit about myself.

I'm 34 years old and am a partner in a firm of solicitors in Bargoed. For the past five years, I've been a councillor on Caerphilly county borough council, dealing with a variety of problems faced by people in our area.

This is a crucial election for everyone in Islwyn. In October 2000, Michael German signed the Partnership Agreement which brought the Welsh Liberal Democrats into the Assembly government. Much of the original Partnership Agreement has now been delivered. What the Welsh Liberal Democrats promise, we deliver.

Some of the major successes since the partnership was signed include:

more than £60 million in Corus regeneration money duelling of the Heads of the Valleys road free bus passes for pensioners and disabled people student grants for those in both further and higher education extra spending on health a freeze on prescription charges in Wales with exemptions for those most in need free dental checks for those aged 18-25 and the over-60s free eye tests for vulnerable groups free school milk for children between five and seven

These are real achievements which would not have been delivered without the Welsh Liberal Democrats.

We have fought hard for more funding for the NHS and our schools. We are committed to building ten new hospitals and employing 8,000 more front-line health staff in Wales by 2010.

In our schools, Welsh Liberal Democrats are providing more books and equipment and have reduced class sizes for all primary school children to an average of no more than 25.

Yet we have to achieve even more for our communities. That's why the Welsh Liberal Democrats in our manifesto have pledged to cut secondary school class sizes to 25, introduce free personal care for the elderly and give our children free access to recreation centres.

There is so much more to be done, especially in Islwyn where levels of ill health and economic and social deprivation are among the worst in Wales. We have to make a difference. If you agree, please support me and the Welsh Liberal Democrats on May 1. *Also standing in South Wales East.

Paul Taylor, Tinker Against the Assembly Party

MY name is Paul Taylor. My nickname is Tinker and I am a 51-year-old local publican who was born and has grown up in the Sirhowy Valley. I am not politically correct, never have been, never will be but am so fed up with the Welsh Assembly and its continual lacklustre performance, that I have formed my own party with a view to its dissolution.

We had a referendum in 1997 and 25.1 per cent of those eligible to vote, voted yes, 24.9 per cent no, and 50 per cent stayed home. The biggest winner was apathy. Those people with an interest in keeping the Assembly open are never, ever, again going to ask you if it was a good idea!

I am certain that there are so many people (the majority) who don't want an Assembly that voting for Tinker Against the Assembly on May 1, 2003, will be equivalent of another referendum, thereby proving that we know we don't want it.

Since 1999 its members have voted themselves huge pay rises, have committed themselves to an unneeded new building at a starting cost of £50 million. Final cost? Who knows! They have committed themselves to buying computers estimated original cost £20 million, currently increased to £64 million.

Here in Gwent/Islwyn we have incurred huge job losses at Corus, Llanwern, unfulfilled job promises at Lucky Goldstar, enormous losses at Alcan Rogerstone, Selectron Abercarn, Aiwa Newbridge and Corus Ebbw Vale. All these were well-paid jobs. Where are the viable replacement jobs?

The Welsh Assembly cannot be allowed to continue to distribute our hard-earned income on quangos and committees. Our council tax cannot increase year after year because these politicians are not prudent. It has to stop.

Have you noticed how all the parties are rolling long lists of pledges, promises and inducements now that they need your vote. These lists are things that you have already paid for and should be being done for you. Are we being taken for being stupid? This is my wake up call to you, the electorate.

I won't be knocking on your door or telephoning you, I think that's an invasion of your privacy, too many people are already doing it.

One successful candidate can be the wedge. You the electorate can be the sledgehammer it needs, your vote drives that wedge in, that wedge cracks the Assembly, if you don't vote, you have no right to an opinion!

My campaign slogan is: The Welsh Ashambly? No thanks, vote Tinker.