This election is our chance to choose how we rebuild after Covid.

Labour are determined to stand up for St Helens residents, businesses and essential services who have fought so hard in the past year.

St Helens can be proud of the way our communities came together to support one another.

Our Labour council worked with partners and created #StHelensTogether, supporting residents, charities, and our amazing care homes. We helped hundreds of local businesses directly, every day, offering financial support when the government offered none, and we’ve campaigned for support for those workers ignored by government. We supported schools, nurseries and colleges, and we supported the campaign to end child hunger by making sure every child in need was offered food during school holidays.

And we worked with the local NHS and partners across the region to deliver community testing and set up Merseyside’s first mass vaccination site at Saints. Thank you to the council keyworkers and volunteers who have helped to deliver all this and more.

Now we need to build back better.

The Labour Party stands shoulder to shoulder with the NHS, carers, and all those who fought Covid and got our country through the pandemic. They deserve a proper pay rise, a social security and sick pay system that provides a fair and proper safety net for people when they need it, and investment in the services and industries which can help our economy grow and our society flourish. Find out more: https://labour.org.uk/issue/labours-plan-for-the-recovery/

And here in St Helens we’ve already produced comprehensive plans for our borough to build back better, including:

An Economic Recovery Plan, developed with local businesses and other partners

A detailed Borough Strategy, designed after the biggest consultation the council has done in years, spelling out the priorities for our borough and how we can all work together to achieve them

A Climate Action Plan, including the creation of a cross-party, multi-agency commission to help the borough and region achieve net zero carbon by 2040

A £100m investment plan for projects across the borough including repairing the historic Gamble Building and Earlestown Town Hall and rebuilding schools

And we have also just published a new Arts Strategy, a Commercial Strategy, and a Localities Model to bring services closer to communities and target support where it’s most needed.

In addition to the actions we’ve already taken, we’ve published our manifesto for the local elections – On Your Side – which features a comprehensive account of our Labour council’s record and confirms further steps we’ll take to help St Helens not just recover from Covid but to build back better, including:

• Publishing masterplans for redevelopment in our town centres later this year which are currently being drawn up with our partners English Cities Fund.
• Protecting every single one of our fantastic parks and fully implementing our new Climate Action Plan to reach net zero carbon emissions as a borough by 2040.
• Reviewing the waste and recycling service to make sure it works for residents and the environment.
• Tackling antisocial behaviour, pursuing and prosecuting flytipping and investing in improved CCTV.
• Doing all we can to work with community groups and partners to make sure no child goes hungry during school holidays.

CLICK HERE TO READ OUR FULL MANIFESTO ON YOUR SIDE

In contrast, other parties and ‘independents’ – all working together and talking about a ‘coalition’ including the Tories – have no plan for St Helens.

“We haven’t a plan…What we can do is gain control of the council as a rainbow coalition over the next couple of years.”  – Local Tory leader to the St Helens Star, 24th September 2020.

‘Independent’ councillors have also talked about a ‘rainbow coalition’. What this really means is letting the Tories get control, with no plan for you, your family or our communities.

Our progress leading the council through this extraordinary period has been recognised by the independent Local Government Association: https://www.sthelenslabour.org/latest-news/2021/03/24/improvements/.

There’s a lot at stake in this election.

Your local Labour candidates are on your side and determined to do everything they can to help you, your family and our community. Find your local candidate and get in touch with them here: www.sthelenslabour.org/yourlabourcandidates.

Use all your votes for Labour to help make sure we can continue to work together for St Helens, stand up to the Tory government, and build the society and economy we need after the pandemic.