VOTE 2015: West Dorset Labour parliamentary candidate Rachel Rogers: ‘In a county like Dorset it is really important to prioritise services that are of key importance to local people – services like transport and the NHS’

We will be asking all the candidates in South and West Dorset about the issues that matter to voters in the county and trying to give the electorate an insight into their priorities before they go to the ballot box on Thursday, May 7.

Today we hear from West Dorset Labour parliamentary candidate Rachel Rogers.

How do you propose to make the voice of Dorset people heard in Parliament?

The role of an MP is to act as an advocate and do their best to represent all the key interest groups from the constituency that elects them. I’d aim to use the skills I’ve learned as a councillor and professionally to do that to the best of my ability.

I’d be a full-time MP because you need 100 per cent of your time to do the best that you can for those you represent.

Is enough being done at a national government level to support rural economies like Dorset?

I think that rural economies like many of those in the South West have been largely neglected by the Government in recent years and we need to be looking closely at how we support not just the big industries like agriculture and tourism, but also how we support those many small and medium sized enterprises that proliferate in counties such as ours. One of the ways the Labour Party proposes to do this is by cutting and freezing business rates.

How will you protect frontline services such as the NHS and policing in the county?

In terms of protecting frontline services such as the NHS and policing, Labour has committed to providing more doctors, more nurses and midwives over the term. These are to be paid for by mansion tax, which is a tax which will be imposed on people who own properties worth more than £2m, of which there are very few in West Dorset. We’ve also committed ourselves to the abolition of PCCs. These would be replaced by policing boards which will be much more closely tied to local democracy. We will use the money saved from this and from better integrated procurement to boost numbers of frontline police, which have been cut so dramatically since 2010 and to support neighbourhood policing, which plays such a great part in crime prevention and the collection of intelligence and community confidence.

Recent years have seen cuts to many services in Dorset, would you expect to see more cuts or less during the next Parliament if your party is successful in the elections?

The issue is not so much about which services we cut but about which services we prioritise. In a county like Dorset it is really important to prioritise services that are of key importance to local people – services like transport, the NHS, policing in rural areas. We need to make sure that our provision of services is more coordinated and not disjointed. Areas like social care work, for example, could work in a more integrated manner with the NHS, so that we can try to prevent people from entering hospitals and also make their discharge (from hospital) swifter and more streamlined.

Dorset, like much of the country, has an ageing population, what problems does this pose for Government and what do you propose to do to reflect the changing demographic?

I think having an ageing population doesn’t just pose problems but it also brings its own advantages. Some of the older people that live in the community contribute greatly by volunteering in our libraries and in our theatres and in our advice bureaus. Obviously older people have their own needs and I think we need to think about a shift in services that enables them to continue to live more independently for longer.

We need to focus on how we fund and manage elderly care so that we do away with the scandal of 15 minute visits, and treat people as individuals and not as part of a mass. We also need to think about the way in which older people can be excluded from provision and find ways of combating that.

We need to look at that ageing demographic and have a complete shift in the way we envisage service provision, looking at the service user rather than the provider.

What would you do to improve the life chances and career opportunities of young people in Dorset?

The first thing we would do is increase the number of Sure Start places. Equality begins before you’re born and Sure Start provides support for people who are expecting children as well as people with very young children. It’s important that we make sure there’s space there for everyone. We are looking at increasing childcare available for working families.

We are going to increase the minimum wage and work towards achieving the living wage. We’ll stop building free schools and will make sure school places are allocated where needed rather than at the whim of individuals. We will make sure there is an increase in the number of apprenticeships for young people leaving school, who prefer to follow a technical path.

We’d cut university tuition fees so that young people are less deterred from saddling themselves with enormous debt as they move into their adult lives.

When you have been out on the doorstep talking to voters, what has been the main issue raised by the electorate?

There are four issues that crop up again and again. The first and the one that seems to concern most people in West Dorset is the lack of housing, and more specifically, the lack of affordable housing.

Secondly is the issue of rural transport and the shortage of buses and the way they’re being cut and and how that impacts people of all ages.

The third thing is people are concerned about the future of the health service, and specifically the kind of health care they will be able to access when they’re older.

The final one is people are concerned about the lack of good well paid jobs, not just for themselves but also for their children.

If you felt strongly about a local issue, would you be prepared to vote against your party line?

Any good MP, who knows their role is to represent the interests of the local area would have to be prepared to stand up and speak against the party line if it was necessary. When you’re elected on a party ticket, it doesn’t mean you’re brainwashed, it just means you’ve found the best fit to provide a shorthand to voters about what you’re values are.

Questions sent in by readers

What will your party do to make sure young people are engaged in politics? (Sarah Trott, aged 13)

What people don’t always understand is that party policies are very often skewed to reflect voters’ interests. One of the reasons young people’s interests are rarely reflected in party politics is because young people don’t have the right to vote. The first thing I would vote for and the Labour Party is committed to do is to give the right to vote to 16 and 17 year olds.

We really need to improve the way that we teach politics in its broadest sense at school -— not party politics but politics as in the way in which government structures work in this country.

If people don’t understand how local government works and how national government works and how when you cast your vote, what impact that has on your daily life, then there’s no incentive for them to vote.

We need to give young people something to vote for, which is very closely linked to the first part.

You need to make your policies relevant and attractive to young people.

If you had to make a choice between what’s right for our country’s economy, defence, the NHS, education or the unemployment rate. What would you prioritise first and why? (Nick Mason)

The most important of all of these has to be health, because it is only with a healthy populace that the rest of them can start to be addressed. For that reason education comes second. If you’re populace is constantly worried about being sick, you can’t achieve any of the others.

Three things people might not know about you: • What I’m really interested in is travelling and the way other people live in other countries. I enjoy learning their languages so that I can communicate better with them.

• I really love cooking. I’m not very artistic so all my creativity comes out in the kitchen. I like making food for the people that I love and I like trying out new recipes.

• I’ve always been an obsessive reader since I was a child. I like reading about history – novels and history in equal measure. What I really like about reading is its ability to transport you to other times, worlds, and spaces.