Vote Blue, Get Blue - not green or indeed any other colour

12.41.55pm BST (GMT +0100) Wed 21st Jun 2006

Leopards cannot change their spots and Conservatives cannot 'go green'. By their actions, Chelmsford Conservatives have shown they are not really concerned about green issues, according to a letter to the Chelmsford Weekly News. MP Simon Burns has been taken to task for using his newspaper column to say the Conservatives are "going green". Chelmsford Liberal Democrat Stephen Robinson suggests that the reality is rather different.

Mr Robinson said: "Conservatives in the House of Lords voted recently against proposals to make companies act more responsibly towards the environment, and the Conservatives still cannot make up their minds about nuclear power (despite the evidence that warns of an environmental and financial disaster).

"Here in Chelmsford, the Conservatives have cut back the Liberal Democrat plans on waste recycling; they propose road scheme after road scheme rather than tackle transport issues across the board, and they are proposing to build thousands of new houses in the wrong places. These will make urban sprawl worse, as Chelmsford joins up with neighbouring communities.

"All these policy positions by the Conservatives rather prove that they may have changed the words but not the actions. Like Tony Blair, the Conservatives are turning out to be about style not substance."

Stephen Robinson

Liberal Democrat Parliamentary candidate 2005, West Chelmsford