The most important thing we can do to help local residents is ensure the Council provides value for money, manages its finances prudently and lives within its means so that Council tax can be kept as low as possible.

In this year's Council budget the Conservatives made addressing the impact of the recession the top priority. Several measures to support our local economy and help those worst-hit by the recession were included in the budget. These include:

· £50,000 to support promotion of the area and its economy
· £150,000 to enable a short term freeze on car park charges and to enable a review so that any increases would be targeted to minimise adverse effects
· £15,000 to extend youth outreach work
· £20,000 to support public events to promote the area and generate footfall
· A Recession Reserve of £465,000 (since increased to over £650,000) to cover income shortfalls during the recession and for other recession mitigation initiatives with partners.

We also recently decided to release £100,000 of the Recession Reserve to be used for 'recession relief grants'. These grants will be administered by the Quartet charitable foundation and targeted at helping those communities feeling the worst effects of the recession.

We are also ensuring the Council is doing all it can to publicise help available to struggling families and businesses by working with partners such as Job Centre Plus, Citizens Advice Bureau and Business West. To support local businesses we are also working hard to promote Small Business Rate Relief, and take-up of this in B&NES is significantly above national average.

Visit http://www.bathnes.gov.uk/BathNES/recessionadvice/default

Cllr Malcolm Hanney, Cabinet Member for Resources

Pot-holes in local roads are a perennial issue that effect all of us motorists, and so is one that any local authority should treat as a top priority.

You may notice that pot-holes are always a particular problem in late winter and spring. This is because the winter's freezing cold weather, ice and snow cause significant damage to the road surfaces, so the council's Highways team has to spend many months bringing the roads back up to scratch.

The most important thing we can do is ensure the Highways department is properly resourced, and the Conservatives are currently directing extra funds into pot-hole repair. It is also important that when particularly bad road conditions are reported to the council it is inspected and acted on as quickly as possible. As part of our drive to cut-down bureaucracy we are currently looking into how the system of reporting pot-holes can be simplified and streamlined so that the issue is dealt with more effectively.

Cllr Charles Gerrish, Cabinet Member for Customer Services

A; Conservatives in B&NES have consistently resisted any attempts to introduce fortnightly collections. Council tax-payers rightly expect their local authority to deliver high-quality front line services like bin collections, and we have no plans to move to fortnightly waste collections.

In fact, one of the Conservatives' key manifesto pledges in the last local elections was to make the service easier for local residents by having household waste and recycling all collected on the same day, instead of separate days of the week. This makes refuse collection more convenient for households and boosts recycling rates by making life easier. This commitment has been kept with same-day collections introduced from June 2009.

Cllr Charles Gerrish, Cabinet Member for Customer Services

While bus companies such as First are private organisations so can't be forced by councils to provide more services or cheaper fares, it is vital we hold their actions to account and do what we can to improve transport.

Conservatives in B&NES have made a major commitment to improving transport infrastructure throughout the area and Conservative Councillors are continually pressing the bus companies to deliver improved services. Through the Greater Bristol Bus Network project, a large amount of investment is going into new bus stops, new bus lanes, and 'real-time' information displays to make bus travel quicker and easier. We have also committed almost £1million a year to subsidise vital local bus services which the bus companies would not otherwise run.

In the long term, we believe it is important that one bus company does not have a monopoly over services. When First recently announced cuts to services in the area, we used this as an opportunity to invite new bus companies such as Wessex Connect to take over the running of services such as the 20A&C in Bath, which we managed to save. We are currently working on plans which could mean day tickets can be used across different operators to make life easier for bus users.

Cllr Charles Gerrish, Cabinet Member for Customer Services

Conservatives in B&NES have committed to a programme of investment in new street cleaning equipment over the past couple of years, including new chewing-gum clearing machines, new street-vacuums and road sweepers.

In Bath, we have also encouraged the Bath City Liaison Forum residents group to work with the council on an action plan to improve street cleaning in the city. As part of the 2009 council budget, the Conservatives also put in an extra street-cleaning fund to tackle Bath city centre to encourage tourism and trade in the city.

In the longer term, we have a strong vision to improve the appearance of Bath city centre as the economic driving force of our region. The 'Public Realm' strategy being developed is a long-term scheme to vastly improve public spaces in the city, with new paving, signage and pedestrian areas. In addition, throughout the region we are developing 'Vision' documents, including for the Keynsham, Midsomer Norton and Chew Valley areas. These will mean that all parts of B&NES are improved and developed over the coming years to ensure we are well placed when coming out of the recession.

Cllr Terry Gazzard, Cabinet Member for Development and Major Projects