MID-WORCESTERSHIRE: Robert Browne, (Lib Dem)

The first conclusion following the recent debacle is that the farmers' fury at the bureaucracy, inefficiency and high-handedness at MAFF is justified. MAFF had no contingency plan for such an emergency and must itself be culled, and replaced by a Ministry for Rural Affairs, which should work with farmers to assist them in the management of the countryside in which we live. Farmers need us to have a better exchange rate to benefit from European subsidies until the CAP is reformed.

Meanwhile Liberal Democrats have called for £100m for hardship cases over and above statutory compensation. Local businesses affected by the crisis should have a one-off reduction in business rates, and the Inland Revenue should defer tax collection from them until the crisis is past and revenues are restored. The county council should work closely with MAFF and farmers to open individual footpaths as soon as it safe.

Much work has gone into making Evesham and Droitwich better places to live in and to visit. Evesham in Bloom is a great initiative, but there are not enough facilities for the young. The Tories' closure of the Spa Lido is scandalous and mean. There should be skateboard facilities. Evesham Town Football Club should be part of a leisure complex on the Common Road site. Public transport for the under 19s and the elderly should be free. Evesham's one-way system needs sorting out. The High Street needs tarting-up - with the disgraceful departure of the Post Office it looks seedy. I'd act as the liaison between the town and district councils to ensure that all central funding opportunities are tapped, and that new leisure opportunities are available to combine with our historical attractions to put both towns on the tourist map.

We need radical solutions to the drugs problem, not just ringing declarations of get-tough policies. Liberal Democrats have long called for a Royal Commission to study the whole drugs question. Drugs are the root of up to 60 per cent of crime. Prohibition simply does not work, and there is a case for decriminalisation of drugs, and I would vote to decriminalise cannabis while controlling and taxing the supply. Hard drugs should be made available at reasonable prices to registered users though special clinics, linked to detoxification facilities, so users don't have to wait six months for treatment. This would be paid for by taxes on drug supply. Locking-up drug users in institutions where they can still feed their habit encourages criminality and is a waste of police time. If registered users can obtain drugs without resorting to criminal pushers, our education service can get on with the job of persuading young people not to start.

Not only Evesham but also the surrounding villages have suffered flooding several times in the last couple of years. My house in Broad Marston has been under water once and threatened several times.

What is clear from the reaction the floods, with the MP, Wychavon, the county and the Environment Agency all having their conflicting inputs, is that we need a single agency to co-ordinate responses and use the available money to best effect. Residents of Evesham and the surrounding villages have long complained that gulleys and ditches are not kept clear, and this is certainly a result of misjudged economising by the local authorities. Villagers in such places as North Littleton have been told that the work is not a priority and that they may have to wait a year or so. This is totally unsatisfactory and the new Government and county administrations must sort the problem out. Local planners must take flood plains into account when considering development applications.

The closure of A&E facilities at Kidderminster is putting an intolerable strain on Worcester. Newspaper reports of a quarter of patients dying because they are moved on too soon from understaffed intensive care units because beds are needed for new patients is a rotten advert for a caring NHS. The effect of the re-organisation does appear to be a reduction in the number of acute beds in Worcestershire and this is scary. We need to enhance the role of community hospitals - the one in Evesham is a shining example of best practice. Investment is needed not just in bricks and mortar but in the training and retention of personnel. We must pay more to doctors and nurses to keep them within the NHS, and recruit more: Liberal Democrats have promised funding for 4,600 extra doctors above the current plans, and 27,500 more nurses: recruited and trained in this country, not poached from abroad. We need a National Health Service, not just a National Illness Service, providing free checks on a regular basis.