General Election 2015: West Dorset candidates clash in last hustings before vote

In the final hustings event before voters go to the polls next week, UKIP candidate David Glossop was unable to attend because he was suffering with laryngitis.

Liberal Democrat candidate Ros Kayes said it was 'time now for change in West Dorset' while incumbent Conservative MP Oliver Letwin said the government should be trusted to complete their economic recovery plan.

Cllr Kayes said: "We need an MP here who can genuinely represent the diversity of our community.

"We need someone who will stand up and campaign to protect our local health services, secure funding for transport and challenge the housing crisis. It's time now for change in West Dorset."

Mr Letwin said his party's plan to tackle the economy is working.

"We set out with a long-term economic plan and stuck to it" he said. "I believe that this country needs to complete that process over the next five years.

"The job is partly done but it isn't finished. We can't get any of the things we want unless we have a strong and prosperous economy. That means sticking to plan which is now beginning to work."

Labour candidate Rachel Rogers said her experience as a councillor highlights daily examples of people affected by austerity.

"Every single day I see people whose lives have been made more difficult by the policies of the government" she said. "Over the last five years, we have seen funding slashed - and that puts us all at risk.

"Do you want another five years of an austerity-led government under David Cameron or do you want five years of aspirational politics with Ed Miliband?"

Cllr Rogers also said we need to 'bite the bullet' and start investing in renewable energy. But Mr Letwin said carbon capture could be the answer to the energy crisis – and that investing in renewables could be costly to our economy.

He said: "There is not necessarily a connection between fossil fuel use and greenhouse gases.

"It depends on whether we can find the technology to capture the carbon and store it. If it does work, that offers a long-term future in which we can use the fossil fuels and achieve carbon reductions.”

Green Party candidate Peter Barton slammed the idea of carbon capture and said we should aim for a zero carbon Britain by 2050.

"Carbon capture is the one way that you keep fossil fuels in business" he said. "It is not the way forward.

"Moving towards 100 percent renewables is achievable - especially if we invest public money in a national programme of energy conservation and insulation - creating thousands of skilled and well-paid jobs."

Mr Barton also urged voters to vote for what they believe in and 'send a message to power' that climate change should not be ignored.

Cllr Kayes hit out at the Conservatives' plans to reintroduce the rent to buy scheme in order to tackle the affordable housing crisis - and said the Liberal Democrats' rent to own proposals would enable people to get on the housing ladder and help build more homes.

"Rent to own is very different from the Conservatives’ right to buy - which is the main reason for the depletion of our housing stock in West Dorset" she said.

"I think it is an abomination that the Conservatives are proposing to reintroduce it."

Mr Letwin said that building more homes was key to helping young people get on the housing ladder.

He said: "I don't believe the thesis that Bridport can't accommodate more homes.

"I've been very unpopular with some people because I'm supporting the Vearse Farm proposal.

"People up and down West Dorset will have to accept that we have to build more homes and that is something politicians have to be willing to stand up and say if we are actually going to house young people in this country."

Cllr Rogers received applause for suggesting West Dorset District Council should ‘spend as much on affordable housing as they have on their new home’.

Voters will elect the MP for West Dorset on Thursday May 7.