RESIDENTS will go to the polls at the general election tomorrow.

With candidates from across the political spectrum standing in Bournemouth, Christchurch, Poole and the surrounding areas, the Daily Echo posed the same six questions to each, to see what they would say.

Each was given the opportunity to respond, with word limits for each answer to keep answers to the point.

We will be publishing the answers of every candidate, with candidates for each constituency grouped together.

We have published the answers of all the candidates standing in Bournemouth East, Bournemouth West, Christchurch, Mid-Dorset and North Poole, Poole, North Dorset and South Dorset.

In our final feature, we publish the answers of those standing for election in New Forest West.

Read more from our ask the candidates series: 

CONSERVATIVE: Sir Desmond Swayne

What is your policy on housing?

More power to local planning committees to determine the type of housing needed in their local plans.

What is your policy on the NHS?

To continue the record level of funding that has been achieved, resulting in 75000 more nurses and 40,000 more doctors.

What are your top three priorities for the area and why?

More affordable housing: young people currently have very little opportunity of affording a home in the area where they have been brought up.

What is the biggest change you want to bring to your constituency?

Lower interest rates.

What is the biggest issue that residents have raised on the campaign trail?

Potholes.

How will you split your time between Westminster and your constituency?

London Monday AM to Thursday PM and Constituency Friday to Sunday. Nevertheless, 20% of my time at Westminster has been dealing with constituency correspondence.

LABOUR: Sally Johnston

What is your policy on housing?

A lack of affordable housing in NFW is a huge issue - young local people & families cannot afford to live here, nor can key workers. As a GP I know, how badly we need in our health & care services. Labour promises to reform planning laws & build 1.5 million homes.

(Image: Sally Johnston)

What is your policy on the NHS?

The NHS is broken & the workforce is in crisis. We need to stabilise our public services by investment, then set up an independent cross-party body to oversee strategic long term planning to enable us to move away from only being able to provide reactive care.

What are your top three priorities for the area and why?

The environment- focussing on flooding and sewage in our rivers and the sea.

Sustainable connected transport - buses, trains, cycling and walking particularly in rural areas.

NHS – Better access to GPs, ambulance waiting times, overwhelmed and under staffed Emergency Departments that are putting patients at risk.

What is the biggest change you want to bring to your constituency?

Improving the lives of those that live in deprivation. Their needs are often overlooked in affluent areas such as the New Forest.

What is the biggest issue that residents have raised on the campaign trail?

Potholes- we need to fund local authorities adequately in order to provide high quality services. Labour have pledged to spend millions released from deferring a bypass elsewhere to fund this work.

How will you split your time between Westminster and your constituency?

Being an MP is a full time job. If elected, I would have to learn how best to split my time flexibly depending on need. I am used to multitasking having had 3 jobs during Covid - GP, Clinical Director & Chair of Hampshire GPs Committee.

LIBERAL DEMOCRAT: Jack Davies

What is your policy on housing?

The New Forest needs homes that young people and local families can afford. I want to strengthen planning laws to force developers to build truly affordable housing and give councils the power to end right-to-buy in their areas. I’ll also push for an immediate ban on no-fault evictions.

(Image: Jack Davies)

What is your policy on the NHS?

Too many people are being left waiting months, in pain, for NHS treatment. My priority, if elected as your MP, will be to make sure everyone can get a doctor or dentist appointment when they need one and to keep all New Forest Ambulance Stations open.

What are your top three priorities for the area and why?

NHS. Cost-of-Living. Environment. People can't see a doctor when they need one. They’re struggling to make ends meet. Our rivers and seas are filled with sewage. The Conservatives have taken our area for granted for years and it shows. We need a hard-working local MP who will tackle these issues.

What is the biggest change you want to bring to your constituency?

I will be a hard-working local MP who puts the New Forest, not my party, first. I have more local government experience than all of the other six candidates combined. I will use that experience to get a better deal for New Forest West.

What is the biggest issue that residents have raised on the campaign trail?

The pollution of our rivers and sea, especially the Solent, by the sewage-dumping water companies. The Lib Dems will end this scandal by getting tough on the wild-west water companies: scrapping bonuses; replacing Ofwat with a tougher regulator; and making water companies pay to clean up their own mess.

How will you split your time between Westminster and your constituency?

During the week our MP must be up in Westminster standing up for the New Forest in Parliament. At the weekend, I will hold a surgery (rotating between all towns and villages in the constituency) for people to get help with any issues they might have.

GREEN PARTY: Anna Collar

What is your policy on housing?

150,000 social homes a year, built to PassivHaus standards (tackling fuel poverty and emissions) in the right place, where people live and work, supported by infrastructure.

End right to buy.

Fairer, Greener Homes Guarantee to ensure warm, safe homes that are well insulated, offering grants to retrofit private homes.

(Image: Anna Collar)

What is your policy on the NHS?

Green Party policy is to invest properly in the NHS, paying the staff and putting an end to privatisation within the sector: health should be about people, not about profits.

What are your top three priorities for the area and why?

1. Ensuring proper funding for the NHS-we've all been stuck waiting for appointments or routine operations.

2. Supporting people with cost of living: we have 7 foodbanks in NFW.

Energy prices through the roof. We'd tax the companies that make obscene profits.

3. The sewage scandal. Dumping untreated sewage into our precious rivers and beautiful beaches is criminal!

What is the biggest change you want to bring to your constituency?

I want to see all voices in my constituency counted. So many don't bother to vote because it is a Conservative safe seat. How is this a true reflection of our diverse opinions? Politics isn't about shouting more loudly, it's about listening, conversation, and finding the things that unite us rather than divide us.

What is the biggest issue that residents have raised on the campaign trail?

The need for change--both in the people in charge, and the way we do politics. People are so angry and frustrated by the disconnection they have with politics and politicians. They want to know their vote will be counted - Proportional Representation is high on people's agenda.

How will you split your time between Westminster and your constituency?

My husband and I live in Lyndhurst with our three children, all at local schools. I'm very much a resident here in the Forest and I love it, and to ensure that all-important close connection with the constituents, I would be a frequent traveller on the Brockenhurst-Waterloo line!

REFORM UK: Reginald Phillip Chester-Sterne

What is your policy on housing?

Build more housing on brownfield sites and relax constraints caused by environmental rules. Remove permissions from companies that do not start building within two years of grant.

(Image: Reginald Chester-Sterne)

What is your policy on the NHS?

Frontline NHS workers to have a tax free salary up to £30,000. Pay no interest on quantitative easing bonds and use the savings to reduce waiting list to zero within two years by paying private sector to do the operations NHS should be free at point of delivery, who cares who delivers it? Consider insurance scheme for those that can afford it; like France.

What are your top three priorities for the area and why?

Fix roads. Need to get around. Housing, people need somewhere to live. Employment, people should be able to provide for themselves and their family.

What is the biggest change you want to bring to your constituency?

Treat people and their concerns with respect. Address those concerns. Respect the Forest and the environment we live in.

What is the biggest issue that residents have raised on the campaign trail?

Cost of living and NHS waiting times. Many mentioning immigration as well.

How will you split your time between Westminster and your constituency?

Have my office here and spend only 4 days 3 nights per week in London.

ANIMAL WELFARE PARTY: Gavin Sean Ridley

What is your policy on housing?

AWP is aware of the urgent need for more housing and we support development plans for sustainable and affordable homes. We would not encourage the use of greenfield or any other environmentally supportive site for development, especially when there are so many brownfield sites that could be used as priority.

(Image: Gavin Ridley)

What is your policy on the NHS?

For AWP, working to prevent illnesses including type-2 diabetes and heart disease is a focus that can reduce hospital admissions and relieve the sort of strain on the NHS we saw in the pandemic, saving funds and resources. This can be helped by shifting to a more plant-based dietary pattern.

What are your top three priorities for the area and why?

Given that we are still navigating the aftermath of the pandemic, my key concern is improving human, and therefore necessarily animal and environmental, health. This can be achieved by a transition to plant-based living. There are many aspects to this, and they need to be pursued.

Ending farming and fishing practices which are harmful to animals, biodiversity and the planet. Ultimately those harmful practices adversely affect us too.

Better protecting companion animals with compulsory licensing, tightening breeding regulations and ending breed-specific legislation. Animal shelter workers are under enormous pressure and suffering from the emotional harm it creates. This is a good example of how policy decisions should be underpinned by an awareness of animal welfare issues.

What is the biggest change you want to bring to your constituency?

I’d like to ensure awareness of climate and biodiversity crises, using that to underpin decision making. We don’t exist in a vacuum from nature, we are part of it. Only by working with nature, rather than against it for profit, can future generations expect to have a liveable future.

What is the biggest issue that residents have raised on the campaign trail?

There is huge concern for animals on the roads, especially ponies. I’m very proud of the New Forest, its ancient origins and varied landscapes. Tourism is important for the local economy and there’s a play-off between competing interests. It’s important that wildlife is not put at unacceptable levels of risk.

How will you split your time between Westminster and your constituency?

I frequently travel to Westminster/London already. Travel from home to London sustainably is quick and easy. The key is openness so constituents know when/where they can find me in the constituency, and when I’m in Westminster because I need to go and vote on the key decisions that affect them.

Paul David Simon (Social Democratic Party) did not respond to the questions in time for publication.