FREE bulky waste collections, investing millions in repairing potholes and pavements and beefing up community safety teams are top of the agenda for Southend Labour ahead of the election.

With just weeks until voters go to the polls on May 2, the Labour party revealed its "five-point plan" in April in the hope of gaining control of Southend Council.

Despite Southend Council facing a £35million deficit within five years, the party believes shrewd finances will allow it to increase and improve the services on offer to residents.

Top of the list is a free bulky waste collection service, which would help tackle flytipping and help with the cost of living crisis.

He added: “It will be a cost-neutral service. We will have to model it on what Southend can afford but there will be a form of free bulky waste collection. It would be one free collection of three items per household a year but we will see how far we can take it.”

Labour’s second pledge is to “fix more potholes and pavements by investing £6.5million in a repairs budget.

Mr Cowan said: “We need to spend at least £6million a year just to stop the roads from getting worse. Labour has a track record of investing £10million a year and we aim to get back to that level as soon as possible.

“Through our budget amendment we managed to increase the budget from £4million up to £6.5million, which will see an incremental improvement in the local road network.

“People can see the difference for themselves what happens when you don’t spend at least that £6million a year.”

Mr Cowan said it would be financed through the capital borrowing programme “which is effectively where all highways money comes from”.

Alongside the waste collections and investment in roads, Labour will also aim to increase the size of the community safety team based in the city centre and has insisted that libraries and all family centres will be protected.

Mr Cowan said: “On day one we will ringfence our six libraries so they will be removed from all discussions around cost savings. There will be no closures of our libraries.

Finally, the Labour Group says it will ensure the city continues to have crowd-pulling events like LuminoCity and City Jam.

The group aims to organise 20 weeks of events which it believes with boost the economy.

The Echo will be publishing manifestos or election commitments for all political parties in the run-up to the May 2 election.