Local Conservatives withdraw from UDC Climate Change initiatives after R4U challenge their support of ongoing expansion of Stansted Airport

Local Conservative councillors have withdrawn from UDC Energy and Climate Change Working Group after R4U challenged their environmental credentials. This was following the local Conservative’s support for continued growth of …read more →

Tory Party select Westminster insider Kemi Badenoch into ‘comfy’ Saffron Walden Commons Seat

The Saffron Walden Conservative Constituency Association has selected Kemi Badenoch as their new candidate to replace Sir Alan Haselhurst in June’s snap general election. Sir Alan Haselhurst had been the Saffron …read more →

R4U exposes evidence vacuum at centre of politically-tarnished Local Plan

Residents for Uttlesford has exposed the extent of missing evidence from the Uttlesford Local Plan and the UDC Cabinet’s attempt to avoid the proper process. R4U’s Chair Cllr John Lodge said …read more →

Residents locked out of Local Plan in local NIMBY-Tory political move, cross-party meetings cancelled, public consultation cut – Press Release

Residents for Uttlesford (R4U) has expressed significant concerns about political interference in the new Local Plan and that UDC is again failing in its legal obligations. UDC is currently developing …read more →

Local Tories spend party donations on libellous adverts

Here at R4U we understand that local ‘politics’ can sometimes get in the way of getting the job done. We have had a strong record of presenting the facts, based …read more →

Saffron Walden Town Council finds solution to inherited budget deficit that limits tax increase to 49p a week – Press Release

In a joint press release Town Councillors from Residents for Uttlesford, Liberal Democrats and Labour have announced that they have supported a solution that should mend the poor financial state …read more →

Saffron Walden – United front to fix ‘woeful state’ of inherited town finances

The scaffolding currently on the Town Hall in Saffron Walden is only there to stop bits falling on the public as there is no money to properly fix it. Built …read more →

Press Release: R4U request for UDC Leader to retract untrue statement met with refusal

28th July 2015, Uttlesford: “This release is made by John Lodge, Chairman of Residents for Uttlesford (R4U), purely in response to that of the Conservative Party which asserts that R4U …read more →

Dan Starr: George Osborne doesn’t think residents should decide what’s best for Uttlesford

A number of this week’s budget announcements are a full-frontal assault on localism. The much promoted recent localism and devolution agendas have been well and truly shoved to one side …read more →

Saffron Walden Constituency Conservatives

Uttlesford District lies within the Saffron Walden parliamentary constituency. Uttlesford Conservative voters now have another choice for local elections. Whilst Westminster parties have their place on national issues and in parliamentary elections, we at RESIDENTS FOR UTTLESFORD (R4U) believe all politics should be local.

The national parties are in disarray and not listening to residents. We are not a national political party. We are residents that love where they live and want to create a better local future for their children and their children’s children. We want a local government of the residents, by the residents for the residents.

Even if you vote for the Conservative in parliamentary elections, you can vote RESIDENT for local elections.

1. Westminster parties are failing Uttlesford residents

Westminster parties are failing Uttlesford residents

The Conservative Party has led Uttlesford District Council for more than a decade. They have become stale and have run out of ideas, have wasted £millions of our tax money, and are failing residents on important issues such as planning, finance, schools, roads, local jobs, housing,  libraries, pollution, crime and much more. It is time for a change to a party that is in touch with residents.


2. Many Conservative candidates are not resident in the wards they want to represent

Local representation and the Uttlesford Conservatives

“If you don’t drive over the pothole every day,  how do you know it’s there?” At Residents For Uttlesford we believe in true local representation.

The Conservatives have become complacent and are taking voters for granted. For the 2019 local elections they haven’t even published a manifesto to tell residents what they propose to do. They are standing many token candidates are only there to allow them to retain control of UDC. That is not what local representation should be. In the following communities the Conservatives are standing candidates who don’t live there:

  • Ashdon
  • Great Dunmow North
  • Great Dunmow South and Barnston
  • Newport
  • Saffron Walden Audley
  • Saffron Walden Castle
  • Saffron Walden Shire
  • Stansted North
  • Stansted South & Birchanger
  • Stort Valley
  • Takeley
3. Uttlesford Conservatives knowingly peddle Fake News to mislead voters

Uttlesford Conservatives and Fake News


If companies made the kind of false statements many Westminster politicians make they’d end up fined for false advertising. But politicians seem to get away with it.

At Residents for Uttlesford we back our statements with evidence and have a ‘positivity in politics pledge’. Not so the Uttlesford Conservatives. They continue to make a series of false statements which they know to be untrue, but repeat them even after being forced to publicly retract them. These are some of the reasons people why people mistrust Westminster parties.

For example:

  • Conservatives claim in their election leaflets “Saffron Walden Town Council had over £800,000 in reserves when R4U took over leadership in 2015.This is untrue Fake News. The Town Council’s free reserves were only £58,000, against a recommended figure of £500,000. The departing Conservative administration had overspent the budget, raided reserves, and left a £1m financial hole. In November 2018 the Conservatives were forced to apologise for their ‘wonky maths’ and retract their numbers, yet they still use them in the leaflets.
  • Conservatives claim in their election leaflets “It was not necessary for R4U to raise the Town’s precept by 25%.Again this is Fake News. The incoming R4U leadership at Saffron Walden Town Council inherited a £1m financial hole left by Tory mismanagement, crumbling buildings that needed emergency repair, and a budget that was spending more than it was getting in. With cross-party support at the Town Council R4U implemented a 5-year financial plan to fix the finances, and did so in under 4 years. The truth of the matter is that the Saffron Walden Town Council precept has only increased by around 65p a week for the typical council tax bill since R4U has been leading the council. This year the increases was half that of either the Tory lead district or county councils.
  • And elsewhere in their leaflets they make more misleading claims on schools, pollution, policing, traffic, potholes and planning.

Visit our Fake News Fact Checker for the Uttlesford Conservatives to find out the truth behind what they say.

4. Switch to RESIDENT for better local results

Switch to RESIDENT for better local results everywhere in Uttlesford

In 2015 Residents For Uttlesford took over leadership of the Saffron Walden Town Council from the Conservatives. Years of mismanagement had left a £1m financial black hole and crumbling assets. In 4 years under Residents leadership the council has been turned around to be multi-award-winning. R4U is currently  the second party at Uttlesford District Council (UDC) and has a goal of taking over leadership of the council on the 2nd May 2019 local elections. Please help us to help all local residents.

More Information

Uttlesford District Wards

The following are the new wards for the 2015 local elections in Uttlesford.

Uttlesford District Election Results