As Liverpool prepares to vote for its first directly-elected mayor, JMU Journalism aims to talk to all of the candidates to see what they are offering to the public. We spoke to Joe Anderson about his bid.
Labour’s mayoral candidate Joe Anderson has claimed that he has what it takes to take Liverpool to the next level as a city.
The Liverpool city council leader said he belives he has the ideas, beliefs and policies to be able to make the area a better city.
Anderson, told JMU Journalism*: “I believe I’ve got the qualities, the passion, the vision and the ideas to take our city forward.
“Whilst I’ve been in charge of the council we’ve started a different culture, we’ve changed the whole attitude, we’ve changed it to a ‘yes we can’ council. I want to
bring those attitudes to the city on a whole.”
Cllr Anderson has said he has put Liverpool’s youth at the heart of his mayoral campaign. He has set an ambitious target to ensure that there were no youngsters not in education, employment or training
within a year, if elected Liverpool’s first mayor in May.
He has also promised to create a £20-a-week replacement for the £30-a-week Education Maintenance Allowance which was cut by the government last year.
“We’ve got so many challenges in the city and this is one of them,” he said. “My promise to young people is Liverpool will most certainly not turn its back on you.”
A native of Dingle, Anderson’s campaign has been shaped around himself as a person, focussing on ‘Joe’ as a personality who is “100% Liverpool through and through”.
The lifelong Everton fan claimed that he wants always be available to the public of Liverpool. He said: “It’s right that the mayor’s door should always be open to the people and the businesses. Mine always will be.”
The former social worker claimed that Liverpool has an extremely bright future ahead, partly because of the fantastic businesses which are now based in the city.
Anderson said: “I keep telling people that the past is a glorious past that the city had, except for one or two blips, but our best years lie ahead of us and I’m determined to make sure that the development, continuing regeneration and renaissance of Liverpool continues and I think I am the right person to do that job.
“We’ve got a bright future and I look forward to leading the city into it.”
* JMU Journalism’s Camilla Cole was working for Juice FM when she conducted this interview