RESIDENTS must ‘move on’ and realise the best deal for the UK is to remain in the EU, says the Liberal Democrat parliamentary candidate for Warrington South.

Cllr Ryan Bate said he believes many people on both sides of the Brexit debate feel ignored.

The politician, who is a borough councillor for the Grappenhall ward, also discussed his party’s pledge to revoke Article 50 and cancel Brexit, if it wins a majority in the general election.

He said: “I understand people feeling angry, not just at the Liberal Democrats’ revoke policy, but at all kinds of political shenanigans which have gone on over the past three and a half years.

“I think the truth is we now know what Brexit looks like, we didn’t know what that looked like three and a half years ago and I think we need to move on from that swiftly and realise the best deal we always had was remaining in the EU.

“As for the actual revoke policy, I think we need to remember that is only in the situation where we would have a Liberal Democrat majority government and I know different people will think that is more or less likely than others.”

Furthermore, if people backed the Brexit deal offered to them in a second referendum, Cllr Bate confirmed he would ‘respect’ the outcome’.

Warrington Guardian:

Cllr Ryan Bate

And he urged residents not to ‘fall in the trap’ of listening to claims that voting for the Liberal Democrats could be a wasted vote.

Cllr Bate also believes local issues, such as green belt development, have a key role to play in the election.

He said: “Quite frankly, the local plan in Warrington is being driven by a national agenda.

“We have a planning system in the UK which is far too developer-friendly.

“One of the issues I’d really like to tackle and I know that the Lib Dem party agree with me on this, is changing the balance of power in the planning system, so that communities have more say about where we get those right homes in the right places with the right infrastructure and the right jobs.”

The publication of the Labour-run council’s local plan has been pushed back until 2020.

More than 7,000 homes were earmarked for green belt land in the draft – but Cllr Bate says the figure must be reduced.

“The things I have heard about why the local plan is pushed back and pushed back is because there are serious question marks about whether it is actually feasible,” he said.

He is calling for improved infrastructure in the town, as well as more investment into public transport.

However, Cllr Bate labelled the proposed £212 million Western Link bypass as the ‘ultimate fudge’ and said it is not ‘deliverable’.

And amid the division over Brexit, the politician who ‘cares deeply’ about the town wants the country to unite following the election on December 12.