With the Warwickshire County Council elections taking place on Thursday 1 May, the Local Democracy Reporting Service spoke to each of the political parties vying for power at Shire Hall about why they should gain your vote.

Liberal Democrat leader and current Eastlands Cllr Jerry Roodhouse fields the questions for the yellow corner.

What are your policy priorities?

There are a number but the classic which everyone is on is roads and potholes.

What concerns us is the project management at the county council on that front. Some years ago they messed up the Western Relief Road which cost millions and millions in overspend. Now we have the 'Bridge to Nowhere' over the A46 near Kenilworth, it hasn't been finished and people can drive past and see it every day of the week. That is £16 million overspent. We believe there is a lot to do on the project management of infrastructure projects.

Another area is around adult social care and mental health, the care and support for people. We want to see greater investment in community projects and groups that do the work out there, delivering the support that is needed. 

While campaigning, I have come across more and more people who are caring for partners or family members and they are not sure about where to go or what to do. It seems to me that there is a lot more to be done around that. 

The other one is around families, children and support for special educational needs and disabilities (SEND). 

We have seen the number of education, health and care plans (EHCPs) increase, waiting lists that don't really come down and appeals against decisions left, right and centre that the county council don't always win. I believe that is about getting downstream of the problems, working more closely within family centres and communities. 

If you go back to when Warwickshire County Council was in no overall control, some years ago now, we managed to get greater investment in family centres and started a programme called Smart Start which brought about improvements.

Once the Conservatives took full control, that was all scrapped alongside the child poverty strategy. We do need change there. 

Having a one-party state with the same party running all the scrutiny panels, it does not work. It gets too complacent and does not listen to the other parties as closely as they could. 

The council has well documented financial pressures – how will your party fund its ambitions? 

We have to resharpen our focus. The fewer priorities you have, the more you can shift your resources towards them. 

We were the only party this time that advocated taking an axe to consultants at the county council. It was not massive amounts of money but it was thousands of pounds, no other party suggested that and we also see savings that can be made through new technology.

Local government moves too slowly for my liking and the pace needs to be increased. 

I work with the County Council Network nationally and we need to lobby this government, as we did the previous government, for adequate funding for SEND. SEND is broken and unless the government tackles it by March next year, Warwickshire and a lot of other councils could go bust.

What does a vote for your party represent? 

Voting for a Liberal Democrat will give you a councillor who will work all year round, representing their communities. 

We don't party whip as strongly as Labour and the Conservatives, so if there is a local issue that a member needs to represent their area on, we allow that to happen.

You also get a party that works on consensus and pragmatically to bring together various views where it can deliver what is needed on the ground and value for money at the same time, getting to grips with project management and infrastructure, families and children and making people's lives better.

What would success look like for your party? 

Taking control of the council. We may get close, who knows. We have had some successes in the south of the county and now have a Liberal Democrat MP in Warwickshire.

We have seen an increase in vote share and have a full slate of candidates across Warwickshire, which hasn't been seen for a long time. That shows the progression of the party.

We are looking to build percentages and show people that there is another option for change. It is recognised that it is the first time for a long time that we have Liberal candidates in all parts of the county and we need to start that work to see where it takes us.

There is a concentration in the south of the county and in Rugby to ensure we retain what we have and possibly make gains where we can. We are realistic about it.