There was a fantastic turnout for our Fairer Taxes Action Day in Abingdon South on Saturday, reflecting the success of the day nationwide.

Led by our new Parliamentary Candidate Layla Moran, we did a mix of surveying, collecting petition signatures, delivering target mailings and distributing flyers about a key local development issue.

As well as local members and councillors we were delighted to welcome helpers from as far away as Reading, Milton Keynes and Wallingford.

The reception on the doorstep was very positive.  Quite a few people already knew about how we are making the Income Tax system fairer and there is broad support for the approach.

In our survey we were also asking people what they thought about other policies such as the Pupil Premium and the triple lock on state pensions.  Both of these policies have a lot of support too.

On a local level there is a lot of unhappiness with the local Conservative run council’s failure to get the new Local Development Framework in place, risking planning by appeal, and their proposal to axe all the local recycling bring sites.

What we didn’t see much of was the degree of unhappiness that was very obvious during the May 2011 elections in Abingdon.  There are still a few people unhappy with the coalition, or mentioning specific policies they are unhappy about, but there were far more mentions of the fact that we are the party that keeps in touch locally and works hard for the community.

We’ll be running our own Action Days in all our target County seats between now and May, and I hope we’ll see more National Action Days to help motivate more people out to help too.

In our photo you can spot South East Euro Candidate Antony Hook, OxWAb Candidate Layla Moran and South East MEP Catherine Bearder at the Abingdon South Action Day.

* Neil Fawcett is the Constituency Campaign Manager for Oxford & Abingdon West