LABOUR leader Ed Miliband has hit back at claims his party's manifesto for Derbyshire is littered with promises that cannot be delivered.
Speaking ahead of today's county council elections, Mr Miliband said Labour's 75 pledges for Derbyshire was a sign his party was aware of what needs to be done in the county.
The stack of policies is almost double the 38 election promises put forward by the Conservative group, which says Derbyshire County Council has to "live within its means".
Mr Miliband, who visited Swadlincote and Long Eaton in a last-gasp effort to win votes, said the manifesto from Derbyshire Labour was "great".
He said: "We've not made promises we cannot keep.
"We've got more promises and we've also got more credible promises. It's a great manifesto and it talks about things that matter, such as introducing the living wage – that's a really important issue for so many people.
"It talks about energy efficiency and helping people cut their bills.
"It talks about how to support businesses – that's a really important issue as well. And it talks about protecting children centres.
"I think what you see here is a campaign with momentum that is based on conversations with people in Derbyshire."
Alongside Mr Miliband was Derbyshire Labour's leader Anne Western. Asked how Mrs Western could deliver her group's manifesto and cut £130 million from council budgets, as required by the Government, Mr Miliband said: "I'm going to leave that to Anne. She's a great leader and will make the right decisions."
Mr Miliband hit out at anti-European party UKIP, which has 54 candidates across 64 seats in Derbyshire.
The opposition leader said: "I think UKIP's policies will take Britain and Derbyshire in the wrong direction. Their policies are terrible."
The polls open at 10am today and Mrs Western said the chances she will be leader of the county council come the weekend were "pretty good".
She also insisted her group's manifesto was not full of unaffordable promises. "A lot of it does not involve spending money. It's about doing things differently."
Andrew Lewer, leader of Derbyshire Conservatives, said he was confident his group could win a second term. He said: "This is a critical election. We believe it is essential to keep the hard left from taking Derbyshire back. Only a strong Conservative vote can achieve that.''
Alan Graves, of Derbyshire UKIP, said: "We're very confident of taking control of the council. There's a lot of people who are fed up with the old parties."
The county's Lib Dem leader Steve Flitter said the best his group could hope for was a hung council.
