Liberal Democrats from Harlow met Liberal Democrat Shadow Home Secretary Nick Clegg MP at the party's spring conference in Harrogate to discuss how to tackle crime.

Councillors Chris Millington, Robert Thurston and Lorna Spenceley, together with local party chairman David Wright, discussed with him the crime survey that Harlow campaigners are currently carrying out.

The survey is being delivered to over 30,000 houses in Harlow. Harlow's parliamentary spokesman Lorna Spenceley said:

"We were keen to meet Nick Clegg MP to discuss with him the concerns and experiences of residents of Harlow. We were very pleased to have the opportunity to talk to Nick. He has a real understanding of the issues."

Liberal Democrat Shadow Home Nick Clegg MP said:

"I was very pleased to meet the local team and discuss the concerns of residents from Harlow. It is clear to me that Labour's posturing and tough talk on crime has done nothing to cut crime.

The people of Harlow are living with the consequences of having a Labour government more interested in catching headlines than criminals.

By contrast, at our conference, Liberal Democrats voted for a strong set of proposals called Together We Can Cut Crime.

It outlines our Five Steps To A Safer Britain: put more police on the streets rather than waste money on ID cards; restore honesty to sentencing; make education and training in prisons compulsory; make prisoners who work pay into a victims compensation fund and give communities more powers to close problem pubs and clubs.

This plan is an example of real policies which work in practice, not just tough talk from Blair and Brown."