TAUNTON’S Liberal Democrat hopeful spoke about the impact business rates has on the town at the party’s annual conference.

Gideon Amos, the Lib Dem’s prospective parliamentary candidate, claimed the Conservative’s cancellation of a business rates review is driving companies out of the town centre at the event in Bournemouth.

“Independent pubs like the Plough Inn on Station Road - which I mention not just because I wish I could spend more time there - are paying tens of thousands of pounds in business rates when the shops nearby pay nothing,” He said.

Mr Amos said the party wants the review it started in coalition to be reinstated to ensure town centre businesses pay lower rates than giant internet retailers with out of town warehouses.

He added: “I’m delighted we have a new Shadow Minister to take on the Government about this issue. But it’s not the first time a Conservative Government has damaged our town centres – remember when they let out of town development rip in the 1990s which saw our cinemas and other businesses driven out of town.

“Town centre businesses are more than the economy, they are art of the fabric of our local communities. We need a Government which is going to reverse these massive increases in business rates.”