People in Newcastle... know better what they need than the faceless people in Whitehall and Millbank

Don Foster

Citing Labour's u-turn on the privatisation of air traffic control, Mr Foster pledged his party to fight tooth and nail to block such a move.

There would be no auction of British skies, he said.

On Labour's local government bill, Mr Foster said it was Liberal Democrat pressure that ensured council cabinets were now forced to meet in public.

He also rounded on Labour's handling of the fuel crisis accusing Prime Minister Tony Blair of blaming everyone but himself.

Local people know best

Mr Foster highlighted the plight of people living in extreme poverty.

He said: "It's people living like this who often have the best solutions no-one asks them."

The Lib Dems were committed to listening to people at both a local and regional level.

Labour, he said, "had gone cold on devolution and the Tories fear it.

"People in Newcastle... know better what they need than the faceless people in Whitehall and Millbank."

Mr Foster pledged the Liberal Democrats to "rapid action" where local people wanted regional assemblies.

He also blamed Labour for the fact that Britain was at the bottom of the European league table for recycling.

Tory 'bandwagon champions'

But if Labour was a disappointment, the Tories would be a disaster, he said.

"The Tories have shown they don't give a damn about the environment," he said.

He said Mr Hague's willingness to pay lip service to every passing cause meant that he had turned "bandwagon jumping into an Olympic sport".

And shadow environment secretary Archie Norman was the "abominable no-man".

Mr Foster rounded up his speech by urging the Liberal Democrats to 'go for green' in the 21st century.

And he said his party was pledged to reforming planning law in a bid to help Britain's 150,000 homeless families.

"It is a scandal that there are 150,000 homeless families in Britain yet 750,000 empty homes. Removing the unfair VAT incentives which favour greenfield builds rather than regeneration would address this," Mr Foster said.