A LIBERAL Democrat Member of Parliament visited Walthamstow and Chingford on to promote the Lib Dems' campaign to axe council tax and replace it with a local income tax.

Simon Hughes, MP for Southwark and Bermondsey and Lib Dem candidate for London Mayor, was in Waltham Forest handing out leaflets to shoppers explaining the local income tax, a levy which would be based upon the individual's ability to pay.

Mr Hughes was accompanied by local Liberal Democrats, London Lib Dem European candidate Jonathan Fryer and Terry Stacy, the Lib Dem candidate for the GLA constituency of London north-east.

The group visited Chingford Mount on Saturday, meeting shoppers, before moving on to Walthamstow, where they visited Hoe Street, the top of the High Street and Walthamstow Central station.

Mr Hughes met local people and his attention was drawn to the plight of the EMD Cinema and to the issue of the Chingford to Liverpool Street railway line. Local Lib Dems are campaigning for an extra line, with trains running around a reinstated Hall Farm Curve beyond St James' Street to Stratford via a reopened Lea Bridge Station.