BUILDING a bypass through Wilton Park to ease traffic congestion was one of the issues discussed at an election forum in Beaconsfield.

Candidates Dominic Grieve (Conservative), Stephen Lathrope (Labour), Steven Lloyd (Lib Dem) and Andrew Moffat (UK Independence Party) were grilled on a wide range of topics during the forum at St Mary and All Saints C of E Combined School in Maxwell Road, Beaconsfield.

Mr Moffat, a National Front member when in his teens, called for the death penalty to be brought back, total withdrawal from the European Union and for immigration to be stopped.

Calls to alleviate congestion on the A355 prompted calls for public consultation from all four candidates with the possibility of a by-pass through Wilton Park being mooted by both Mr Lloyd and Mr Grieve, subject to public approval.

All candidates were united in their opposition to the Central Railway scheme for a Channel Tunnel freight railway which would use the Chiltern line through the town.

Both Mr Lloyd and Mr Moffat said they would fight the scheme 'tooth and nail.'

Mr Lathrope said he would support the current government's strategy to put more freight on the railways but objected to the Central Railway scheme. Mr Grieve accused Labour of attempting to by-pass planning regulations to help the application through the planning process.

A question relating to overcrowded prisons was greeted with calls for more community sentencing by Mr Lathrope, Mr Lloyd and Mr Grieve, with the Liberal Democrat even going so far as to say that 'prison does not work.'

Mr Moffat advocated the return of the death penalty to loud applause from the audience.

Offenders facing up to their victims, the education of offenders, and community policing were also solutions offered up by all four candidates.

On asylum seekers, Mr Moffat said "as soon as they come in they will have the right to bring in all their relatives.

"A stop has to be made at some stage and I'm in favour of announcing that stop."

Mr Grieve advocated the Conservative policy of putting all asylum seekers in reception centres, while Mr Lloyd said the Liberal Democrats were in favour of central funding areas that had a high influx of refugees.

Mr Lathrope defended the government's record on immigration, saying Labour had started to disperse refugees from the coastal towns were they had initially been housed.