THE Warrington branch for UKIP held a public meeting at Rylands Recreational Club last Thursday to 'dispel the myths' associated with the party.

Along with parliamentary candidates Trevor Nicholls and Malcolm Lingley, fellow UKIP candidates John Bickley, for Middleton and Heyworth, along with Blair Smillie, for Alyn and Deeside, joined proceedings to voice their views to residents.

Those in attendance at the Orford club were given the opportunity to raise issues and concerns with the party, including matters on immigration and the NHS.

Chairman Michael Johnson kicked off the evening by declaring: "We feel people are coming around to the way that we feel and our policies - Trevor and Malcolm have had excellent responses from the people in the town."

Thereafter, attention soon shifted to key matters which have cast UKIP's policy into the spotlight across the country.

"The problem we have is with uncontrolled immigration," said Mr Bickley.

"We know that Australia has a points based system and if you meet the system then you are welcome into the country - we want an Australia type of system.

"That is not racist and if it was it would mean that most of the countries around the world are racist too. It is not wrong to discuss controlling it as we need to stop this nonsense."

Mr Smillie, who also delivered a speech to residents, also believes there must be change in the country to sustain a positive future.

"Everyone has their own beliefs and everyone has to respect that, I don't have a problem with that," he said.

"But I think we, in this country, have lost our values and become too liberal - we do not know what the border is."

Another matter high on the agenda was Labour's plans for the NHS - with Warrington North candidate Trevor Nicholls calling for residents to instead back UKIP's proposals for the service.

"We want to invest more of the NHS budget into the front line of the service," he said.

Cheshire Police officers also attended the meeting but no incidents were reported and it was described as a 'precautionary' measure by the party.

A raffle was also put on to help raise funds for the party's election campaign.