Liberal Democrats will protect the National Health Service budget in the next Parliament.

Under plans announced in the party’s manifesto, NHS spending will rise by at least the rate of inflation over the next Parliament.

As well as protecting the NHS budget, Liberal Democrats will also pool health and social care budgets. This would help make care more tailored towards individual patients and reduce inefficiencies.

This follows the announcement of a Liberal Democrat manifesto commitment to establish a mental health research fund worth £50m per year by 2020.

Liberal Democrat Health Minister Norman Lamb said:

“The NHS was a Liberal idea and we are proud to be committed to protecting funding over the next Parliament.

“In this parliament the Government has had to make difficult decisions to cut the deficit and build a stronger economy. We have protected the NHS and Liberal Democrats will continue to protect the NHS budget from cuts in the next parliament.

“We are clear that a crucial part of building a fairer society, where there is opportunity for everyone, is ensuring that once the deficit is eliminated public services are protected.

“Labour have said that this is irresponsible, and in Wales they have cut the NHS budget by 8%. They are wrong and will be judged on this record.”

A Liberal Democrat government will make further cuts in Income Tax and reduce National Insurance for millions of workers under manifesto plans announced today.

The party plans to raise the personal allowance to at least £12,500 by the end of next Parliament.

This move would cut income tax for 30m workers and be worth £400 per year to a typical basic rate taxpayer.

Pensioners have not benefitted from the previous increases in the personal allowance, but the increase to £12,500 will benefit more than 6m pensioners.

And in a new proposal announced today, Liberal Democrats will seek to raise the amount people can earn before paying National Insurance once the personal income tax allowance has reached £12,500.

Commenting Liberal Democrat Chief Secretary to the Treasury Danny Alexander said:

“Our tax system must be fair and help to make being in work pay.  That’s why cutting income tax for working people, particularly those on low and middle incomes, is a top Liberal Democrat priority.

“It was on the front page of the 2010 Liberal Democrat manifesto and we have fought to keep it on the agenda at every Budget.  By April next year we will have delivered a tax cut to over 26 million people worth £800 a year to a typical basic rate taxpayer and taken over 3 million out of tax altogether.

“Now we want to go even further and lift the amount of money people can earn before paying income tax to £12,500.  This will take hundreds of thousands more low earners out of tax altogether and give millions of working people a further tax cut of £400.

“This move will also give a tax cut to over 6 million pensioners.  When we’ve reached £12,500 we will seek to raise the level that people start paying employee National Insurance.

“The Liberal Democrats are the only party in British politics with a long-term commitment to cutting taxes for the working people of Britain. We’ve delivered the largest programme of tax cuts for a generation over the last four years, despite all of the other financial pressures.

“These manifesto commitments will mean nothing less than a generational shift to a fairer tax system that rewards work and helps working people. That’s the way to build a stronger economy and a fairer society and ensure that everyone has the opportunity to get on in life.”

This Thursday (14 August 2014) we will out campaigning in the afternoon and evening. It would be fantastic if you were able to join us at any point.

In Holyrood ward, we will be leafleting from 1pm followed and after a short break we will be back out doorstep surveying at 3pm. We will then be surveying in Sedgley ward at 6pm. For more details and to RSVP please ring or text Victor on 07977240568.

A Liberal Democrat government would establish a mental health research fund to support the development of new cutting-edge mental health treatments, Nick Clegg has announced.

Nick is calling for Britain to lead the world in understanding and treating mental illness, so that it is put on equal-footing with physical health.

In the plans outlined by Nick, Liberal Democrats would increase funding spent on mental health research by £50m, by 2020.

The Liberal Democrats are building a stronger economy and a fairer society. Research shows that one in four people will suffer from mental health problems at some point in their lives. By tackling mental health as a same priority as physical health, we can build a fairer society.

Nick said:

“Mental health issues have been treated as a sort of Cinderella service compared to physical health issues.

“I want people who are dealing with depression to be as effectively treated as if they had diabetes.

“That is why I want to see Britain become the world leader in the next breakthrough in mental health research just as we have always been a country that is a world leader in research into physical health.

“We’ve led the world in research in physical health issues. We’re the country where penicillin was invented, where DNA was discovered, where IVF fertility treatment was developed, I see no reason why we can’t lead the world in mental health research and treatments as well.

“To that end, the Liberal Democrats will commit in our manifesto to a new research fund which, by the end of next Parliament, will be worth £50m per year.”

Liberal Democrats in government have prioritised mental healthcare. We have introduced a legal duty on the NHS to promote parity of esteem for mental health and are investing £400m to increase access to talking therapies.

By establishing a mental health research fund, we can go even further and pave the way for major breakthroughs in the way we understand and treat mental illness.

Parliamentary Candidates
Closing date: Friday, 1 August at 6pm
The Local Party Executive of Bury Liberal Democrats invites applications for selection as Prospective Parliamentary Candidate for the constituencies of Bury North and Bury South.

Potential applicants should contact the Returning Officer, Andrew Garner, 34 Stockport Road, Romiley, Stockport, SK6 3AA
Phone 07788 580 242 – Email mail@andrewgarner.net for an application Pack.

Candidates must be on the Approved list of Parliamentary Candidates. Applications must be received by the Returning Officer by 18:00 on Friday 1st August 2014.

Local Election Candidates – Holyrood, St Mary’s and Sedgley Wards
Closing date: Friday, 1 August at 6pm
The Local Party Executive of Bury Liberal Democrats invites applications for selection as candidate in the Prestwich wards of Holyrood, St Mary’s and Sedgley for the May 2015 elections. Candidates should be an approved target local election candidate in Bury at the time of application. Application should be by email to the above returning officer mail@andrewgarner.net by 1 August.

Queries or an informal discussion on either Parliamentary or local election candidates pleae contact our council group leader Tim Pickstone 07976 831 686 tim@burylibdems.net

Dates for your Diary

As people will have seen in the press Bury Council have agreed to go ahead with three-weekly collections of the main ‘grey’ bins from October 2014.

The decision was made by the Council’s ‘Cabinet’ – a group of six Labour councillors with no opposition members.

Immediately after the decision our ouw Cllr Tim Pickstone wrote and asked for the decision to be ‘called-in for Scrutiny’. This is where the decision of the Cabinet is reviewed by the Scrutiny Committee which is made up of ‘back-bench’ councillors.

Although this is an important step it is almost unheard of for Scrutiny to change a decision of the Cabinet, particularly because the balance on the Committee is more representative of the Council’s political makeup – so there are 9 Labour councillors, 3 Conservatives and for this particular committee no Lib Dems or Independents.

The Scrutiny Call-in Meeting happens on Wednesday 30 July 2014 at 7.00pm at the Town Hall – members of the public are welcome.

Lack of Public Consultation
We are extremely concerned about the way that this decision has been made. The Council could and should have consulted members of the public, to see what ideas people had about recycling and bin collections.

Instead the decision has been rushed through with only six days between the publication on the report and the final decision being made.

Over 3,500 people signed a petition on the Change.org website against the three weekly collection. Local Lib Dems undertook our own online survey of local residents and despite the short timescale over 800 people took part.

91% did not agree with the change to 3 weeks, 6% agreed.

Good idea, but wrong way to do it!
Bury Council’s idea of ‘zero waste’ is a good principle to have.

Liberal Democrats have always been huge supporters of recycling. The world’s population is growing every day and we cannot continue to exploit and throw away the earth’s precious resources.

The Council estimates that it will save £800,000 a year in landfill charges. But, as many residents have pointed out, this assumes that we will all recycle MORE rubbish with a three-weekly bin collection than we do now. Many people are telling us that they already recycle everything that they can.

Every Household is Different
We’re all different and we all produce slightly different amounts of rubbish! There will be different ways that work for different households to reduce their waste. Many people have enthusiastically taken up the Council’s offer of having a smaller Grey Bin – which is a great way to reduce recycling if you can keep your rubbish down to this level. Now the Council is saying that it will replace smaller bins with bigger bins if people need to with the three-weekly collections (how much is that going to cost?).

Three weekly collections will be fine for some households. But many people with larger families, with babies, with pets and some people with medical conditions are very concerned about how they will cope with a collection every three weeks.

What can’t we recycle
There are many things that we CANNOT recycle in our bins at present. Most are ‘soft plastics’ such as yogurt pots, margarine tubs and crucially all that packaging we get from supermarkets such as plastic food trays. There are medium sized items that can be taken to a tip or a mini-recycling centre – but guess what? – the Council has closed our Tip, and all three mini-recycling centres in Prestwich have been closed (Tescos, Longfield, Upper Wilton Street). In Government the Lib Dems have introduced a small charge on plastic bags to help reduce plastic waste, encourage recycling and protect our environment. When a similar charge was introduced in Wales, the number of plastic bags used fell by nearly 80%.

Reducing our Rubbish
The best way to reduce the amount we send to landfill or incinerator and save money is to reduce the amount of rubbish in total. Thirty years ago a households’ rubbish fitted easily into ONE small bin (that the dustbin man/woman normally carried on their back!). What has changed is the amount we buy and throw away and crucially the amount of packaging that everything comes in. Some things will need to be done by Government, but there are many things that local councils can do – either on their own or working together (for example across Greater Manchester) to work with supermarkets to reduce their packaging, or help people reduce waste.

What happens now?
Unless something happens to change the Council’s mind, the changes will happen at the beginning of October 2014.

The Council has produced this list of FAQs for people.

Earlier in the month was the regular meeting of Bury’s Full Council – the opportunity five times a year when all Councillors meet together.

The meeting interestingly too place the night before the announcement in the press and on TV about the three-weekly bin collections. However no mention was made of this new policy at Full Council (TV interviews had clearly already been recorded). Papers for the Cabinet meeting which contained the proposal seemed to be handed out as people left the meeting.

This was my first Full Council meeting as the only Liberal Democrat councillor. Although it has its advantages ( for example it’s easy to decide how the Liberal Democrats will vote) it also has significant disadvantages. We can’t propose motions and any questions to the Leader get put at the very bottom of the list and then don’t get answered! (I understand this might be reviewed, as hopefully it fairly clear that this isn’t a fair way of doing things…)

Public Question Time
Two main issues were raised:
– the speed limit of the unrestricted section of Turton Road, which I understand will be reduced to 50mph, and the possibility of 40mph is being investigated.
– a second issue was the proposal for the withdrawal of the (commercially run) bus service which serves Affetside. Thankfully Transport for Greater Manchester have stepped in and a solution for a subsidised service has been found.

Questions to the Leader
I submitted two questions – which were only answered in writing.

Councillor Pickstone
Could the Leader say what proportion of staff who are currently employed by the Authority at levels below the ‘living wage’ are employed in schools? The Council is currently proposing to increase the pay of staff on the minimum wage to something a little higher, but still below the recommended ‘Living Wage’.If I had been given a supplementary question I would have asked about how the Council was addressing the issue of schools budgets that would have been affected by this.

A. There are 646 schools-based employees who currently earn an
hourly rate of pay that is below the Living Wage of £7.65 per hour.
This amounts to just under 56% of the total number of employees
who earn less than the Living Wage. This Labour administration is
very clear that it aspires to pay all staff at or above the Living Wage
and the simple reason that we cannot do this at the present time is
the sheer scale of the cuts imposed on us by the coalition
Government which Councillor Pickstone’s party plays a full role in.
However, despite this, the proposals on terms and conditions that
we have just begun to consult on provide for a move towards the
Living Wage for the lowest paid of our employees.

Councillor Pickstone
Will the Leader join me in welcoming the £245,000 extra money for potholes for Bury from the Government? How will the funding be split between townships?

A. As I said in an earlier answer, I am pleased that we have qualified
for this funding because it shows that the Government recognize that
Bury Council delivers best practice when it comes to highway
maintenance. However this money only goes a fraction of the way to
making up for the savage cuts that the Government has previously
made to our highways funding and so it is clear to everyone that the
blame for potholes on our roads lies firmly at their door.We intend to
spend the money in the areas of most need and so it is not possible to
provide a township split at this stage.

Motions
A Labour motion on a ‘Fair Deal for Bury’ proposed calling for all-parties to lobby Government for a review of the ‘funding formula’ which (for many years) has been viewed as unfairly underfunding Bury compared to other councils. There was a long debate, including an amendments from the Conservatives. I ended up supporting this motion.

A Conservative motion addressed the issue of Bury’s ‘Core Strategy’. The consideration of this issue has been suspended by the Planning Inspector, as there are issues around the supply of land for future housing. The Conservative motion also included opposition to all wind farms, which I don’t support.
In the end a Labour amendment was adopted which I was able to support.

Any questions please don’t hesitate to get in touch.

Tim