One Your Side – Information for Bury

See the above posting about the national picture – but here’s the information just for Bury!

Bury’s share of the country’s debt now stands at a dangerous £6.38billion and something needs to be done.

Over the last seven days in Bury, thanks to Liberal Democrats:
68000 people are getting a £200 income tax cut – benefiting 23 million people across the country
2100 people have been lifted out of paying income tax altogether, with more to come
£625million extra has gone to our schools, aimed at the most disadvantaged pupils – rising to £2.5billion a year by 2015
35800 pensioners have been given an extra £4.50 a week – and those retiring from today will be on average £15,000 better off over their retirement.

Councillors spread Christmas cheer at Longfield Centre

Christmas Saturday Surgery at the Longfield

Local Councillors were out in force spreading Christmas cheer at the Longfield Centre on Saturday 18th December, as the regular Liberal Democrat Saturday Surgery took on a decidedly Christmassy flavour.

Councillors from all three Prestwich wards were on hand as usual on Saturday morning, but donned Santa hats and handed out free mince pies to shoppers and local people who came down to take part. Richard Baum, Liberal Democrat Councillor for St Mary’s ward, said “We have a surgery at the Longfield Centre every Saturday morning from 10.45 – 11.45 come rain or shine. The snow didn’t deter us on Saturday and we were in the festive spirit with our hats and pies. There was even some mulled wine to keep us warm.”

Richard continued “There’s a serious purpose to these Saturday Surgeries. We are here to listen to local people and try to help with any problems they’ve got. We’ve also got the “Scrap Prestwich Parking Charges” petition for people to sign, and over 2,000 people have done so far. We’re also asking people their priorities for Prestwich so that we can make sure we let the Council know what needs protecting when they make cuts to deal with the deficit and debt. But we’re also here to wish everyone in Prestwich a merry Christmas, and I was pleased that so many people went away smiling with a mince pie and our Christmas best wishes.”

The Saturday Surgery series will commence again in early January after a fortnight off for Christmas and New Year. In the meantime, Councillors are available by phone or email over the holidays.

Ask local people their budget priorities – say Lib Dems

Liberal Democrats in Bury are calling on the Council to step up consultation on the future of local services after the government cut Bury’s budget by around £12m for the coming year.

The budget, set as part of the nationwide local government settlement, will see Bury Council lose around a quarter of its budget over the next four years. Liberal Democrats are concerned that without proper consultation, many valuable services could be threatened.

Cllr Richard Baum, Resource spokesman for the Bury Liberal Democrats, said “We all know that cuts need to happen to deal with mess inherited by the government. Some of those cuts are happening here in Bury so it’s vital that local people get the chance to tell us what they want prioritised.”

“Lib Dems have been asking local people for a long time now, so that we can fight to protect the services local people need. The only way we can get the debt and deficit down is by taking local people with us, so I call on the people in charge of the Council to get out into our local communities across Bury now and start an open, honest conversation about the challenges we face.”

“Lib Dems in Bury will continue to fight to give Bury the best services we all want and need.”

Pupil Premium Means £1.8 million extra cash for Bury Kids

Bury Schools are set to receive up to £430 per pupil a year for each poorer pupil they teach under details announced by the Coalition Government. It means that Bury stands to gain over £1.8m extra cash in the coming year to help towards improving teaching and learning in schools and boosting achievement.

The extra cash will be given according to the number of pupils on free school meals and whose families earn less than £16,000 per year. It means that Bury gains an estimated £1.825m.

It was one of Nick Clegg’s Liberal Democrats main pledges before the election. The Pupil Premium prioritises spending on boosting the chances of younger kids starting out at school, rather than those already at university.

Lib Dem leader in Bury Coun Tim Pickstone said,

“There are over 4,200 pupils in Bury eligible for free school meals, so this will mean a really boost for our schools and make a huge difference to the outcomes and chances for our young people. Children need the best possible start in life, and this much needed extra cash will make a real difference in schools to getting our children a better start in life”.

Bury Lib Dems welcome Heaton Park Sell Off delay

Construction of a controversial soccer centre in Heaton Park has been delayed after Liberal Democrat Councillors “called in“ proposals to sell off land in the park.

A planning application was heard earlier this year by Manchester City Council who own Heaton Park. All Labour Councillors voted in favour of the plans to concrete over a corner of the park and open a pay-to-play five-a-side soccer centre. All Lib Dems voted against, citing community concerns over noise, traffic, and the destruction of green space. The application was successful, and on December 7th Manchester City Council agreed to lease the land to Goals Soccer Centre to commence construction.

Now though, the continuing community protests, including a 10,000 signature petition, have led to Lib Dems “calling in” that decision for further scrutiny.

The call-in means at least a temporary delay to the project, forcing the Council to look again at community objections.

Bury Lib Dem Leader Cllr Tim Pickstone said today “I am pleased that our Lib Dem colleagues in Manchester have ‘called in’ this decision. Local Councillors in Holyrood and Sedgley, such as Steve Wright and Ann Garner have been at the forefront of efforts to look again at this decision.”

“Given that thousands of residents objected to these plans originally, a complaint has been made to the Local Government Ombudsman that the Council have not followed due process. Six issues have arisen through this consultation process that have not previously been addressed, so we felt that further scrutiny was necessary.”

Cllr Pickstone continued
“I am pleased that Manchester City Council will be forced to look again at these proposals which local people have objected to since the start. We continue to fight to save Heaton Park.”

Delivering a Fair Start for Every Child

Liberal Democrats believe that a quality education is the biggest opportunity to improve people’s lives. Nothing is more important than giving every child a fair start in life.

Today the coalition government published its white paper on schools – “The Importance of Teaching”. It sets out our ambitious reform programme to raise standards for all children while narrowing the gap between rich and poor.

It shows how the Government is delivering the fair start for every child that we promised in the Liberal Democrat manifesto.

The White Paper announced four key reforms –

– Delivering a Pupil Premium, on top of the budgets that schools already have, to go to every deprived child wherever they live, to allow schools to put extra resources into narrowing the gap in attainment between the richest and the poorest.

– Giving all schools more freedom to make the right choices for their pupils – slimming down the national curriculum, removing bureaucracy and red tape and reducing testing and league tables.

– Recognising that it is the quality of teaching that really makes a difference in the classroom – expanding graduate teacher programmes like Teach First, developing networks of “teaching schools” and supporting continuing professional development.

And, something important to Liberal Democrats, matching school freedoms with a strong strategic role for local authorities in ensuring fairness – in admissions policies, for children with special educational needs, and in championing educational excellence in all schools, including
Free Schools and Academies.

You can read more about the white paper – and you can watch the video below about the pupil premium.

As part of the consultation process, you can send your views on the white paper to: schoolswhitepaper.team@education.gov.uk. If you have friends or family working in education, please foward this email so they can get involved.

The Liberal Democrats are delivering in Government the fair start for children we promised.

Sarah Teather MP
Minister of State – Department for Education

Making Welfare Work and Making it Fair

Our Universal Credit is a radical and liberal policy. It will simplify and amalgamate the main welfare benefits into one single system; ensure that work always pays; and alleviate poverty by boosting take-up and encouraging people into work. It is exactly the kind of change that we came into politics to make.

Labour failed miserably on welfare. During their 13 years in office the welfare bill rose by 40% to £87bn. Under their system people moving into work can still lose more than 90% of every pound they earn: a punitive tax on the shoulders of the poor.

The welfare system should not be judged on how much money is spent on it, but on how much of a difference it makes to people’s lives. We will return the welfare system to its historic mission, as articulated by the great Liberal William Beveridge, to offer security but not ‘stifle incentive, opportunity and responsibility’.

Poverty plus a pound is simply not an ambitious enough goal.

That is why the plans we are announcing today will remove artificial disincentives to work. It must always be worth working, even for a few hours. Taken together our welfare reforms should reduce the number of workless households by 300,000 within three years of implementation. And of course any fair system must include power to use sanctions, so we are giving JobCentre advisers the powers to ensure that there are appropriate and measured steps that can be taken against the small minority who persistently refuse genuine opportunities to work or to train to get the skills to work.

Making welfare work and making it fair is a key test for any government. We are determined to ensure that a government of which the Liberal Democrats are a part passes that test.

Nick Clegg MP
Deputy Prime Minister and Leader of the Liberal Democrats

Steve Webb MP
Minister of State, Department for Work and Pensions

Nick Clegg on a Fairer and more Balanced Economy

Yesterday I visited Manchester and Oldham to launch the Regional Growth Fund – accompanied by our former Party President Sir Ian Wigglesworth and Michael Heseltine, who will oversee the fund. This is a fund worth £1.4bn to promote business and create jobs – and it will help bring about the fairer and more balanced economy Liberal Democrats have long been campaigning for.

It is vital that our economy moves away both from a dependence on the public sector and an over-dependence on a narrow range of sectors in the South East, such as banking. The government is committed to ensuring business opportunities are more evenly balanced across the country.

This requires a new approach, shifting power away from central government and giving it to local businesses and communities so that they can promote private sector growth and jobs in their area.

That is why in a statement in parliament yesterday Vince Cable announced that we are creating local enterprise partnerships that will bring together business and civic leaders to set the strategy and decisions that will work best for their local economy.

Our party has long believed that local government should have more powers over the money raised in their area. So we are looking to reform the planning system and put in place a series of incentives that will allow local areas to benefit from the proceeds of development. And it is why the Government’s White Paper commits us to looking at how local councils can have greater discretion over business rates.

For too long the direction of our economy has been over centralised and over reliant on the City and Whitehall. We are changing that. Liberal Democrats in government are transforming this – to a more green, more diverse and more local economy.

We have done the right thing: Message from Danny Alexander MP

When we came into office, we inherited an economy that was on the brink. With the largest budget deficit in Europe and no plan for tackling it, Britain faced huge economic risks. These could only be dealt with by a clear plan to deal rapidly with the worst financial position this country has faced for generations.

On Wednesday, we set out that plan. And while the scale and pace of the action we need to take is unavoidable, we can choose how we do it. The Spending Review sets out those choices: to spread the burden fairly, to promote economic growth, and to invest in the life chances of our children. These are hard choices that affect millions of people, but they are the right choices to set our country back on the road to prosperity.

We have spread the burden fairly by protecting the key services that the most vulnerable in our society rely on. Social Care has been given a funding boost worth £2bn, the NHS and schools have been protected and our plans for social housing will deliver up to 150,000 new affordable homes.

We have promoted future fairness through a £7 billion ‘fairness premium’ that will support improving the life chances of our poorest children from their first pair of shoes to their first pay packet.

We have promoted future growth by giving the go ahead to key transport projects that will unlock economic potential in every part of the country. We have also delivered on a Green Investment Bank that will kick start green investment and generate jobs.

And we are pushing forward with radical reform. Our decentralisation agenda will reduce the number of central government grants from 90 to fewer than 10. With the exception of schools and public health, ring-fences on council spending will disappear, giving local authorities much greater flexibility. We will deliver welfare reforms that simplify the system and make work pay. And our criminal justice reforms will roll out the community justice programmes that were pioneered by Liberal Democrats in local government.

Yes, it’s going to be tough, and everyone will make a contribution, but those with the broadest shoulders will bear the biggest burden. That’s why we’ve reduced taxes for the low paid, and increased them for the richest. It’s why we introduced a banking levy – and we’ve made it our aim to extract the maximum sustainable tax revenues from the banks that got us into this mess.

The worst thing to do would be to burden future generations with the debts that Labour left us. We have made the tougher choice, no doubt, but we should be proud of the way we have taken responsibility and we have done the right thing.

Danny Alexander MP
Chief Secretary to the Treasury