Phoning for Witney

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This Thursday is polling day in the Witney by-election, and we need your help in the final stages of the campaign!

The support from across the North West has been amazing, with lots of people travelling down to Oxfordshire and also assisting from home or at the weekly by-election HQ at the ALDC offices in Manchester.

Lots of our newer party members have used the Witney by-election as an opportunity for some training, and this has been no different on the phones!

You can make a huge impact on the final election results by joining Lib Dem campaigners at ALDC from 1pm, Thursday 20th October at 23 New Mount Street, Manchester, M4 4DE. If you have never phoned before don’t worry, there is a friendly and experienced team on hand that will help you along the way.

If you can’t make it in person to the ALDC by-election HQ on Thursday, you can also make some calls from home – please email Louise at louise.bowe@aldc.org for further details.

Norman Lamb calls for the introduction of mental health first aid in the workplace

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Norman Lamb MP has called on the government to bring parity to mental and physical health by introducing mental health first aid in the workplace.

Speaking in the Guardian on World Mental Health Day (Monday 10th October) he said:

“It is estimated that one in four people experience a mental health issue in any given year, and that one in six employees is depressed, anxious or suffering from stress-related problems at any time. However, many of us know little about mental health. We often don’t spot the signs that a colleague, employee, or we ourselves are struggling, and this delays help and recovery.

Today, on World Mental Health Day, with support from Mental Health First Aid (MHFA) England and Mind, I am calling on the government to act and bring parity to mental and physical health in the workplace. I’m submitting an early day motion on the issue as the first step towards amending the current legislation, which requires employers to train staff in physical first aid, to in future include mental health first aid.”

Norman, who has recently become a mental health first aider himself, stated that mental health first aid “teaches people the skills and confidence to recognise the signs and symptoms of common mental health issues, listen empathetically and effectively guide a person towards the right support”. It is also hoped that introducing mental health first aid in the workplace will help businesses too, by reducing the number of employee sick days lost to mental ill health.

To find out more about mental health first aid, visit MHFA England.

World Food Day 16 October 2016

We’re supporting World Food Day, this Sunday 16 October 2016, coordinated by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation.

At present, almost 800 million people in the world do not have enough food to lead a healthy active life. That’s about one in nine people. About 21,000 people die every day of hunger or hunger-related causes, about one person every four seconds, most of whom are children.

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Climate is changing. Food and agriculture must too
Last year 193 countries pledged to end hunger in the next 15 years. The global goal for achieving Zero Hunger is 2030.

One of the biggest issues related to climate change is food security. The world’s poorest – many of whom are farmers, fishers and pastoralists – are being hit hardest by higher temperatures and an increasing frequency in weather-related disasters.

At the same time, the global population is growing steadily and is expected to reach 9.6 billion by 2050. To meet such a heavy demand, agriculture and food systems will need to adapt to the adverse effects of climate change and become more resilient, productive and sustainable. This is the only way that we can ensure the wellbeing of ecosystems and rural populations and reduce emissions.

Growing food in a sustainable way means adopting practices that produce more with less in the same area of land and use natural resources wisely. It also means reducing food losses before the final product or retail stage through a number of initiatives including better harvesting, storage, packing, transport, infrastructure, market mechanisms, as well as institutional and legal frameworks.

This is why the global message for World Food Day 2016 is “Climate is changing. Food and agriculture must too.”

More information and what we can do

This brochure has more information about the campaign.
This page has information that can be downloaded about tackling world hunger, including activity books for children.

Everyone has a role to play in mitigating the effects of climate change. Countries need to invest in sustainably increase food production, but there are also a number of actions that we can take to help. Find out more ideas here.

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Tim Farron attacks Government’s plan on foreign workers

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Commenting on plans unveiled by the government that businesses will be forced to reveal how many foreign staff they employ, Liberal Democrat Leader Tim Farron said:

“The Government’s plan on foreign workers is a nasty little policy that deserves to be thrown out on the rubbish heap. This threatens to further stoke the resentment that has seen increases in hate crime across our country. Only the Liberal Democrats are fighting to keep Britain open, tolerant and united.

This policy has also shown that Conservatives are now not the party of business, the Liberal Democrats are. But this issue is about more than that, it’s about what sort of society we are.

Instead of backing away from the fight, the Liberal Democrats will oppose this plan and stand proud in our belief that immigration benefits our culture, our economy and our communities.”

Lib Dems secure all-party support for Green Belt

Liberal Democrats in Bury have secured all-party support for a motion at Bury’s Full Council outlining the support of councillors to the principle of ‘Green Belt’.

Green Belt, introduced in various areas of Britain from 1955, as a planning policy to protect countryside around the countries largest urban areas.
· To check the unrestricted sprawl of large built-up areas
· To prevent neighbouring towns from merging into one another
· To assist in safeguarding the countryside from encroachment
· To preserve the setting and special character of historic towns
· To assist in urban regeneration, by encouraging the recycling of derelict and other urban land

For Bury this is very significant – 60% of Bury MBC has been designated as Green Belt land.

However we are concerned that this Green Belt land is under threat from the Greater Manchester Spatial Framework being developed by the ten Greater Manchester Councils to identify land for homes and jobs to 2035 – ultimately to provide land for another 225,000 homes in Greater Manchester over the next 25 years.

Liberal Democrat Group Leader Cllr Tim Pickstone said:
“Green Belt as an important Planning Policy which should be retained around our major urban areas going forwards.”
“In Bury we are very lucky, of not only having six great towns and many smaller communities, but also very lucky to have great green spaces between our built up areas. We do need more houses, but we believe that we should be looking first to the use of brownfield land for housing and jobs as a first priority.”

The motion proposed by the Liberal Democrat councillors received the support of Conservative and Labour councillors and is now the Council’s policy. Although the motion states the support of councillors to the principle of green belt, there is much more campaigning to be done on the issue when the proposals from Greater Manchester Council are published in the Autumn.

Liberal Democrat Federal Conference overview

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This weekend the Liberal Democrat Federal Conference gets underway in Brighton, running from Saturday 17th to Tuesday 20th September at the Brighton Centre.

It promises to be a busy and exciting event, with plenty of policy motions, fringe meetings and training sessions on offer.

On Saturday, highlights from the main hall include Safe and Free (liberty and security policy paper), An End to Homelessness policy motion, consultative sessions on nuclear weapons and sex work and a policy motion on adopting Pre-exposure Prophylaxis.

Sunday sees policy motions on Combatting Racism, UK and European Collaborative Research and Erasmus, Restoring Access to Justice and the Campaign to Save Parent Governors. On Monday there are policy motions on Europe, the Green Economy, and Mending the Net (a social security policy paper).

The final day of conference features a motion on Future Transport and speeches from party President Sal Brinton and the Leader of the Liberal Democrats, Tim Farron.

Don’t worry if you can’t make it to conference this year – you can keep up with all the news on twitter using the hashtag #ldconf. You can also watch coverage at home on BBC Parliament, starting Monday at 9:00am.

For more information about Federal Conference visit the Lib Dem website, or to view the full agenda please click here.

 

 

 

Reporting Back: Bury Council heading for £6.5 million overspend

Last week was the regular meeting of Bury Council’ Cabinet. A key point on the agenda was Bury Council’s financial outlook, which at present shows the Council heading for a £6.4 million overspend in the current financial year.

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This summary actually hides an even more worrying picture, with overspend in various areas totalling over £10.5 million but addressed partially met by savings or other income elsewhere.

The Council has drawn up an ‘Action Plan’ to partially address the issue (recruitment freeze, no new spending, etc etc), but this only amounts to around £1.5 million. The remainder of the overspend would need to be covered by spending the vast majority of the Council’s ‘free reserves’ (roughly £5 million, leaving the council with under £1 million left in ‘free reserves’ at the end of the year.

The point we raised at the meeting was whether the Council was ‘too optimistic’ when it set the budget back in February. Much of the overspend relates to:
– changes in the way services are delivered (e.g. changes are either taking too long to happen, or they are not delivering the savings that were expexted)
– income not as much as expected (for example income from parking, from leisure centres, from comercial rents are all down on budget)
– demand driven areas, such as adult care, or children in care, where costs are expected to be over budget.

The impact of this projected overspend could well be very significant. What it means for the Council is that for next year (2017-18) the starting position is that an extra £6.4 million of cuts will need to be found (it was going to be £11 million, now add £6.4 million to that). We are very worried on the impact this will have on services for residents.

A full copy of the report is here.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Liberal Democrat plan for Britain in Europe

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Today Tim Farron has set out the Lib Dem plan for Britain in Europe. At its heart, it demands that the British people should have their say on the final deal in a referendum.

In a message to members earlier today the Lib Dem leader wrote:

“The simple fact is, voting for a departure is not the same as voting for a destination. The British people deserve a real choice over what comes next, to guarantee that it is the right decision for them, their families, their jobs and our country.

In the meantime, our party has another vital task, to fight for an open, tolerant and united country, to hold the Conservative Brexit Government to account and the guarantee the best possible deal for Britain.

We will hold Theresa May’s Government to account over Brexit, expose the lies that Boris Johnson, David Davis and Michael Gove told during the referendum and make sure any deal they do is good for Britain.

Nobody else will do this job for us. Labour cannot be trusted to do their job as the opposition.

Our policy on Europe is simple: we want to stay. We wanted that the day before the referendum and we still want it today. We want to stay because Britain is stronger, safer and more influential at the heart of Europe, than outside it.”

You can read more about the Liberal Democrat plan for Britain in Europe on the Lib Dem website.

Increase in Missed Bins across Bury

Figures obtained by Bury’s Lib Dem councillors have revealed a noticeable increase in the number of reported ‘missed bins’ in the last few years.

The figures identify the number of bins reported as not collected by bin type. This includes instances where it is not the Councils fault such as access problems due to parked cars, snow and floods etc, contaminated bins, bins not out and bins too heavy.

Missed Bins 2013/2014
Grey 2230
Brown 1847
Green 1146 B
lue 799

Missed Bins 2014/2015
Grey 1829
Brown 1262
Green 503
Blue 552

Missed Bins 2015/2016
Grey 2227
Brown 1583
Green 816
Blue 869

Lib Dem Group Leader Councillor Tim Pickstone said:
“Missed bins is one of most frequently reported problems to us as local councillors. The Council does provide additional bags in the event of a missed bin, but people are understandably concerned about their bin being missed when the collections are only every three weeks.”

“There has been a noticeable increase in 2015-16 and we’re hoping that the Council take whatever urgent action needs to be taken get this number down.”

(Photo Bury Times)