Liberal Democrats call for ‘NHS Passport’ for the 59,000 EU Citizens who work in our NHS

The Liberal Democrats have called for an “NHS Passport” to secure the rights of the 59,000 EU citizens working in the NHS, as figures have revealed a sharp rise in nurses from the EU quitting the health service.

Over 2,700 EU nurses left the NHS in 2016, a 68% increase compared to two years ago. Separate figures from the Royal College of Nursing have shown the number of EU nationals registering as nurses in England has dropped by 92%, while there are 24,000 nurse jobs unfilled in the NHS.

Figures obtained by the Lib Dems show that 1,849 EU national left our local NHS Trust, Pennine Acute, in 2014, 2015, and 2016, including 558 nurses – one of the highest figures in the country.

The Liberal Democrats have called for an immediate guaranteed right to live and work in the UK for all EU citizens working in NHS and care services, in a motion passed by members at the party’s Spring Conference in York today. The motion also called for the urgent reinstatement of the nursing bursary to address the huge shortage of nurses in the NHS.

Liberal Democrat Shadow Health Secretary Norman Lamb commented:

“These shocking figures show you can’t have a hard Brexit and a strong NHS.

“It is vital that we reassure NHS staff and social care workers from the EU that they remain welcome and valued in the UK following Brexit.

“These people save lives, yet this Conservative government is treating them with careless disregard.

“NHS and care services would struggle to cope if significant numbers of doctors, nurses and NHS staff from the EU left.

“Theresa May must do the decent thing and ensure the right to remain for all EU citizens, with an immediate guarantee for those working in health and social care.

“It’s time to scrap GMSF” says Mayoral Candidate

JANE BROPHY, the Liberal Democrat candidate for Mayor of Greater Manchester, is calling for the Greater Manchester Spacial Framework (GMSF) to be scrapped.

The GMSF process will only go ahead if all ten councils in Greater Manchester and the newly elected mayor vote in favour of it. If any one of the eleven deciding vote against the plans, then it will fall – and the Liberal Democrat mayoral candidate is now pledging to do just that.

Jane Brophy said: “The Government and Greater Manchester Combined Authority should have worked together with local councils, local people and local communities to ensure no more houses were built on our greenbelt until all other options were exhausted.

“There was no attempt to have any conversation with local people and their voices have been ignored. We now risk blindly destroying our green spaces and depriving our children of the areas to grow and play in.

“Before we open up the greenbelt for development we must bring empty homes back into use, develop every old mill building, empty warehouse, factory, brownfield space and derelict piece of land that we can.

“Only when all those options were exhausted should we have considered moving onto the greenbelt. But our voices have gone ignored for long enough and it’s now time to scrap this GMSF process.

“There was no discussion about where was going to be developed, and clearly no intention to begin any discussion.

“The GMSF has been top down, rather than from the bottom up. We need a plan that fully involves local people and their communities right from the start.

“This should have been about responsibly building affordable homes in areas that are near public transport and existing links, and it should be for local people in each area to decide the future of their community, not for a secret group at Manchester Town Hall to present a completed plan.

“Therefore, I am now withdrawing my support from the GMSF process and if elected I will vote to block the process, and work to ensure each and every local resident and local community is involved properly in the process to build the much-needed homes.”

More information www.janebrophy.com

 

We need an emergency £4 billion for the NHS and Social Care in tomorrow’s Budget.

The Liberal Democrats have called for an extra £4bn funding in this week’s Budget for the NHS and Social Care services to tackle the crisis emerging across the country.

Cuts to local government have hit social care badly, with more than a million older people having un-met care needs and thousands stuck in hospital for days after their treatment has finished because the care they need once they return home is not available.

Alongside this, the NHS has seen rising demand for treatment and needs more funding to deliver vital improvements such as achieving equality of access to timely treatment for those with mental ill health, and digitising the NHS to improve care and to make the system more efficient.

The Liberal Democrats believe we need a long term solution for funding Health and Social Care which will include raising additional revenue for these vital services from taxation.

The party had established an independent expert panel who will make evidence based recommendations on how this can be delivered in the fairest way.

Liberal Democrat Leader Tim Farron said:
“People across the country know the cost of underfunded health and social care services. It is the longer waiting lists and the trolleys in hospital corridors. It is the shorter care visits and the loved ones stranded in hospital because their local authority hasn’t got the resource to provide the care they need.

“The Government cannot continue to avoid this issue. More money is needed for NHS and care and only the Liberal Democrats are being upfront with people about the tough decisions that need to be taken and that will include fair tax rises.

“This looks like it will only get worse, with Theresa May’s reckless dealings with Europe hitting our economy, meaning even less resources will be available. The Government needs to face facts – you can’t have a strong NHS and care service with a hard Brexit.”

Liberal Democrat Shadow Health Secretary Norman Lamb said:
“It is time for a new deal for our NHS and care services.

“Anyone using the NHS and care services knows they need more money and that is what the Liberal Democrats will deliver. We will set out a long term plan for funding, which will include fair tax rises. However we also know that services are at crisis point. Patients can’t wait any longer. That is why the government must put in this upfront investment without delay.

“Patients and their families are fed up with politicians sidestepping the difficult questions when it comes to improving the NHS and social care services. I am determined to set out a bold, new deal and a vision that will safeguard Britain’s health and social care services for generations to come”.

Liberal Democrats are calling for an injection of £4 billion extra funding for 2017-18 and that it should be delivered as follows, to ensure it has maximum impact and reaches those services where it is needed most:

£2bn additional funding for social care
£1.5bn additional transformation funding, to deliver modernisation and improve efficiency in the NHS
£500m additional dedicated funding for mental health

Reporting Back: Bury’s Budget Council 2017

At Bury’s recent ‘Budget Council’ Meeting the proposals from the majority Labour Group were voted through, which is a Council Tax increase from 1 April 2016 of 4.94%. Your local Liberal Democrat councillors voted against this budget.

The increase is made up of a basic increase of 1.94%, plus a further 3% ‘social care levy’. Bury has opted to ‘front load’; the Social Care Levy increases, so although this wasn’t announced last night, we can expect a further increase of 4.94% the year after, and 1.94% in 2019/20. This means Bury’s Council Tax will rise by almost 12.5% over the next three years.

When the Police Authority and Fire Authority charges are taking into account the actual rise for a Band D property will go up about £72 from April. A full list of the new Council Tax band rates is below.

One piece of good news is that an extra £10 million is to be invested in roads and highways over the next three years. The Council will borrow the money, paid back from the savings it makes from not having to make so many road repairs. Just how far £10 million will stretch remains to be seen – Lib Dem-run Stockport borrowed £100,000 million a few years ago which has enabled them to resurface about 1/3 of their roads – so I think we can all see that £10,000 isn’t going to do everywhere in across the whole of Bury.

The three-year budget sees ‘cuts’ of over £30 million pounds in almost every area of Council work following the relentless reduction in money that Councils get from the Government. We are very concerned that not enough detail is being given to members of the public about what these cuts will mean – what services will be cut, what jobs will be lost – and it would be better to be ‘up front’ about what the savings mean.

What did the Liberal Democrat councillors do?
The Liberal Democrat Group voted against the budget. Although we recognise that so much money has to be saved we felt that we couldn’t vote for £30 million of cuts when we didn’t know what they would mean to ordinary people.

We did propose changes to the budget:
– More money to help keep some of the smaller libraries open using volunteers.
– More money to help clear up fly-tipping.
– Money to provide for additional parking enforcement around schools.
These proposals were unfortunately voted against by the majority Labour Group.

Council Tax for 2017/18 is:

Band A – £1,096.26
Band B – £1,278.98
Band C – £1,461.69
Band D – £1,644.41
Band E – £2,009.83
Band F – £2,375.26
Band G – £2,740.67
Band H – £3,288.81

Bury’s Library Review – Formal Consultation

Bury Council is now formally consulting on its proposals to close 10 or 11 of our 14 libraries.

Consultations run until 27 April.

There are two options are:
1) to retain the following library buildings: Bury (plus Archives), Ramsbottom, and Prestwich;
2) to retain Bury (plus Archives), Ramsbottom, Prestwich and Radcliffe.

You can read the proposals online at http://www.bury.gov.uk/libraryservicereview or read a hard copy at any library or at Bury Town Hall, Whittaker Street in Radcliffe, and 3 Knowsley Place in Bury.

How to have your say:
Online – go to https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/bury-libraries-consultation
By post – to Bury Library, Manchester Road, Bury BL9 0DG
By email – to library.suggestions@bury.gov.uk

Liberal Democrats across Bury are campaigning to save our libraries – you can sign our petition below.

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Update: Unaccompanied Child Refugees

Last week, when media attention was focussed on the Article 50 vote in Parliament, the Government quietly back-tracked on the previous commitment to help unaccompanied child refugees.

Previously the ‘Dubs amendment’ had secured a commitment, with all-Party support, to take in 3,000 unaccompanied child refugees. The Government is now closing the door on child refugees with only 300 in the country.

Bury, along with 22 other North West Local Authorities, responded to a request from the Home Office and agreed to oversee 4 of these vulnerable young people whom were being moved from France under a National Transfer Scheme for Unaccompanied Asylum Seeking Children.

These young people are being supported in appropriate accommodation to access health, education and build on their independence and life skills. These young people are now Looked After Children by Bury and we are their corporate parents.

Liberal Democrat Leader Tim Farron MP has written the following open letter to the Prime Minister on this change of policy:

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Tim Farron – Click to play

Dear Theresa,

Yesterday during your statement on the Informal European Council I asked you if you would guarantee that your Government would continue to take unaccompanied child refugees from Europe under the Dubs scheme (section 67 of the Immigration Act 2016). Your failure to give this reassurance in your response yesterday was concerning and I hope that in your response to this letter you can clarify the Government’s position on the Dubs scheme.

As you will know the DUbs amendment was borne out of cross-party support for Save the Children’s call for the UK to take 3000 children, our fair share of unaccompanied child refugeees who had fld conflict and arrived in Europe. The narrow criteria offered in the guidance on how to implement Dub was not in the spirit of the amendment in Greece and Italy, where many children continue to languish is far wider.

Whilst the number of arrivals to Greece and Italy have declined from their peak the crisis continues and we can expect arrivals to rise as the weather improves this year. It will therefore be of the utmost importance that the Dubs passage continues to be open to these vulnerable children throughout the rest of this Parliament.

I would appreciate if you could offer this guarantee in no uncertain terms in your response, anything less will be viewed as a betrayal by your Government of Parliament, the public and the unaccompanied child refugees who have risked their lives to reach safety and now face homelessness, exploitation and a lack of safety in Europe.

Yours sincerely,

Tim Farron MP

Reporting Back: Full Council and the GMSF Debate

Last Wednesday (1 February 2017) was the regular ‘Full Council’ meeting of Bury Council, the one meeting where all 51 councillors meet to discuss the main issues facing the area.

This was a very busy meeting of the Council, with a full public gallery – mostly people concerned about the proposals in the Greater Manchester Spatial Framework to build 12,500 new houses in Bury, including many on green belt land.

Because of the number of members of the pubic there, we proposed that on this occasion we move straight to the debates on motions, rather than the usual 90 minutes or so of questions to the Leader and joint authorities. This was agreed – most questions were therefore answered in writing which we’ll report on over the coming weeks.

Voter Pilots
We supported a motion (in an amended form) which noted the Government’s current proposed pilot schemes to ask for ID at polling stations. The Government is proposing to pilot this in some areas (not Bury). In general we support proposals to make sure voting is always fair and without fraud – as long as whatever is proposed does not exclude people from voting (ie making sure that many different forms of ID are acceptable, as not everyone has a passport or driving license).

NHS Funding
We were happy to support a motion raising significant concerns about the current crisis in the NHS, particularly around funding and the acute pressures on emergency care and hospital beds.

Greater Manchester Spatial Framework
The Liberal Democrat group proposed a motion asking Bury to withdraw from Greater Manchester Spatial Framework (GMSF). This is the plan, currently being developed by the 10 Greater Manchester Councils, to build 227,000 new houses in Greater Manchester over the next 20 years.

We said:
– We recognised the need for more housing – but that this needs to be housing that people need, including young people getting their first homes and housing suitable for older people who might want to ‘downsize’
– We recognised the need for more jobs – but that these need to be high quality jobs.
– We DON’T think that the GMSF is a good deal for Bury. Across Greater Manchester the GMSF proposed to build houses on 8% of Green Belt land – in Bury it is 20% of Green Belt land (and in Prestwich and Whitefield nearly 50%).
– We DON’T think that the GMSF has made the right approach – we think local people should be in the driving seat about deciding the future ‘shape’ of our local communities, but the GMSF has started with asking land owners and developers about where they want to build.
– We are very concerned about issues like traffic congestion, air pollution and loss of green space that should be at the forefront of any new plans.

Our proposal was:
– That Bury should instead develop its own Bury Plan – recognising that we will still need to make difficult decisions, but that they will be decisions closer to Bury.
– The the plan should be a 15 year plan, not a 20 year plan, which means that 1/3 less land for housing needs to be identified at this stage.
– We support higher levels of development in our town centres, which are close to existing public transport and facilties.

Unfortunately our proposal was defeated, by 31 votes to 19 votes. Every single Labour councillor voted to remain in the GMSF.

There were some concessions made, which in some ways are a small victory, which was the Council agreed to remain in GMSF pending:
– The Government’s Housing White Paper
– The Greater Manchester Metro Mayor election result (some of the candidates are opposed to building on the green belt)
– The GMSF stage 1 consultation outcome.
In addition the Council is to proceed in developing its own Bury Plan alongside GMSF, with all-Party involvement.

We’re going to continue to fight these proposals. We do need more housing, but we must protect our green spaces too.

You can read our Group Leader, Cllr Tim Pickstone’s speech to the meeting here. The meeting is available to watch online – the GMSF debate starts at 1 hour 57 minutes….

 

 

 

 

Theresa May wrong to ‘roll out red carpet’ for Donald Trump

Lib Dem Leader Tim Farron MP has urged Theresa May not to “roll out the red carpet” for Donald Trump after he was invited to Britain on a State visit.

As the government indicated it would ignore a huge petition calling for Mrs May to withdraw her invitation to Mr Trump, Liberal Democrat leader Tim Farron said: “The government is ignoring millions of ordinary British people and their revulsion that Donald Trump will receive the red carpet treatment.

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“It is wrong for Theresa May to put The Queen in this position. People can see how desperate she is for a Brexit trade deal. But the Prime Minister needs to be aware how dangerous her game with President Trump is.

“Tony Blair decided in 2002 to hitch his cart to a president and say: “I’m with you whatever”. It sank his premiership, and poisoned his legacy. May risks exactly the same.”

Mr Farron spoke last night at an emergency demonstration in London, which will oppose Mr Trump’s executive order to suspend entry to the US for all nationals from seven Muslim-majority countries.

The US President’s order, signed on Friday, also halts the entire US refugee programme for 120 days and indefinitely bans Syrian refugees from entering the country.

Bury and Prestwich Walk-In Centres to Close

Bury’s NHS Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) met on Wednesday 18 January 2017 to consider the outcome of its own ‘consultation’ on the future of our two Walk-In Centres, in Bury and Prestwich.

The result of the public engagement undertaken included over 1,000 survey completed by residents and showed:
90% thought that the Walk-In Centres serve a purpose not otherwise provided in Bury.
83.5% disagree or strongly disagree with a decision to not renew the Walk-In Centres.

The CCG recognised that the largest number of objections and concerns were regarding the Prestwich Walk-In Centre, rather than the Moorgate Centre. Only one petition was received by the CCG objecting to the closures, which had been organised by the local Lib Dems in Prestwich.

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Our view, given in a statement by Group Leader Councillor Tim Pickstone on Wednesday stated: “Everyone knows there is a crisis in NHS emergency care and that our local A&E departments cannot cope with existing volumes. Everyone who I speak to tells me how difficult it is to get GP appointment.”

“By going ahead with the closure of the Prestwich and Bury Walk-In Centres, Bury CCG are not only ignoring the clearly stated views of local people in their own consultation, but they’re also ignoring common sense. With this decision we’re not just losing two much loved and well used local services, we’re making our local A&Es worse.”

You can read the full report of the CCG here.

Lib Dem Group Response to GMSF

Bury Council’s Liberal Democrat Group has submitted its formal response, and objection, in the consultation on the Greater Manchester Spatial Framework. More details of the response below.

Councillors in Bury will also have a chance to debate Bury leaving the GMSF at the Full Council meeting on 1 February 2017 with a motion proposed by the Liberal Democrat group (see Council agenda here).

The full response is below, with the key points being:

– We do not want to see any building on green belt land, certainly not before brownfield sites and existing planning permissions have been used first and empty houses have been brought back into use.

– We object specifically to the use of large sections of green belt land for thousands of houses.

– We believe that the share of green belt to be lost in Bury is unfair and inappropriate (20% lost in Bury compared to 8% across Greater Manchester. 48/49% of green belt lost in Prestwich and Whitefield/Unsworth).

– We do not believe that our Motorway network has the capacity to cope with significant new housing and specifically could not cope with the proposed massive ‘Northern Gateway’ employment site on the M62 next to Whitefield.

– We do not believe that our Highways Network has the capacity to cope with so many new homes in Bury – specifically the A56 is already full, and about to be made single land through Prestwich.

– We do not believe that the Metrolink system currently has the capacity for so many new homes in Bury – it is already full to capacity at many times in the day.

– We are concerned that we already have to live in an area with high air pollution from the M60, and the plans will make this worse.

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– As Holyrood Ward councillors we wanted to specifically to object to the proposals in the Northern Gateway to build 3,200 new houses around Simister and Bowlee. The plans would destroy the special character, and community of both villages, the site is poorly located for transport links and public transport and the green ‘break’ between Prestwich/Middleton/Whitefield and Heywood would be completely lost.

– Similarly we do not believe the Heywood Road, or the Mount Road/Sandgate Road/Polefield Road areas have the capacity to deal with any major new developments either in Simister or across the Sandgate Road bridge over the motorway.

– We do believe in further investment in public transport, particularly further extension of the Metrolink network, but would oppose the wholesale building of new motorways.

Read our full submission here, which includes 37 pages of comments received from members of the public.