Single Market defeat sends a clear message

Tonight, the House of Lords has racked up three more victories for common sense on the EU Withdrawal Bill.

The Government have received their eleventh, twelfth and thirteenth defeats in the House of Lords during the Report stage of the EU Withdrawal Bill. 

A vote on an amendment to ensure our future interaction with EU law and agencies was passed by a cross-bench majority of 298 to 227

A further vote on an amendment to remove the exit date from the bill passed by a cross-bench majority of 311 to 233.

And finally, an amendment that would keep Britain in the single market passed with a cross-bench majority of 245 to 218

These votes were a victory for common-sense.

Of course if the UK wishes to remain in specific agencies, such as Euratom, it should be able to. This allows us to replicate EU law and means that we can continue our role in any agency that we wish to if it is of obvious benefit.

The Government needs to swallow its pride and keep the benefits of being in European agencies.

Furthermore, the victory on the single market amendment sends a clear message to those sat around the Cabinet table that Parliament won’t just sit back while Theresa May leads us towards a hard Brexit.

245 Peers from all parties and none have voted to stay in the Single Market and protect the UK economy, defeating a Government hell-bent on pursuing ideology over prosperity.

Local Elections – Thank you!

A huge thank you to everyone who supported the Liberal Democrats in the local elections last week.

In Bury:
– The Liberal Democrat Group Leader, Councillor Tim Pickstone, was elected in Holyrood Ward.
– In next door St Mary’s Ward, Michael Powell narrowly failed to take the seat from Labour, this time by 56 votes. This was despite a terrific 250 vote increase in the Liberal Democrat support.
– In most other wards there was increased support for the Liberal Democrat candidates in many wards.

The new composition of Bury Council is: Labour 31, Conservatives 17 and Liberal Democrats 3.

Across England, the Liberal Democrats saw the best local election results for 15 years.

Highlights included:
– retaining control of South Lakeland, Cheltenham, Eastleigh, Sutton and Watford, including defending the elected mayor of Watford.
– taking control (from the Conservatives) of London Borough of Richmond, London Borough of Kingston, South Cambridgeshire Council and Three Rivers Council (the latter from No Overall Control).
– Significant gains in many other councils, the biggest being Hull (9 more councillors) and Haringey (6 more councillors).
– 77 more councillors nationally
– 16% of the vote in the BBC’s notional national share of the vote.

More information at the Liberal Democrats national website.

Thursday is Polling Day!

Thursday is polling day in the important local elections in our area.

Polling stations are open 7am to 10pm. You do NOT need your polling card to vote. Here are details of polling stations in our area. If you have a postal vote that you’ve not been able to return you can the completed vote to the polling station on the day.

If you want to help the Lib Dems win on Thursday call 07976 831 686 or come into our HQ at 17 Prestwich Park Road South, Prestwich M25 9PF.

Reporting Back: Answers to Questions

Earlier this month was the regular meeting of Bury’s Full Council. The Liberal Democrat team always take the opportunity to ask our full quote of questions to the Leader of the Council. Here are some highlights:

We asked about the levels of uncollected bins:
Could the Leader inform members of the numbers of bins which are reported by residents as uncollected, by bin type, for the previous three financial years?

Answer
The total number of bins reported to the Customer Contact Centre as missed for the previous 3 financial year. The figures do not include the self-serve missed bins forms and are based on a total of 82,850 properties and does not include any increase for new properties over the 3 year period.

(summary – for the full figures by colour of bin see the link below)
2015/16 – 5495
2016-18 – 7141
2018-19 – 6454

Missed collections may be as a result of several reasons such as access problems particularly in narrow back street collections, weather conditions and mechanical breakdown.

Apparently these figures do NOT include bins reported as not collected through online forms, which seems like a gap in the system especially the Council is encouraging people to use online more. We will follow up on this.

In a previous meeting of the Council, we were given a promise that bus lanes in the south of the Borough would be reviewed. (This followed the successful removal of the bus lane on Rochdale Road in Bury.) We asked why nothing had happened yet:

Answer
The review will not take place until the GM Congestion Plan and GM Air Quality Plan have been completed and their requirements fully determined and understood. This is because there is a possibility that the emphasis on bus lanes may have change in order to drive through meaningful progress to meet the aspirations of these plans. Consequently, any bus lane review undertaken too early would result in the outcomes being framed in completely the wrong context.

We asked about media reports about LED Street lights:
Recent reports have indicated that LED street lighting can have a negative impact on both wildlife and on human eyesight. Could the Leader inform members what actions are being taken to review this information what impact will this have on our lighting policies?

Answer
There has been much discussion on this issue, with many articles being published in the press and online. Unfortunately, many articles (both for and against) appear to be personal opinion without any credible source, or appropriate professional qualification of the author. As such, it is a difficult task to sort fact from fiction at this moment in time.
Staff are not aware of any official advice, or guidance, identifying any risk to health.
The Scientific Committee on Health, Environment and Emerging Risks (SCHEER) produced a Preliminary Opinion on “Potential risks to human health of Light Emitting Diodes (LEDs)”, which was adopted on the 6th of July 2017.
Section 6.11 “Overall conclusion” states: “The Committee concludes that there is no evidence of direct adverse health effects from LEDs in normal use (lighting and displays) by the general healthy population.”
All LED lanterns used within the Borough have been sourced from reputable, well established, manufacturers and conform to all
Council Questions – 11 April 2018
required British and European standards.
Our main supplier is Philips Lighting, whose LED lanterns conform to BS EN 62471 Risk Group 1 – No photobiological hazard under normal behavioural limitations.
Staff will continue to monitor information provided by the manufacturers, guidance from the respective professional bodies, such as the Institution of Lighting Professionals, and also information provided by the Council’s Health & Safety Advisors, who often receive information and guidance from the Health & Safety Executive.
It is not possible to say what impact this will have on our policies until a specific risk has been identified.

Reporting Back: Arena Bombing and the Fire Service

Last week was the regular monthly meeting of the Greater Manchester Corporate Issues and Reform Scrutiny Committee. This report is from the Liberal Democrat representative on the Committee,  Prestwich councillor Tim Pickstone.

Last week’s meeting mainly focussed on the very significant issues raised in the Kerslake Report into the 2017 Arena bombing terrorist incident and the response of the Fire Service. Amongst other things this Scrutiny Committee is responsible looking into the work of our local fire service.

A non- statutory independent review of the events and aftermath of the Manchester Arena Terrorist Attack were commissioned, chaired by cross-bench Peer Lord Kerslake. This Review has focused on Greater Manchesters’ preparedness for and response to the attack and the nine days that followed it.

The review has identified what a range of responding agencies did well on the night and during the following week that helped people as well as what could have been done better.

The Scrutiny Committee specifically focussed on the work of the fire service, with both the Elected Mayor (who is responsible for fire services) and the Acting Fire Commander there to answer questions from councillors.

As people will have read in the media, the significant issue was the time between Greater Manchester Fire being alerted of an incident, and attending the scene at Manchester Victoria, which was almost two hours.

A full report and timeline is here.

Some of the issues raised by councillors included:

  • Issues of seemingly poor communications between the Fire Service and other emergency services, and more can be done to ensure that this works better in the future.
  • Issues around morale in the fire service, and whether working practices can be updated.
  • Lessons learnt from the fire service in updating its own procedures in dealing with bombs.
  • How the lessons learnt in Greater Manchester were already being taken to make change in procedures nationally.

I asked specifically about the issue of the procedure of the Fire Service (and this is Government guidance not a Greater Manchester procedure) that in the event of a shooting terrorist attack to withdraw to a ‘safe distance’ of 0.5km. I asked how Fire Service was developing its thinking on the balance between the need to protect fire fighters, with the need to protect the public. This is not a simple issue but I feel that we need to think about how the public would be protected in a major incident in the future, where 0.5km would cover a large part of our city centre.

 

Vote for someone who’ll get things done for your community on 3rd May

Liberal Democrat councillors listen, work hard and get things done for their communities. It’s why right across the country, people have been electing more of them, week in, week out.

There is a secret phenomenon in British politics.

It is occurring in by-elections all over the country, week in, week out, to local authorities from Sunderland to Somerset. Against the Tories. Against Labour. In Leave areas. In Remain areas.

Since the general election in 2017, the Liberal Democrats are up 15 seats, double Labour’s increase of 7, while the Conservatives are tanking – they have lost 18 seats.

These real votes in real ballot boxes show Liberal Democrat support at double our national opinion poll rating. What we’re showing is that where Liberal Democrats come out fighting, Liberal Democrats can win.

Because local residents trust Liberal Democrats to listen, work hard and get things done on their behalf.

And in our areas of particular strength, where we control Councils and win mayoralties, we run reliable, responsive local services and deliver value for people’s Council Tax.

On Thursday 3rd May, vote for someone who will get things done for your community. Vote Liberal Democrat.

Taking Action on Tax Avoidance

Liberal Democrat councillors on Bury Council have been successful in a a move to get Bury Council to play its part in tackling corporate tax avoidance.

Lib Dem Councillors brought a motion on tax avoidance to the last full meeting of Bury Council. The motion was supported by other parties and is now the official policy of Bury Council.

The proposal was part of an initiative by the International Aid charity Cristian Aid and their  tax justice campaign, which aims to put pressure on companies who don’t pay tax. Christian Aid’s rationale is the sheer scale of the money lost to the developing world each year through corporate tax avoidance – estimated to be anything between  $100-$300 billion worldwide each year.

Councillor Tim Pickstone said in proposing the motion: “We agree wholeheartedly with Christian Aid, but for us tax avoidance in this country is also vitally important. Anything up to £30 billion a year is lost to public funds in Britain each year. £7 billion is lost each year just by the tax just by companies operating in Britain who declare profits made in Britain in other countries. This has to stop.”

“Government must take a lead on tax avoidance and as individual consumers we can all play our part. But local councils can and should play a role. As Councils we procure a large number of goods and services, and we can and should use that ‘purchasing muscle’ to put pressure on companies who do not pay their fair share of tax”.

Under the proposals that were agreed by the Council meeting, Bury Council will review its procurement policies to ensure that it fully considers the tax paying record of companies when making purchasing decisions. A report will be brought to the Cabinet in the next twelve months to finalise the details.

 

 

NHS Bury announce cuts of £5.2 million

Bury’s NHS Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) has announced cuts of £5.2 million for the financial year just started, towards meeting an expected £7.3 million deficit for the year.

The cuts agreed are:
Primary Care (GPs etc) £1.1 million – the largest items being:
– Terminating the Vulnerable Patient Scheme, saving c£0.1m.
– Terminating the Clinical Pharmacist scheme, saving c £0.3m-£0.6m.
– Reducing the prescribing target by £0.5 million – though a decision about whether this will include stopping prescribing nicotine replacement options has been postponed.

Secondary Care (Hospitals) £1.8 million – the largest items being:
– Reducing the amount of treatments that are deemed no proven clinical benefit; or of potential clinical value but only in a clearly defined set of clinical presentations/criteria by £1 million a year.
– Reducing diagnostic tests by £0.8 million in a full year (out of £7 million a year so more than 10% reduction).

Community Services £0.5 million:
– Do not renew the Minor Eye Conditions Service, saving c£0.2m in year.
– Other service reviews, including some IVF, targeting saving c£0.3m in year. (Though the decision on IVF has been postponed).

Other: £1.8 million
Savings made centrally, including relocation the HQ building from Silver Street.

Liberal Democrats nationally have called for an extra £6 billion for the NHS, to be paid for by an extra 1p on Income Tax, because the NHS is having to make cuts like these in Bury.

Don’t Persecute Honest Passengers!

Don’t persecute honest passengers, prosecute fare-dodgers is the message from the Opposition Spokesperson on Transport for Greater Manchester Committee.

Investigations from the Lib Dem team of councillors here in Bury revealed that an estimated one in eight Metrolink passengers are fare-dodgers with T4GM confirming that they estimate that 12% of journeys are not paid for.

Last year the nine Labour and one Conservative council Leaders who make up the Greater Manchester Comined Authority voted to to put up fares for honest Metrolink passengers by an inflation-busting 19% by 2020 when one in eight passengers travel free.

 

Liberal Democrat Spokesperson on Transport for Greater Manchester Councillor Howard Sykes said: “There are 40 million tram journeys a year so fare-dodging is estimated to cost Metrolink about £9 million in lost revenue a year. Rather than hammering the honest passenger, transport bosses need to focus on tackling fare evasion. 12% non-payment is a disgrace. Everyone should pay their ‘fare share’, so we say tackle the fare-dodgers. We need more enforcement officers on the line at more times and we need to ruthlessly prosecute non-payers.”

Liberal Democrats in Bury have previously called for an automatic ticket “barrier” system, perhaps at all but the city centre stops, which is used on most urban public transport systems to reduce fare evasion.

 

Couples in Northern Ireland deserve equality – and our support

Layla Moran is co-sponsoring a bill to finally bring marriage equality to Northern Ireland – find out why

I couldn’t have been prouder of Lynne Featherstone and the Liberal Democrats in government when we changed the law in England, bringing in equal marriage.

It is, without doubt, one of the best things our party did in government.

And whilst all couples in England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland all now enjoy the right to marry the person they love, sadly the same isn’t true in Northern Ireland.

That’s why I am part of a cross-party group of MPs proposing the Marriage (Same Sex Couples) (Northern Ireland) Bill in the House of Commons today.

I know that in sponsoring this legislation I have the backing of Liberal Democrat members across the length and breadth of the United Kingdom.

It was a real pleasure to meet with campaigners from Northern Ireland’s Love Equality coalition in Parliament yesterday.

They’ve done amazing work with the public, community organisations and campaign groups to build support for this much-needed change in the law. Equal marriage now has the support of most parties in Northern Ireland, including enthusiast support from our colleagues in the Alliance Party who have long campaigned for marriage equality.

Indeed, before its collapse, a majority of Assembly Members had voted to support equal marriage.

Now I’d much rather that this decision was being made by local politicians in Belfast – but given that there is no immediate prospect of getting the Northern Ireland Assembly up and running I believe it is the right thing to do for MPs to be changing the law in Westminster.

Same-sex couples there have waited too long already for equality.

Given the circumstances, we owe it to the people of Northern Ireland to do the right thing and to allow all couples in the province the right to marry the person they love.

After all, love is love – no matter where you live.