Tim Farron challenges Government’s increasingly right wing agenda

Dangerous proposals by the Government which threaten individual freedoms risk exacerbating racial and religious tensions, Tim Farron has warned.

By linking the practices of ordinary British Muslims with radicalisation the Prime Minister risks alienating large sections of our society.

Leader of the Liberal Democrats Tim Farron said:

“Talk of banning veils and the deportation of women who struggle with English are worrying ideas from a government pushing an increasingly right wing agenda.

key_Tim_Farron

“These are hugely worrying times for British values. Of course we need to seriously tackle home grown extremism but isolating vulnerable groups is not the way forward.

“With Islamophobia on the rise, now is the time for an open and serious inter-faith dialogue not headline grabbing policies which do nothing but appeal to the right wing of the Tory base.

“Liberal Democrats will always support an open minded, tolerant United Kingdom which does not cow tow to the politics of fear.”

£1,000 cut to Universal credit must be stopped – Lib Dems

Liberal Democrats have launched a bid to stop Government plans to cut Universal Credit.

The Party’s Work and Pensions Spokesperson, Zahida Manzoor, has used an amendment to the Government’s flagship Welfare Reform and Work Bill to seek to stop the cuts.

This Tory cut would mean low income working families applying for Universal Credit from 2017 would be an average of £1,000 worse off.

In the long term up to 2.6 million people are expected to lose out as a result of changes to Universal Credit’

In December, Tim Farron said the first significant political battle of 2016 will be over Conservative plans to slash support for working families on low incomes.

Zahida-Manzoor

Zahida Manzoor said:  “George Osborne claimed he listened to concerns about low income working families losing out when he U-turned on Tax Credits, but in fact he has simply delayed the pain.

“Universal Credit is a good system, that Liberal Democrats fought for in Government, but George Osborne Is taking apart that good work to create a system that is far less generous to working people.   If he and the Government are serious about supporting people on low incomes who go out to work every day then they need to drop these savage cuts to Universal Credit.”

Tacking Illegal Parking outside Schools

The Lib Dem team on Council have asked the Council if it will consider using the ‘Camera Car’ currently used to enforce bus lanes, to tackle some of the worst illegal parking outside some of our schools.

Lib Dem councillor Mary D’Albert asked the Council to consider the use of the camera car outside of schools, a practice that happens in many other local authorities, including next door in Manchester.

The Council stated that “The CCTV car is currently utilised during peak and off peak periods to enforce bus lanes”

It went not to say that:
“At some point in the future we may look at investing in fixed CCTV equipment to enforce bus lanes. This would then free up the vehicle to carry out enforcement outside schools. In order to carry out this type of enforcement we will need to apply for a new approved device status for the vehicle from DfT. The current approval would not cover the variation in enforcement.”

C_71_article_1470103_image_list_image_list_item_0_image

Recently Bury Council reviewed the bus lanes going into and out of Bury Town Centre, and has agreed to review bus lane in the south of the Borough. The result of the review so far has been to completely suspect the Rochdale Road bus lane (the Heap Bridge motorway junction to the Town Centre).

Although it is important to make sure that drivers do not abuse bus lanes that are still in force, we believe that there should be some capacity to do this, given the significant problems that there are around some of our schools.

Norman Lamb: Government health proposals ‘morally wrong and economically stupid’.

Mental Health proposals fall massively short – Norman Lamb

Commenting on today’s announcement on mental health funding, the Liberal Democrats health spokesperson and former minister for Mental Health, Norman Lamb said:

“I will always welcome extra investment in mental health care. However, on the face of it, the proposals fall massively short of the vision we published in 2014. We said then that the objective for 2020 should be comprehensive maximum waiting time standards in mental health so that there is equality of access between physical and mental health. There’s nothing today which meets that vision.

“It will leave many people with mental ill health still with no right to access treatment on a timely basis. It will leave a disparity between physical health and mental health at the heart of our NHS. That is morally wrong and economically stupid.

NormanLamb

“My fear is that the extra investment announced may be, in part, smoke and mirrors. David Cameron must be clear, is this all additional to the £1.25bn announced in the budget in March for children and young people’s mental health – which the Liberal Democrats secured? Is it additional to the £600m announced in the Spending Review?

“If the Prime Minister is being genuine about his desire to help, he must confirm what accounts for new investment. We need absolute clarity.

“Every step to support access to treatment and support is always welcome, but we must recognise that there is much more to be done.”

Norman Lamb to call for a commission into the health and social care crisis

Liberal Democrat Health Spokesperson Norman Lamb will today (Wednesday) launch proposals for an unprecedented cross party commission into health and social care.

Norman Lamb, who has received the backing from Conservative and Labour former Health Secretaries Stephen Dorrell and Alan Milburn, believes that only a full non-partisan commission will properly deal with the crisis in health and social care.

They have been joined in this call by NHS survival – a group of 8,000 doctors, patients and and members of the public committed to ensuring the survival of the health service.
NormanLamb
The former care minister believes the commission would be a ‘Beveridge Report’ for the 21st Century, and be the first of its kind since the creation of the NHS and welfare state. Its aim is to engage with the public, staff in the NHS and care services and civic society on the massive challenge the NHS and care services face.

To mark his call for the commission Norman Lamb will use a 10 minute rule bill in Parliament, and will call for an investigation into the crisis being faced by the health and social care sectors.
The NHS funding gap is expected to be £30bn

NHS and Foundation Trusts are facing a projected £2.2bn deficit

The Health Foundation has estimated that there will be a £6bn funding gap in Social Care by 2020

Norman Lamb said: “The NHS and social care face an existential crisis. Demand for services continues to rise year on year but funding is failing to keep up. The position in social care is perhaps even more serious.

“Growing pressures on services are so severe that all parties must come together to fundamentally re-think how we can guarantee the future of the NHS and social care services.

“The Government cannot avoid this issue any longer. Establishing this commission will show they are serious about protecting these vital public services.”

200,000 Bury Home Care Visits less than 15 minutes

Investigations by Lib Dem councillors in Bury have revealed that over 200,000 of Bury’s home care visits in the last year were of a duration of 15 minutes or less.

Lib Dem Councillor Tim Pickstone asked at the last Council meeting about the number and proportion of visits that were less than 15 minutes, and less than 5 minutes in the last year.

On average 549,000 home care visits were provided – 37% were of 15 minutes or under and 4% 5 minutes or under.

Screenshot 2016-01-06 10.44.35

Less than a year ago the Labour Party made a pledge to help end 15 minute care visits, yet Bury’s Labour-run Council continues the practice on a massive scale.

Care charities and the public sector Trades Union UNISON have condemned care visits of less than 15 minutes and are campaigning for their end in their ‘Save Care Now’ campaign.

Find out more about UNISON’s Save Care Now campaign here.
Find out more about charity Lennard Cheshire’s campaign to end 15 minute care visits here.

Campaigning on Food Waste

Bury’s team of Liberal Democrat councillors have successfully brought the issue of Food Waste to the attention of Bury Council.

At the last full meeting of Bury Council, Lib Dem Councillors Mary D’Albert and Tim Pickstone brought a motion before Bury Council, which was accepted by all other parties and has now become Council policy.

In Britain today households throw away 7 million tonnes of food and drink waste each year, half of which could have been eaten.

Given that there are 4 million people in the UK living in food poverty, and 900 million people going to bed hungry each night worldwide, we believe this needs to change.

As a result of the Lib Dem initiative Bury MBC has agreed to play it’s part in reducing the amount of food waste generated by the Borough.

This will include more information about reducing food waste in the information we provide to residents about waste disposal, including online, paper resources and through the work of the waste enforcement teams, and work with the major institutional producers of food waste in the Borough (Schools, colleges, hospitals, other major employers) to encourage strategies that achieve a significant reduction of food waste.

80B80EB6-07C3-418A-92A8-D8908E8BFDFB

Lib Dem Councillors Mary D’Albert and Tim Pickstone taking the issue of food waste to the Town Hall

Bury Council currently collects 15,000 tonnes of brown bin waste each year, which costs taxpayers nearly £1 million in charges.

We can all do our bit to reduce the amount of food waste we produce – put simply not buying too much and not making too much!

The website ‘Love Food, Hate Waste’ has lots of helpful tips.

Save the Last Bank!

Local Lib Dem councillors in the Holyrood Ward in the Prestwich area have been campaigning with local residents to save the last bank branch in the ward, the Royal Bank of Scotland on Bury Old Road near Heaton Park.

Although many people recognise that banking has changed significantly over recent years, we also need to recognise that bank counter services are important for many people, including small businesses, local community groups and some more elderly and vulnerable members of the community.

The nearest RBS branches are on Cheetham Hill and in Bury Town Centre. The cash machine (on the corner of Bury Old Road and St Margaret’s Road) would also be closed is the ONLY free cash machine close to Heaton Park, a rather popular destination!

Thank you for everyone who has supported the campaign so far. We need to keep up the pressure and have a meeting with RBS in a couple of weeks.

If you can please sign the online petition at www.loveprestwich.co.uk or you can sign in person in the Fresh Cookie sandwich shop on St Margaret’s Road.

We’ve made this short video to highlight the problems from the bank closure.

Screenshot 2015-06-24 09.21.20

Tim Farron is the new Lib Dem Leader

The local Lib Dems have welcomed the election of Tim Farron, MP for Westmorland and Lonsdale, as the new leader of the Liberal Democrats.

Tim Farron said that under his leadership, the party would oppose the cuts to tax credits and other benefits in the Conservative’s budget and push for greater spending on infrastructure such as transport and broadband.

At his first speech as leader, Tim said “If you care about human rights join us. If you think you shouldn’t have your emails snooped on join us. ‎If you think everyone deserves a decent home join us.” You can watch Tim’s inspirational speech here.

Screenshot 2015-07-17 12.15.43

Cllr Tim Pickstone, who leads the Lib Dems in Bury said: “These principles are at the heart of what drives the Liberal Democrats, our members and activists. More than ever Britain needs a party that will stand up for what we believe in, so we’re continuing our fightback and I’m asking local residents to be part of it.”

There has never been a more important time to join the party.

Across the Country since the General Election 17,000 people have joined the party. Locally we have been joined by dozens of new activists and members this year, including a large number since it was announced that Tim Farron was elected. The Liberal Democrats have also seen stunning election victories at local council by-elections across the UK, beating both Labour and the Conservatives.

If you would like to join please go to www.libdems.org.uk and join the FOCUS teams fightback.

Brian Paddick calls for drug policy overhaul

Brian Paddick

Brian Paddick, the Liberal Democrat Home Affairs spokesman, has called for an overhaul of UK Drugs policy.

He said that the Government’s new Psychoactive Substances Bill “adds to the confusion and further undermines the credibility of UK drugs laws.”

His comments come during the Bill’s Second Reading in the House of Lords. Lord Paddick has branded the Bill unfit for purpose with huge unintended consequences.

“The reason why millions of people break the law by taking controlled drugs is because, quite righty, they see that our drugs laws lack credibility”, Brian Commented. This Bill further undermines the credibility of the drugs laws in this country.”

“It’s time we started treating those who misuse drugs as victims of drug dealers rather than criminals.

“It is time we confronted the fact that criminalising young people for possessing substances only as harmful, or less harmful, than alcohol or tobacco, lacks credibility.”