NUNTHORPE MEETING OF THE AREA COMMITTEE

AREA COMMITTEE NUNTHORPE YOUTH CLUB 6 PM TUESDAY
12 FEBRUARY

We have been proved right that this Labour invention to keep control covers too big an area. The previous Ormesby, Normaby & Eston Area Committee made regular visits to our area. But this is the first meeting locally since the May elections of the new Greater Eston Committee.

You need to know that the local police inspector attends the Area Committee and answers residents' questions. He needs residents' suggestions for neighbourhood policing prioriities.

The latest spending from our £6000 allocation are getting a grit bin for the Laburnum Rd-Lilac Road junction and Spring bedding plants at the Library.

NEW BENCH FOR ORCHARD WAY

Cllrs Eric Empson and Irene Nightingale showed local team member, Ann Wilson, the new bench on Orchard Way. A local resident suggested that one was needed there. So we used some of our Area Committee allocation. We also got officials to move the litter and dog bin.

FIRE BRIGADE FORCED TO FIND £2M CUTS

Ian Swales,the local Lib Dem Prospective Parliamentary Candidate, has unearthed the shocking fact that the Governmetn is forcing the fire service to make massive cuts.

He said recently, "Our area is highly populated with the risk of fire on major chemical, steel-making or nuclear plants.
"Yet cutbacks in the local fire service are on the cards. And it’s all because Government has cut funding to Cleveland Fire Brigade by £2million forcing cuts in services, such as - cutting crewing on fire engines, abolishing community safety teams, cutting staffing, and response times for environmental protection and incident command support, closing a fire station, not filling six vacant posts and pushing up Council Tax by 5%.
"The Fire Service has been successful in the past four years. So why is the Labour Government cutting back in supporting one of our vital local services?"

“LIKE PUTTING NEW TYRES ON A CAR JUST TO TOW IT TO THE SCRAPYARD”

Labour are spending over £120,000 of your Council Tax money repairing and re-decorating the Town Hall and Finegan Hall which is planned for demolition. At the same time they are making £5½m cuts in services.

NEW LIB DEM LEADER PLANS CHANGE FOR BRITAIN

New Lib Dem Leader, Nick Clegg, outlined his plans for a Liberal Britain to local Councillor Glyn Nightingale when he visited the region.
"As the only Northern MP to lead a major party, I’m fully aware of the importance of the region and the concerns of local people.
New rights for parents, pupils and patients are at the heart of everything the Lib Dems stand for.
No-one should be condemned by the circumstances of their birth.
A fair deal for every family means investing in education, cutting income tax and reforming tax credits. I’ll campaign to cut crime and get a fair deal for victims. And I’ll fight to improve our NHS so it delivers the care people need.
Join with me to make all this happen, so we can give British families control over their own lives.
Together we can make Britain the liberal country the British people want it to be."

Labour’s £5½ million planned cuts

Labour promised no cuts in services and boasted about zero Council Tax rises. It was just election spin. Now they plan cuts including spending on the old, disabled and children in need. The only growth spending is on £350,000 to pay for free junk jobs and throwing money down the drain on Eston Town Hall when the office space isn’t needed.
That’s an extra 1% on Council Tax pushing it up by 4.9%.


WHERE THE OTHER CUTS FALL
• Promised weekly refuse collection kicked into the long grass
• Slashing library spending - no children’s librarian, book fund cut and opening hours cut
• To get a decent junk job collection the charge goes up 50% to £15
• Closing all re-cycling bring sites
• Ending the 'Bring Out Your Dross' re-cycling scheme
• Slashing spending on play equipment maintenance
• Charging for green box replacement
• Ending winter flower bedding
• Cutting grants and charging voluntary organisations more
• 10% higher burial fees


LABOUR’S PHONEY EFFICIENCY SAVINGS EXPOSED


So-called efficiency savings are really cuts in services, higher charges or offloading spending.
For the first time in four years net spending on the old, disabled and vulnerable young people is cut.
Above all Labour is taking massive risks with your tax money -
• They’ve no idea how the forecast downturn in the economy will affect returns on invested cash.
• They’ve no idea if the unions will go for their plan to cut 900 Council officers’ pay by up to £1000.
• They’ve already over-spent by nearly £1m that has put an extra 2% on Council Tax.
Council Leader George Dunning claims he’s in charge. He regularly promises one thing and does the opposite. It’s his Budget. And, it shows!

New Leader - for a New Liberal Britain

Nick Clegg is the new leader of the Liberal Democrats.

Sheffield MP, Nick Clegg, pictured above with Glyn Nightingale and fellow Councillor, Chris Abbott, was the favourite to win and was widely supported by local Liberal Democrats, including all three Ormesby & Nunthorpe Councillors. His victory marks a new beginning for the Lib Dems and for achieving a new Liberal Britain.

Here's his acceptance speech in full -

"My election as leader of this party marks a new beginning. Today is about two things: ambition, and change.

Renewed ambition for the Liberal Democrats.

Renewed ambition to reach out to the millions of people who share our values, but have not yet voted for us.It’s about renewed ambition for Britain.

Because we want to change politics, and change Britain.

I would like to thank Chris for the energetic and committed way he has campaigned in this leadership election. We have been rivals in this contest. From today, we are colleagues again. I look forward to working closely with him for the good of liberalism in Britain. I would also like to thank Vince Cable for the magnificent way he has led the party in these past two months. There are few men who have excelled as an economist, a comedian and a ballroom dancer. Finally, I would like to give my warmest thanks, on behalf of the whole party, to Ming Campbell. He took over the Liberal Democrats at a difficult time, and provided enormous stability and professionalism to the party. Without his work, building on the extraordinary achievements of Charles Kennedy and Paddy Ashdown before him, the party would not have the bright future which it now does.

I am a Liberal by temperament, by instinct and by upbringing. My own family was marked, scattered and reunited by the tragic conflicts of the last century. I was taught from an early age that Britain was a place of tolerance and pluralism, with a history steeped in democracy and the rule of law. I believe that liberalism is the thread that holds together everything this country stands for. Pull out that thread and the fabric of the nation unravels.

We are a people with a strong sense of fair play and social justice. An instinct to protect the environment for future generations. We are suspicious of arbitrary power, wary of government interference. We want to play an active, enlightened role in the affairs of the world. And we have always put our faith in the power of ordinary men and women to change things for the better.So why is Britain still not the liberal nation we want it to be?

Look around us:

Our civil liberties casually cast aside.

Gigantic, faceless and incompetent Government bureaucracies.

Security and opportunity in short supply, particularly in the poorest communities. Families struggling to meet each month’s bills.

Struggling to balance the demands of work, and the time for a real family life.

Above all, our politics is broken.

Out of step with people.

Out of step with the modern world.

That is why I have one sole ambition: to change Britain to make it the liberal country the British people want it to be.

I want a new politics: a people’s politics. I want to live in a country where rights, freedoms and privacy are not the playthings of politicians, but safeguarded for everyone.

Where political life is not a Westminster village freak show, but open, accessible, and helpful in people’s everyday lives.

Where parents, pupils and patients are in charge of our schools and hospitals.Where fine words on the environment are translated into real action.

Where social mobility becomes a reality once again, so that no-one is condemned by the circumstances of their birth.

Why have we stopped imagining a better society? Look at what we’ve got. The Conservatives and New Labour have governed in the same way. Top-down and centralising. I refuse to believe that the only alternative to a clapped out Labour Government is a Conservative party which has no answers to the big issues - environmentalism without substance, social justice without money, internationalism without Europe.

The challenge for my party is clear and simple: to define a liberal alternative to the discredited politics of Big Government. I want to open up my party, open up Westminster, and open up politics for good. To lead well, a leader needs to listen.

That’s why I will hold regular and public Town Hall Meetings.

That’s why I want to open up the Liberal Democrats to give people who support us, but aren’t members, a say on the big issues. That’s why I will spend at least one day every week listening and campaigning outside Westminster.

That’s why I will set up a network of real families, who have nothing to do with party politics, in every region of this country to advise me on what they think should be my priorities.

If you once voted Lib Dem but think we’ve spent too much time focusing on ourselves. If you once voted Conservative but don’t know what they stand for any more. If you once voted Labour but feel let down after ten years of disappointment. If you’ve given up voting altogether, but still care about the world we live in: Then a newly united, energetic, optimistic Liberal Democrat party is there for you.

This is an unprecedented time of opportunity for liberalism in Britain. If we are to grab this opportunity, my party will need to change. We must start acting like the growing national political movement that we are. More professional. More united. More ambitious.

Liberalism is the creed of our times. The old left-right politics has broken down. Labour and the Conservatives are mutating into each other, united in defence of a system which has let the people down. Instead, we must start where people are, not where we think they should be. In short, I want the Liberal Democrats to be the future of politics. Because Liberal Democrats have the courage to imagine a better society. To break the stifling grip of the two-party system for good. To bring in a new politics. Of politicians who listen to people, not themselves. No more business as usual. No more government-knows-best.

I want today to mark the beginning of real change in Britain.

The beginning of Britain’s liberal future."