The Leader and Deputy Leader of the Lib Dems on Warrington Council have added their support to the Government’s decision to go ahead with high speed rail.

In a joint statement, Cllrs Ian Marks and Bob Barr said, “This is the right decision and we are pleased the Government has taken it despite all the opposition.  It would be very beneficial to the north west and a large infrastructure project like this will create thousands of jobs.  It will free up capacity on existing rail lines and be good for carbon reduction by taking people off planes and out of cars and by taking freight off the motorways.

But we wish the Government had been bolder and given more commitment now to extending the line to the north west rather than just constructing it to Birmingham.  Also twenty years before the line would be open to the north west is far too long.  We want the benefits much earlier than that.

Our task now is to continue to lobby for high speed rail and make sure that Warrington benefits directly from any route and we don’t lose out to Manchester.”

An extra £520,000 for social care in Warrington will mean people can leave hospital earlier and receive better care at home.

This comes from an extra £150m announced by the Coalition Government last week to be spent on shortening hospital stays across the country during the busy winter period.

Cllr Ian Marks Lib Dem Leader on Warrington Council said, “Thanks to pressure from the Liberal Democrats, the cash can be used to access various preventative services such as better home care support, crisis response teams and specialist equipment.  Extra money is good news, and this investment will help more elderly and vulnerable people get the care they deserve.

This is on top of the £648m already given to Primary Care Trusts this financial year to support social care services.  The cash comes from savings made in the Department of Health’s budget.  At this time of year it is particularly important to do everything we can to ensure people are cared for at home in a safe and familiar environment, with their family and friends close by.

By reinvesting these savings in social care we can offer more help more support to older people leaving hospital.  It is absolutely crucial that the NHS and the Council work together to help people leave hospital when they are ready.  The benefits are on all sides – patients get to go home with the support they and their families need, and hospital beds are freed up.

This money will help cut the delays in getting the equipment and adaptations that people need to enable them to live independently at home – saving them from an unnecessary stay in hospital or going into residential care.”

Lib Dems should be taking the initiative in telling people in Warrington about their achievements. This was the New Year message from the Lib Dem Leader on Warrington Council.

Cllr Ian Marks said, “It is too easy to get depressed about the state of the economy and the state of our society.  The majority of people understand that we couldn’t go on spending money we didn’t have.  Changes just have to be made and dealing with the economic problems we inherited from Labour remains the number one priority for the Coalition Government.  I know last year was tough for many but economic recovery was slowed down by the problems in Europe.  2012 will be a challenge too.  No one likes change but doing things differently is the right thing to do.

I am proud of the influence Lib Dems have had in Government.  Last year many people in Warrington were lifted out of income tax altogether and thousands of working people had their taxes cut.  Lots of our children benefited from the Pupil Premium to help stop them falling behind at school and from free early years’ education for toddlers.  We restored the earnings link to guarantee our pensioners a decent pension increase.

We have persuaded the Conservatives to stand up to the bankers and invest more in our infrastructure, which we need for the long-term success of the country.  The focus needs to move away from the City of London to areas like the north west and successful towns like our own.  We want more apprentices than we have ever had before and we have pushed for the youth contract to get our out-of-work young people learning or earning.  Our moderating influence on the right-wing element in government has been good for the country and good for Warrington.

National issues were the main reason we lost control of the Town Hall last May, but we are very proud of our achievements during the five years we were in control.  We left the town in a much healthier position than when we took over.  In 2012 our task locally and nationally is to work for a fairer, greener and more liberal society.”

The Lib Dem Council Group Leader and Deputy are asking the Government to re-think its decision on the reduction of feed in tariffs on photovoltaic solar panel installations.

In a letter to Chris Huhne, the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, Cllrs Ian Marks and Bob Barr say they agree with the reduction in subsidy which was not sustainable at the high level, but they ask for it to be done on a slower timescale to allow the industry to plan for the reduction.

Cllr Marks added, “This decision by central government was too hasty and is having a direct impact on Warrington.  Council officers have done an excellent job installing solar panels on 308 properties, slightly more than originally planned.  These have been registered before the deadline but the rest of the 600 are on hold.

Fuel poverty is an increasing problem.  These installations and the other ones planned for the future would have had an important impact on keeping homes warm.  We hope the Government will have a re-think as a result of all the lobbying they are receiving from up and down the country. They may be forced to re-think because following the High Court hearing yesterday, there is to be a Judicial Review next week to determine if the government has acted illegally.”

Letter to Chris Huhne

PROPOSED CHANGE TO FEED-IN TARIFFS FOR PV INSTALLATIONS

 We accept that the feed-in tariff at its current level is too generous and not sustainable.  However we are concerned at the speed at which the 50% reduction and the further 20% reduction for social housing schemes are due to take place.  We are also concerned that the change was implemented on 12 December before the end of the consultation period on 23 December.

We have a number of general worries.  In the current economic climate there is a danger that green initiatives are being pushed aside and the speed of change will be a further blow to private and public confidence in the need for carbon reduction.  This could be detrimental to the implementation of the Green Deal.  The solar industry now employs 39,000 people which is a large increase on the 3000 employed before the introduction of feed-in tariffs.  This expansion has been a major driving factor in reducing the cost of installing solar power by 30% which is the reason it was right to reduce the subsidy.  The sudden reduction in subsidy will certainly mean a loss of jobs not to mention an increase in carbon emissions.

Here in Warrington the decision was made to install PV on 600 properties in partnership with Golden gates Housing Trust – an organisation set up a year ago when we transferred our ex-Council Houses from an ALMO to a Trust.  Work started on phase 1 on 24 October with a contract for 300 properties.  Phase 2 which is the remaining 300 properties was put on hold because there was no chance of completion before 12 December.

These installations were focused on our most deprived wards as part of our ‘Closing the Gap’ programme.  These wards are in the top 10% most deprived wards in the country and the measures would have taken many people out of fuel poverty.  These 600 were only a start because an additional 3000 were planned, not to mention more properties with other registered providers.  At this late stage we ask you to think again about extending the timescale for council and community properties.  We await the result of the High Court action on Thursday with interest.

Until last May, Warrington was a Lib Dem led council.  We promoted green initiatives like the use of solar power and set up our ‘Closing the Gap’ programme to bring greater fairness into our town.  We are concerned that this change will be a retrograde step and adversely affect the initiatives we promoted when in power.

There is much in the Chancellor’s Autumn Statement that can benefit people in Warrington.  This is the claim from Cllr Ian Marks, Lib Dem leader on Warrington Borough Council.

Cllr Marks said, “The Autumn Statement has been delivered in incredibly difficult and uncertain  times.   Getting the economic fundamentals right is crucial. In Europe, failure to take firm control of spending has had catastrophic consequences for some countries.  Here Labour wants to spend more, borrow more and increase debt – just at the point where we see that countries that borrow more end up in a state of crisis.

I know that Liberal Democrat Government ministers have pressed the Chancellor for resources to be prioritised towards offering practical help to those that need it most and towards investing in infrastructure to rebalance our economy.

Liberal Democrat policy being delivered in Government has already secured income tax cuts for people on low and middle incomes and action to tackle youth unemployment through the Youth Contract recently announced by the Deputy Prime Minister.  We must ensure that young people in Warrington gain from this new deal.

The Autumn Statement offers help with fuel duty, rail fares, and extending nursery care for two-year-olds so it now reaches 40% of children.  It has also increased the bank levy to ensure banks pay their fair share.

Most importantly, the Autumn Statement secures further investment for the long term.  It delivers an extra £5bn in capital spending on projects across the country including several in the north west, an extra £1bn to the Regional Growth Fund, and a credit easing package of £20bn to secure cheaper access to finance for small businesses.  It is good that the Chancellor made specific mention of the Atlantic Gateway project saying he wanted to help turn the vision into reality.  This should provide a major boost to our local economy because Warrington sits in the middle of the Ship Canal corridor the project covers.”

Liberal Democrats have welcomed the opening of the Youth Café in Time Square.

The former Car Phone Warehouse shop opens its doors to young people on Saturday 3 December after the official opening the day before.

Lib Dem Council Group Leader, Cllr Ian Marks, said, “I am absolutely delighted the Café is finally open.  It all started in June 2009 when as Council Leader I organised a meeting at the Town Hall for councillors, council officers and representatives of the business community and the voluntary sector.  The original plan was to have a new building like the highly successful Bolton Lads and Girls Club.  But we soon realised that neither public nor private money was as available as it had been in the past for a large new club.  Warrington also has the Peace Centre and the Orford Park project, both with facilities for young people.  These make our town different.

But most importantly, the surveys carried out by the Impact Group and others showed that what Warrington’s young people wanted was a youth café in the town centre where people could just hang out.  This was supported by the Council’s ‘Things to Do and Places to Go’ scrutiny working group.  So our focus shifted to setting up a town centre youth café.

Now the hard work put in by lots of people has come to fruition, which is great.  I wish the venture every success.”

At a meeting of Warrington Borough Council on Monday night, Cllr Keith Gleave succeeded in getting a Labour motion amended to ask for a broader approach to the problem of reducing alcohol harm.

The motion urged the government to bring in minimum unit pricing for alcohol but Cllr Gleave argued that this is not enough. An effective approach must include other measures.

Cllr Gleave said: ”We have to provide better education and we need to get back to proper sales of alcohol over the counter rather than off the supermarket shelf. We also need to make sure alcohol is not sold below cost or as a loss leader. Diversions need to be put in place for young people such as the provision of activities that could include cheap cinema entry and sports provision. Minimum unit pricing will not work on its own, the solution to this problem must include other measures.”

The amended motion was carried unanimously by the Council.

Celebrating Sandra's Victory

The Liberal Democrats have retained their seat in the borough council by-election held in Poulton North ward on 17 November.  Their candidate Sandra Bradshaw won 776 votes with Labour second on 733 votes.  The Conservatives were in third place with 147 and UKIP last with 79.

The by-election was called following the tragic death of previous councillor, Colin Oliver.

New borough councillor Sandra Bradshaw said, “I would like to thank everyone who voted for me.  Colin will be a very hard act to follow but you can trust me to always do my best for the people of Poulton North.  I look forward to carrying on with Colin’s work for the community and I will be there to listen and help people when they need me.”

Lib Dem Council Group Leader, Ian Marks added, “I am delighted to welcome Sandra onto our Group.  She was a great candidate

and thoroughly deserved to win.  Sandra has been a parish councillor for several years and understands the area well.  She has a first-class record of working in the community and she will now be in a position to do even more for local people.”

Two Warrington Labour Councillors have made formal apologies to Liberal Democrat Councillor Bob Barr for strongly implied false allegations concerning land at Peel Hall in Warrington North.

These allegations were published by Cllr Geoff Settle and Cllr Brian Maher in Labour Rose leaflets in Poulton North and Poplars and Hulme wards. The apology is made on the North West Labour website and follows legal action taken by the Liberal Democrats. The Labour Party have paid £1000 for the cost of the action.

The leaflets implied that officers were having secret meetings with a developer and ‘negotiating’ development at the site, with the knowledge or the complicity of the Liberal Democrats. The apologies make it clear that this is untrue. This incident is one of a series of attacks on the Liberal Democrats, and individual councillors by Labour, which have no foundation in truth.

“We want to see a higher standard of political debate in Warrington’” says Bob Barr. “We are offering Labour the opportunity to enter into a pact where both parties will provide factual evidence on demand for allegations made in leaflets. If either side makes a mistake or publishes an incorrect or untrue item in their literature they will correct it and apologise.

We very much hope that all campaigners in Warrington will agree to abide by this code. This will raise the standard of political debate and mean we can work together for the good of the people of Warrington where we agree, but have honest argument based on checkable facts when we don’t.”

The text of the apologies as it appears on the North West labour web site:

I would like to apologise to Councillor Robert Barr for the contents of the undated “Poulton North Labour Rose” Leaflet .Liberal Democrat councillors, including Councillor Barr, were not involved in a ‘secret deal’ to sell-off land at Peel Hall to a local developer and I am sorry that the leaflet was open to be interpreted in that way. It was not my intention to suggest any such allegation. I therefore express my regret for the publication of those words and for any harm suffered by Councillor Barr.

Councillor Geoff Settle

I would like to apologise to Councillor Robert Barr for the contents of the undated “Poplars & Hulme Labour Rose” leaflet. Liberal Democrat councillors, including Councillor Barr, were not involved in a ‘secret deal’ to sell-off land at Peel Hall to a local developer and I am sorry that the leaflet was open to be interpreted in that way. It was not my intention to suggest any such allegation. I therefore express my regret for the publication of those words and for any harm suffered by Councillor Barr.

Councillor Brian Maher

http://www.labournorthwest.org.uk/local-government

A controversial scheme for ten affordable homes in Lymm has got the green light from the Council’s planning committee.  They will be sited on the field at the corner of Rushgreen Road and Sandy Lane by the farmers Arms.

Cllr Ian Marks spoke on behalf of the residents.  “I have no objection to principle of quality affordable housing although I would prefer the land to be retained as green open space.  I realise this won’t happen.  I welcome the fact that eligible people for the proposed shared ownership scheme  must live or work locally or have family connections to area.

My main objection is to do with highways and access.  There is no objection from the Highways Department so this makes residents’ objections on this front difficult to sustain.  But local people who live there say there are major problems at this junction particularly at busy times when school traffic is around.  I support these residents.  I am aware there are various highway improvement measures in the proposal and certain conditions.  These are welcome but I am not convinced they are sufficient.

After the meeting Cllr Marks said, “Residents were disappointed they had lost the case.  We must hope that the highway improvements do work and improve the current situation but that remains to be seen.  The Committee felt that if they turned this scheme down, the Council would be likely to lose any appeal.  Also if this developer walked away something far worse might be put forward.”

The Liberal Democrats are making a real difference in government and we should be proud of our achievements.

This was the message from Lib Dem Council group leader Ian Marks to a meeting of party members on his return from a visit to his party’s conference in Birmingham where he spoke to a fringe meeting on economic development.

Cllr Marks said, “We went into coalition to get the country back on its feet but we have had to take some unpopular decisions to fix our economy.  It is more difficult because of problems in the eurozone and America.

We inherited a dreadful financial mess from Labour and recently we have seen a number of examples of their financial recklessness.  Here at Lingley Park in Warrington we have a state-of-the-art building built by Labour as a regional fire and rescue centre.  It has been described by the Labour chair of the Public Accounts Committee as an ‘empty and costly white elephant’ costing £100,000 a month to just keep ticking over despite never having been used.

There is a row over the costs of the Public Finance Initiative schemes used by Labour to build hospitals.  St Helens and Knowsley Hospital is in the firing line, which could have implications for our own hospital in Warrington.  Labour’s NHS computer system has just been axed because costs had doubled from £6 billion to over £12 billion.

Deficit reduction remains the top priority but we must get the economy moving too and create more jobs.  More spending on transport infrastructure and rolling out fast broadband is needed.  There is still far too much bureaucracy and red tape which slows everything down.  I welcome the announcement last week by the Lib Dem Chief Secretary to the Treasury of the £500,000 million ‘Growing Places’ fund to help kickstart stalled development projects.

We have delivered our top manifesto commitment of an income tax threshold of £10,000 and we want to do more for lower income families.  This is so much more important than removing the 50% tax rate at the top or kow-towing to the bankers.  Fairness is our overriding aim.”

Supporting the new Labour Council’s policies should be easy because nearly all of them are the same as those of the previous Lib Dem / Conservative administration.

This is the claim from previous council leader Cllr Ian Marks in response to a challenge from new leader Cllr Terry O’Neill that the opposition should be fair-minded and constructive.

Cllr Marks said, “This is a back-handed compliment because they must have thought we got most things right!  Labour failed to put forward an alternative budget but now say they will honour ours.  They will focus on street lighting, cleaner streets, filling potholes, police community support officers, young people, discussions with the private sector, working closely with partners, the town centre, the local economy, Omega and a masterplan for the Waterfront.  They will put people first, listen to what people are saying and encourage staff and unions to come forward with new ideas.  This is welcome because we were carrying out all these policies ourselves!

They have a new priority of creating 40 apprentices.  We support this providing they tell us where the money is coming from.  They want to reduce the number on the Executive Board.  This is ironic because this is just what we wanted to do when we came to power in May 2006 but were stopped by Labour because of a technicality in the Constitution.

No increase in council tax this year is hardly novel because we set a nil increase in March as part of our budget.  Cllr O’Neill complains about the poor financial settlement from national government and says that towns like Warrington are subsidising the south of the country.  This is rich coming from the party that allowed £30m of our council house rents to go south, mainly to London Boroughs, by refusing to allow the transfer of our council houses to a housing association many years ago.

Sadly Cllr O’Neill repeats the lie about our wanting to sell Walton Hall.  This was never the case and he knows it.  He claims credit for stopping the expansion of Gullivers World and Sankey Valley Park.  He even uses the phrase we used earlier in a recent press statement about the scheme being ‘dead in the water’.  The truth is that this is nothing to do with Labour but a result of a shortage of public funding.

His priorities ignore affordable housing for local people, neighbourhood working and closing the gap between the better off and less well off parts of the town.  These would all feature in our list of priorities.  We look forward to seeing how their policies unfold in the coming months.  What I can say to him is that we intend to be a responsible and active opposition which is more than can be said of his party at the start of our five year term.”

The possible merger of Warrington and Halton Hospitals with Whiston is a result of Labour’s profligate and wasteful Private Finance Initiative scheme.

A row is brewing because of a statement by a government minister that such a merger is one of the options being considered to ease funding problems in the NHS.

Leader of the Liberal Democrat Group on Warrington Council, Cllr Ian Marks said, “Patients from Warrington are fortunate to have a choice of hospitals they can be referred to for treatment.  As well as the hospitals in the borough and at Halton, new facilities at Whiston and Wythenshawe are easily accessible.  Some patients choose to be referred to teaching hospitals in Manchester and Liverpool.

Unfortunately the way in which the rebuilding of Whiston and Wythenshawe was financed is now placing that choice at risk and is causing great uncertainty.  Both were funded using the Private Finance Initiative (PFI), which involves the private sector raising money for the re-build.  This is then recouped by leasing facilities and charging for services over a long period, like 30 years.  At Whiston alone the £250 million project completed last year is generating an annual bill of £20 million which is proving difficult to meet.

Both Helen Jones MP and Nick Bent, the Labour Parliamentary Spokesman for Warrington South denied at the time of the last election that such a problem would arise. They must have been well aware of the coming problem but are now pretending to be surprised by the mess their government left our Health Service in and the impact it will have on the patients in Warrington.

The last Labour government’s profligate use of a funding mechanism to hide public spending involving the private sector in the provision of public services, is coming home to roost.  It will be patients in Warrington who suffer uncertainty while this mess is sorted out.  Labour increased Health Service spending massively and the Coalition Government has promised to protect the Health Service budget.  But even that amount of spending is unlikely to prove adequate to keep up payments on the glossy new facilities at Whiston and Wythenshawe, while protecting other health provision in the town.  Local Liberal Democrats are committed to fighting to protect the best interests of Warrington residents.”

The now scrapped regional fire control centres are a typical example of waste from the last Labour Government says Cllr Ian Marks, Leader of the Liberal Democrat Group on Warrington Council.

Cllr Marks says, “The Fire Control plan was intended to replace forty six local control centres by nine new regional control centres as part of a £423m project.  But the new centres are all standing empty because of major problems with their computers.  In December the Coalition Government announced it was scrapping the centres because the project was behind schedule, over budget and there were worries about the technical quality of the systems.  Interestingly the Fire Brigades Union had been against the project for over seven years and welcomed the decision to axe the centres.

The £14 millionnorth westcentre is here inWarringtononLingleyMereBusinessPark.  It was originally supposed to have gone live in 2009 but has been standing idle for ages costing the taxpayer £100,000 a month.  This is a massive white elephant and the Labour Party should apologise for wasting our money on this project.

I am pleased that the Cheshire Fire and Rescue Service had the good sense to invest in the modernisation of its existing control room in Winsford.  I understand they have a modern system in line with the technology planned for the regional centres.

I welcome the fact the Cheshire Service is looking at the business case for taking over the new Centre and running it on behalf of the other Services in the region.  I have written to the Chief Fire Officer in support of this initiative.”

Liberal Democrats are calling on the Borough Council to make sure residents do not lose out when the Council for Voluntary Service closes at the end of the year.   They are putting a motion to the full Council next Monday asking for a review.

Lib Dem Group Leader, Cllr Ian Marks said, “It is very sad that after a hundred years of operation this organisation is having to close its doors.  It has done some very good work and has been a focal point for voluntary sector activity in the town.  We are extraordinary lucky in Warrington to have such an active voluntary sector and the town gets tremendous value from all the hours put in by volunteers.  I know that many of the services provided by the CVS can be delivered in other ways by other organisations.  But we need to make sure that some of the services don’t fall through the net and are therefore lost.  That is the purpose of the review we are asking for.”

Motion 1 – Council for Voluntary Service proposed by Cllr Ian Marks

 This Council:

(1) Notes with sadness that the Council for Voluntary Service is to close by the

end of the year.

(2) Recognises the extremely valuable role played by the voluntary sector in

Warrington.

(3) Is concerned about the possible detrimental effect on the public by the

closure of this organisation after 100 years of operation.

(4) Refers the matter to the Executive Board to conduct a review on the impact

of this proposed closure to ensure that the residents of Warrington are not

adversely affected by any loss of the services likely to be provided in the

future.