Essex Liberal Democrats

Essex’s ruling  Conservative councillors have voted down a Lib Dem plan to save council taxpayers £21,400.

At today’s meeting of Essex County Council, the Liberal Democrat Opposition Group proposed deleting the Special Allowance for the Deputy Leader of the Conservative Group.

Chelmsford Lib Dem Cllr. Stephen Robinson said:

This post is just not required.  The Conservative Deputy Leader of the Council receives £40,000, eight Cabinet members receive £35,000 and the Deputy Cabinet members receive £13,000 each.  The Conservative group must recognise that they lost one third of their Councillors at the election and don’t need this extra allowance.”

The Liberal Democrat proposal was supported by Labour, Independent and Green Councillors; UKIP abstained, and the Conservative majority voted it down.

The Conservatives have run Essex County Council for over a decade. During that time the council has become a by-word for waste and incompetence.  The Liberal Democrats want to end Conservative misrule by:

• Stopping councillors making so many decisions  in secret and letting the public speak at council meetings
• Investing more of the cash sitting idle in the council’s bank accounts to improve the services you use
• Repairing Essex’s crumbling roads and pavements, which the Conservatives have neglected for years.

Check out the Essex Lib Dem manifesto 2013.  You can read press coverage of the Conservatives’ calamities here.

The county council is wasting £1 million a year on Conservative cabinet members and their support staff – and a whopping £2.5 million on spin doctors and PR.  Needless to say, when the Lib Dems proposed ending this waste, the Conservatives who run Essex County Council voted the proposals down.

There has been a lot of discussion in the news about changes to tax and benefits which have been coming into effect in the last few weeks. Two things worth highlighting are things which have gone straight from the Liberal Democrat Manifesto at the last General Election into reality in the last week.

A tax cut promised. A tax cut delivered – April 6
Cutting taxes for working people is the Liberal Democrats’ number one priority. It is so important to Liberal Democrats that we put it on the front page of our manifesto, argued for it in the coalition negotiations and are delivering it in government.

From Saturday 6 April 2013 more than 20 million working people will be paying £600 a year less than they were under Labour, as the tax threshold rises to £9,440. Someone earning the minimum wage will have seen their Income Tax bill cut in half. From next April this rises to £700 as the threshold rises to £10,000 – as promised in our manifesto.

The change benefits everyone who works and pays tax, but is it particularly beneficial for lower paid workers who now keep more of what they earn.

April 8th: State Pension “Triple Lock”
On Monday the full basic State Pension will increased by 2.5%, or £2.70 a week, to £110.15 per week. This is in addition to last year when the triple lock ensured pensioners benefited from the largest ever increase to the basic State Pension of £5.30 per week.

As a result the basic State Pension will represent a higher share of average earnings than at any time since 1992.

The Lib Dem Manifesto said: “We will uprate the state pension annually by whichever is the higher of growth in earnings, growth in prices or 2.5 per cent.” In Government we have been able to deliver on this promise.

The latest revelations that Lord Hanningfield’s House of Lords bar bills, amounting to £4,600, were paid by Conservative-led Essex County Council is a disgrace say the the council’s opposition Liberal Democrat group.

At the recent meeting of the council’s Audit Committee it was revealed that over £70,000 was claimed by Lord Hanningfield’s staff for trips abroad, expensive hotels and restaurants and even suit hire for Royal Ascot!

Leader of the opposition Lib Dems, Cllr Mike Mackrory said

“This is a scandalous misuse of public money. I want to know who authorised these payments and why. This must not be swept under the carpet. We need answers now.”

Today’s Budget announced that the Income Tax Personal Allowance will be raised to £10,000 in April 2014 – one year sooner than had been expected. This means 500,000 ordinary working people in Essex will get a further Income Tax cut, bringing the total tax cut to £700 a year since Liberal Democrats joined the Coalition Government.

In Essex, this welcome news also means that 49,000 low -earners will have been lifted out of paying Income Tax thanks to Liberal Democrats in the Coalition Government.

Commenting, Stansted Liberal Democrat Geoffrey Sell said:
“Liberal Democrats are working for a stronger economy and a fairer society, so that everyone can get on in life so we are cutting taxes for ordinary working people.

“Liberal Democrats want fairer taxes, which is why we made raising the tax-free allowance our number one priority at the General Election – so important that we put it on the front page of our manifesto.

“When times are tough, with rising bills and wages not keeping pace with inflation, we want to give people real, practical help.

“Cutting Income Tax will not deal with all of those problems, but it will help. And I hope it will make a big difference to every family in this country.”

Commenting further, Liberal Democrat Chief Secretary to the Treasury, Danny Alexander said:
“When times are as tough as they are now, our focus must be on helping those on low and middle incomes. That’s why we’ve made delivering on this promise our number one priority in Government.

“It’s also why we have scrapped another of Labour’s fuel duty rises, so filling up your car will be £7 cheaper than under Labour plans. And why we are cracking down on tax dodgers so that everyone is paying their fair share.

“All of this has been done while sticking to our tough but necessary plan to deal with this country’s financial problems. Britain can’t afford unfunded giveaways – unlike the last Labour Government, we have made sure everything is paid for.”

Labour cut tax for millionaires every single year until their last month, while increasing tax on low earners by scrapping the 10p tax rate. Under Labour, someone on the Minimum Wage paid £1,000 in Income Tax. The Lib Dems have cut their tax bill by more than half and under our future plans, they would pay nothing. Labour helped the richest in society when they cut Capital Gains Tax for hedge fund managers and cut tax on millionaires’ pension pots.

The Liberal Democrats have won the Eastleigh by-election, with the UK Independence Party pushing the Conservatives into third place. Labour finished a poor fourth.

You can watch Nick Clegg and Eastleigh’s new Lib Dem MP Mike Thornton here.

Lib Dem campaigner Graham Pooley has gained a seat on Chelmsford City Council, winning the Broomfield & Walthams by-election held on Tuesday 19th February. He won the vacancy caused by the death of veteran councillor Delmas Ashford.

In his victory speech, Graham Pooley thanked the council officers, his team of helpers and the people of Broomfield and The Walthams. He paid tribute to Delmas Ashford and pledged to be a strong voice for the area on the council.

The result is shown below and the vote share comparisons are with the last election in 2011.

A call was made today for more to be spent on fixing Essex roads and pavements and helping young people. At the Essex County Council budget meeting, the Lib Dem Opposition group proposed better services, funded from cutting wasteful spending and spare cash in the bank. This was rejected by the ruling Conservatives.

The Leader of the Opposition, Lib Dem Mike Mackrory, accused them of dangerous complacency. He said, “Every one knows how bad the roads and pavements are. They are causing damage to vehicles and are a danger to road users and pedestrians alike.

“We should also support our struggling young people more, help jobseekers and build stronger communities.”

The Lib Dem proposals were

• additional money to fix footways, potholes and white lines on roads
• help young people travelling to job interviews, provide advice on benefits and discounted swimming
• Help Citizens Advice Bureaux to advise residents and raise new money
• Reopen a recycling centre

This would be paid for by cutting back on the £1 million a year spent on Conservative cabinet members and their support staff; £2.5 million spent on spin doctors, and using cash from the bank, where they are keeping more than the required minimum.

Cllr Mackrory continued, “Today we have seen the genuine concerns of Essex residents being turned down by the Conservatives at County Hall. This is a real slap in the face for our residents who deserve better.”

The chief executive of Essex County Council attended some of the now-infamous dinners, paid out of Lord Hanningfield’s excessive credit card spending during his time as Conservative leader.

The Essex Chronicle revealed much of the detail in their article on Thursday. In two consecutive evenings, Ms Killian, who is paid a basic salary of £210,000-a-year, had dinners with the peer at both Jamie Oliver’s and Rick Stein’s Cornish restaurants. Taxpayers picked up the £1,000-plus bill.

“It confirms our suspicions that Joanna Killian knew about and participated in some of these junkets,” said county councillor Mike Mackrory, the leader of the Liberal Democrat opposition at County Hall.

These latest revelations follow the Conservatives rejecting a Lib Dem motion calling for a full investigation.

No action taken in 2007

Cllr Mackrory asked, “Who signed these expenses off and why? Why did the Conservatives let him get away with it for so long?

“Why did the Chief Executive take no action after my letter of concern to her in November2007? Why was no action taken after the criticisms by the Auditors in 2008?

“We will continue to press for answers to these questions.”

The Coalition Government has today announced how much Pupil Premium money each school in England will receive in 2013/14.

The cash targets extra money to schools depending on the number of children from disadvantaged backgrounds they have. The Pupil Premium is a major Liberal Democrat priority that is being delivered by the Coalition Government.

The Pupil Premium will be worth a total of £1.65bn, or £900 per child, in 2013/14. It covers any primary or secondary school pupil that has been registered for Free School Meals in the past six years.

Commenting, Liberal Democrat Schools Minister, David Laws said:

“Liberal Democrats are building a strong economy and a fair society where everyone can get ahead. Education is absolutely at the heart of that.

“The Pupil Premium is extra support for the children who need it the most, whether it is catch-up classes, one-to-one tuition, extra IT support – whatever the school thinks best.

“Helping the most disadvantaged children helps every child. Fewer children falling behind means less disruption in class and a better education for everyone.”

You can find details of how much each local school in England will gain from the Lib Dem Pupil Premium, by visiting this website: http://bit.ly/TyVK6D

Image Copyright: Flickr/Educationgovuk