Chinese Liberal Democrats helped to organise a dinner on 23 June in Taunton, Somerset to support Parliamentary Candidate Sarah Yong. Selected earlier this year, Sarah will be standing in David Heath MP's seat in the constituency of Somerton and Frome in May 2015.
Labour-controlled Exeter City Council decided to slash Community Patrol and Environmental Health staff at an Executive meeting today. Cllr Adrian Fullam (Lib Dem) criticised the decision: "These lost services are a direct result of the £2m debt repayments the Council is now paying after years of overspending." Community Patrol is being reduced from 7 staff to 4 staff. Environmental Enforcement is being reduced from 5 staff to 3 staff. This will make it more difficult for the Council to monitor and report anti-social behaviour and will reduce the ability of the Council to report problems in the community such as noise nuisance. Response times to enquiries from the public are bound to get a lot worse.
At an Executive meeting tonight the Council's Local Council Tax support scheme was reviewed. Following a question from Lib Dem Councillor Adrian Fullam, it was revealed that only £13250 of the Exceptional Hardship fund was spent out of a budget of £35000. The unspent money has been returned to Council coffers. Either the amount of hardship in the city is being exaggerated for political purposes or the Labour Council is failing to help those in need.
Speaking today in the Commons, Tim Farron MP pressed the Chancellor to draw in more public and private investment into housing, saying "Given that we need 3 million homes over the next 10 years, and that even in the height of Blair's boom years, the private sector failed to deliver more than around 180,000 homes in a year, will the Right Honourable member agree that we need to do much more to draw in public and private investment in housing to tackle the housing crisis?"
The Liberal Democrats will protect the full education budget in the next parliament, Nick Clegg announced at his monthly press conference.
The Liberal Democrats will protect the full education budget in the next parliament, Nick Clegg announced at his monthly press conference.