Residents of Newcastle have told an independent national survey that they are increasingly satisfied with the condition of roads and pavements in the city. The city has come 4th out of 95 Councils surveyed, and 2nd out of 19 Metropolitan areas, moving up several places from the 2009 survey.
The local party's motion's motion to Regional Conference in Oxford (Oxford Brookes University, Saturday, October 30) on the 'Speaker's Seat' issue was carried overwhelmingly with only one vote against. The motion was proposed by Bette Melling, with Llew Monger providing the summing up.
Lib Dem County Councillor Tim Prater has slammed suggestions on the BBC website that cross-Channel swims from the UK to France should be banned as "barmy". A BBC report at http://tinyurl.com/2undlgs says that the French coastguard is calling for swimmers to be banned from crossing the Channel from Dover to Calais.
The Lib Dems' East Midlands Regional Conference discussed university tuition fees on 30 October, and the following motion as proposed by myself (Sam Boote, parliamentary spokesman for Rushcliffe)and amended by Daniel Jones was debated:
The latest 'Meet the Buyer' event, held at Bedford College and funded by the Council, saw local firms gain direct access to major businesses to build up contacts and to find out more about how they can win contracts and do business with major purchasers from the public and private sector. Buyers from companies including Wells & Young, Lockheed Martin, Autoglass, Bedford Hospital, Bourns, Bedford College, and Bedford Borough Council itself were in attendance. Meet the Buyer events are an important aspect of our ongoing drive to support the local economy, helping local firms to continue to provide employment opportunities for residents. Other key features of our efforts to help the local economy are our efforts to boost local infrastructure, including through the delivery of the final link of the western bypass, and a forthcoming campaign to encourage people to buy locally from Bedford Borough businesses.
![Vince Cable [Photo: LDD Pics]](/fileadmin/_processed_/5/5/csm_vince-cable-photo-ldd-pics_a8e3e3f3df.png)
"High-tech industries are the future of the British economy. Growing sectors that exploit these new and emerging technologies will help re-balance the economy and provide the highly skilled, well-paid jobs we need."
