Many Wolverhampton members went to the West Midlands leadership hustings in Coventry on Saturday. All three candidates gave gave brilliant speeches showing the depth of talent the Lib Dems have to call on but making it very difficult to decide who to vote for.
This year's round of Council Tax rises look like coming out at twice the inflation rate. Following last week's 5% rise by Surrey County Council, the Surrey Police Authority have now confirmed a 5.8% increase in their share of the total tax burden. Next week Epsom & Ewell Borough Council will be considering a recommended increase of 4.9%, which if approved will bring the overall tax rise for residents to almost 5.1% compared to last year. This is double the current inflation rate of around 2.5%.
Liberal Democrat campaigner Julie Morris is outraged that the service cuts proposed under Tory-controlled Surrey County Council's Business Delivery Review (BDR) include not only Ewell Court Library, but also the Yo-Yo "drop-in" centre for young people in Epsom town centre. She said: "I simply cannot believe they are considering this as an option. Youth services are already under-funded and they should be improving things rather than making cuts. Epsom town centre is already full of young people with nothing to do in the evenings. Do we want more on the streets bored, involved in misdemeanours and taking up police time?"
Dundee City Council's Liberal Democrat Vice Convener of Environmental Services and Sustainability, Cllr Helen Dick, has given her support to "One Bin Day" next Tuesday (21st February) an attempt by Envirowise to urge businesses to limit the number of rubbish bins available in their office and witness the amount of waste produced in one day.
Surrey County Council's increase in Council Tax of "only" 5% may not be as high as in some recent years, but not only is it around twice the rate of inflation, it comes at a high price in terms of cuts in services, with the expectation of hundreds of staff redundancies to follow in April.
At this weeks County Council meeting Lib Dem Cllr Gordon Willey criticised the County Council's borrowing. The Tory run County Council voted to borrow £35million pounds to finance projects throughout the county.
