Two weeks ago the Department for Transport(DFT) announced that North Yorkshire County Council Taxpayers would have to find at least £14M to build a bypass to Bedale Aiskew and Leeming Bar (BALB).

Liberal Democrats at County Hall have always opposed the BALB bypass bid which originally committed the Council to between £6M and £15M cost but has met with a Government that is determined to continue to move the goal posts at every turn.

The main change that rang alarm bells was in April 2011 when the DFT withdrew the “safety net” that would underwrite half of any overrun of costs up to a certain level.

This meant that although the minimum of £6M would remain any under spends would have to be borne by the County Council tax payers which meant that the top price of £15M became £30M overnight.

In view of this the Liberal Democrats at County Hall asked that the Council “throw in the towel” rather than risk taxpayers money on what at best was a marginal scheme. However the Tory led Executive decided to continue with what had now become a high risk project.

The latest move by DFT is to reduce their grant so that the amount to be found by the County Council is increased to a minimum of £14M+ the costs of any overruns

The County Council has until the end of January 2012 to decide whether to accept the revised offer or abandon the scheme.

At the Full Council meeting on the 14 December Cllr Bill Hoult the Deputy Leader of the Liberal Democrats at County hall made this plea to the Executive

“Please do not  saddle the County Council tax payers for years with such an enormous debt, particularly in the uncertain financial future that we face.”

Lib Dem Leader and Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg has outlined a £1 billion pound Youth Contract to tackle youth unemployment. The aim is to ensure that all jobless young people are earning or learning again before long-term damage is done.

• Over three years, the Youth Contract will provide at least 410,000 new work places for 18 to 24 year olds into work. Starting April 2012
• Including 160,000 wage subsidies and 250,000 new work experience placements.
• In addition, there will be at least 20,000 more incentive payments to encourage employers to take on young apprentices.
• A new programme to help the most disengaged 16 and 17 year olds – getting them back to school or college, onto an apprenticeship or into a job with training.

Helen Flynn Moves the Motion to Conference

One of the main items of business at the Yorkshire Region Liberal Democrat Conference was a motion to close the North South Divide.

Moving the motion Helen Flynn quoted recent reports that showed that despite efforts by the coalition Government the North/South Divide was widening and a more proactive approach was needed.

The debate was lively with speakers for and against referring to the need for a High Speed rail link based on the North rather that the current proposal. Others felt that rather than a Regional approach develotion to an English parliament would be better placed to support the North. 

There was however a general consensus amongst delegates that action was needed and the motion was passed by a considerable majority.

County Cllrs quiz Lords Willis and Wallace over Coalition issues.

Around three hundred delegates attended the Liberal Democrat Yorkshire  & The Humber Regional Conference on Saturday 5 November in Skipton.

Nick Clegg the Deputy Prime Minister and Leader of the Party gave the opening address that dealt with progress of the Coalition Government in addressing the economic crisis left by Labour. He explained how insistence of Liberal Democrat policies such as the pupil premium, the raising of the tax threshold that has taken nearly 900, 000 people out of tax had been acheived. Also stressed was that many decisions were hard but reminded delegates that despite being the minor partner in the coalition we had done well to cushion the blow of the deficit reduction policy.

Nick then fronted a 30 minute question and answer session from delegates.

Other presentations were heard from Lord Shutt re the House of Lords; David Ward MP on the Commons and Diane Wallis on Europe. 

The conference was closed with a rousing speech by Greg Mulholland MP for Leeds North West.

Liberal Democrats at North Yorkshire County Council have highlighted a Government threat to force local authorities to add fluoride to drinking water.

Under present guidelines the decision can only be made locally and North Yorkshire has a policy from as far back as 1993 not to support adding the substance to drinking water supplies.

The new measure is contained in the proposed Health and Social Care Bill which is currently having a rocky ride through the House of Lords. Fluoride is claimed by supporters to reduce tooth decay but opponents say it is a potentially dangerous additive.

Cllr Bill Hoult (Deputy Leader of the Lib Dems) who raised a question on the issue at North Yorkshire County Council recently, explains

Whichever side of the argument you are on, to force local authorities to add fluoride to drinking water supplies puts the Government’s claim to support local decision making in tatters. Also to sneak it into this Bill at this late stage is a disgrace, the change is likely to leave the  County Council taxpayers with financial commitments and liability claims. The proposal must be defeated.

Introduction

A recent uproar over the Alzheimers Society’s decision to close a day centre in Stokesley raises all sorts of issues in regard to the future funding of Social Services. Fortunately the day centre has received emergency funding to stay open until the end of the financial year (April 2012) which is welcome but merely a stop gap measure.

The real problem is that the North Yorkshire County Council has taken the decision not to provide “Core Contracts” for day care and move to what is known as “personal budgets”

Core Contracts
Core Contracts have been provided for those residents with an assessed need for day care and voluntary bodies such as the Alzheimers charity were given contracts over say a three year period to provide day care, transport also being financed by the County Council. Under this system the “core” finance was provided for each day care scheme whether or not those assessed as needing it turned up or not. With this system the “core costs” of the service were provided by the contract and the provider also had the option of encouraging others who had sufficient means to pay for the service (self funders) to use day care. In this way the providers were able to cost the service and ensure that it was viable.

Personal Budgets
With personal funding, which is a Government driven approach each client is provided with an individual “budget” to deal with their assessed needs and has the freedom to purchase different types of care, for instance individual support, drop in centres etc., rather than always going to day care. The problem for the day care providers is that if clients choose not to use the service or use it intermittently they do not receive income for that session; the result being that the service can quickly become loss making due to staffing and accommodation costs. 

The Future
There are ways and means of encouraging day care provision under personal budgets but it does depend on the provider being guaranteed an income to provide the service (day care in this case) as no one can continue to run at a loss.

I fear that this will mean a decline in day care provision across the County Council (not just restricted to dementia sufferers) but to others who have special needs.

Benefit or Disadvantage
This is difficult to judge. The claim is that personal budgets give choice to individuals to spend their benefit in the way that serves them best. On the down side if day care is not financially viable it can be seen that one element of choice has been lost.

What do You think? Please have your say by clicking on the “comment” button at the head of this article.

CountyCouncillor Bill Hoult
Knaresborough
Deputy Leader Liberal Democrats NYCC

Deputy Prime Minister addresses the Party Conference in Birmingham. You can read the full text of the speech here.

Thousands of Liberal Democrats gathered for their annual conference in Birmingham this week. They discussed what has been achieved in the first 500 days of Government and policies for the future. Highlights include:

• After decades of campaigning, and thanks to Lynne Featherstone: Equal marriage, straight or gay.
• More power for consumers over the energy companies
• Calling time on rewards for failure in boardrooms
• New powers to turn empty homes back into family homes.
• A £500m investment in growth.

Liberal Democrats in North Yorkshire support the County Council’s aims  to improve participation by young people. To encourage that  the Young People’s Scrutiny Committee is making contact with the 16 Youth Councils across North Yorkshire.  Each youth council is made up of young people from across their local area and there is a County Youth Council made up of representatives from the area youth councils.  The youth councils meet to discuss and act on issues that matter to young people.  Recent topics have included healthy eating, first aid training, access to affordable transport, and a young carer’s card. 

Cllr Keith Barnes (Lib Dem member of the Scrutiny Committee) says. “It’s not about sitting around boardroom tables and always being serious.  What it is about is:

Chain Lane Centre saved

having your voice heard
getting involved
influencing things for the better
contributing to your local community

As a youth councillor you meet and deal with all kinds of people.  You get to speak up aboout your local area,  lots of planning and decisions to make, fun trips away, events to go to and speak at, radio broadcasts and lots more.’ 

For more information Google ‘Yorkshire Youth Councils’. ” 
 

Cllr Keith Barnes

The Lib Dems are opposing calls for an immediate cut in the 50% tax rate paid by higher rate taxpayers.

Nick Clegg’s party instead wants to give more help to those on middle and low incomes who need it the most.

NIck Clegg: We need fairer taxes to help ordinary people, not tax cuts for the richest

Lib Dem Chief Secretary to the Treasury Danny Alexander said, “At a time when the whole country faces serious financial challenges, the priority needs to be people on low and middle incomes.”

A key part of the coalition agreement was the Lib Dem commitment to making taxes fairer. The Lib Dems are well on their way to delivering on their pledge that no one should pay tax on the first £10,000 they earn.

Nearly a million low paid workers are no longer paying income tax thanks to this. All basic rate tax payers are paying £200 less in income tax.

Each year more and more people on low and middle incomes will gain more thanks to the Lib Dem fairer tax plan.

Danny Alexander said, “Fairer taxes is our goal. I don’t see why, in the next parliament, we shouldn’t be trying to get to a situation where people in a full-time job on the minimum wage are paying no income tax at all.”

This would mean that no one would pay tax on the first £12,500 they earn.