June 17th, 2009 by Group Office | Comment?
Liberal Democrat Councillors have taken two influential positions at North Yorkshire County Council.
Following today’s meeting of the Council, Cllr Caroline Seymour is Vice-Chair of the County Council. She is one of only a very small number of Lib Dems to have held this position.
Cllr Margaret-Ann de Courcey-Bayley (Harrogate Starbeck) is to Chair the Communications Overview & Scrutiny Committee. Her colleague, Cllr Geoff Webber (Harrogate Bilton & Nidd Gorge) will be Vice-Chair of the Transport & Telecommunications Overview & Scrutiny Committee.
Speaking afterwards, Cllr de Courcey-Bayley said:
“I am very pleased that the Council has put its trust in me to chair the influential Communications Committee. Good communication, both internal and with the public, is the key to a successful council.”
“Effective scrutiny of Executive decisions will require a lot of hard work, and I look forward to working with councillors of all parties to try to achieve this.”
Cllr Geoff Webber added:
“I am delighted to be Vice-Chair of Transport & Telecommunications. I will use my position to make sure North Yorkshire has a transport system that is environmentally sound and fit for purpose.”
Meanwhile, Cllr Brian Simpson (Scarborough Eastfield & Osgodby) is Vice-Chair of the Safe & Sustainable Communities Committee and Stuart Parsons (Richmond) is Vice-Chair of the Environment & Heritage Committee.
June 16th, 2009 by Group Office | Comment?
Following the County Council elections on 4 June the make-up of the Council is now:
Conservatives 48
Liberal Democrats 11
Independent Group 10
Labour 1
Liberal Party 1
Other Independent 1
For the full results please follow this link http://www.northyorks.gov.uk/index.aspx?articleid=9588
April 22nd, 2009 by Group Office | Comment?
Lib Dems in North Yorkshire launched their manifesto for the County Council elections to be held on 4 June 2009.
Claire Kelley (prospective parliamentary candidate for Harrogate & Knaresborough, pictured second left) spoke at the launch and joined councillors and candidates afterwards at Holy Trinity Church in Ripon.
Click here to read the manifesto.
April 17th, 2009 by Group Office | Comment?
The Liberal Democrat manifesto for the North Yorkshire County Council elections (to be held on 4 June) will be launched at Holy Trinity Church, Trinity Lane, Ripon, HG4 2EY on Saturday 18 April. The event starts at 12pm.
Local media representatives are welcome.
Among the policies set out in the manifesto are:
• Investing extra money in the Youth Service, to tackle anti-social behaviour.
• A stop to above-inflation increases in the price of school meals
• Abolishing the County Council’s North Yorkshire Times “so called” newspaper which costs over £500K a year of taxpayers money and is threatening the very existence of truly independent local newspapers.
• Directly elected Older and Younger People’s “Champions” at the council, instead of these being political appointments.
• Reviewing the creation of huge council contracts that make it virtually impossible for small local firms to compete against national companies.
County Councillor Bill Hoult, Lib Dem Group Leader at County Hall, said:
“Coming against a background of economic crisis, our manifesto contains no extravagant promises, but a sound and cautious approach to the future.”
“The Conservatives have more than doubled Council Tax over the last 11 years, whilst inflation has been 25%. The people of North Yorkshire deserve better.”
March 27th, 2009 by Group Office | Comment?
Liberal Democrats at North Yorkshire have accused the Tory led Council of using its monopoly position as school meals provider to primary schools to demand unacceptable contractual terms.
Cllr Bill Hoult, Leader of the Liberal Democrats at County Hall says:
“Once again we see the Tory led Council giving a “stand and deliver” ultimatum that would make Dick Turpin proud. It needs to be recognised that many small schools across the County have nowhere else to go for school dinner provision and may have signed the contract without fully realising the penalty clauses written into the contract.”
The proposal by the North Yorkshire County Council is to renew the contract (service level agreement) to provide school meals which are currently on a six month rolling contract, with a five year contract with penalties for schools ending the contract early.
The penalty clauses are considered to be unacceptably harsh bearing in mind the monopoly position of the authority over school meals. For example a school with 100 pupils, 50% of whom take free school meals, would have to pay over £15,000 to terminate the contract after one year.
Schools will also have to specify the number of meals that it expects to be sold over each year, with a levy of 40p for every meal not taken up. The school would have no control over the price of meals (rises of above inflation are the norm, last years was more than 10%) or quality of the meal, all of the risk of falling take-up because of these factors would have to be met from school budgets.
Another cause of contention is the seemingly arbitrary decision to introduce the new contract from the 1 April this year, even though the terms of the existing contract run until July 2009. This tight timescale makes it difficult for schools to arrange alternative meal provision for their pupils.
Cllr Bill Hoult adds:
“Another factor that has not been thought through is what happens in those schools that have a year on year change in the number of pupils on free school meals. A reduction in those numbers could cost the school dearly. The whole issue needs to be reviewed.”
March 4th, 2009 by Group Office | Comment?
Liberal Democrats at North Yorkshire County Council are disappointed that the Tory bosses have opted to go ahead with increasing school transport charges by more than inflation.
Last month the Conservative administration decided to increase charges for post-16 home to school transport by 3%. Liberal Democrats called in the decision for further examination, as it is inappropriate during a recession and hits rural areas hardest.
However, at yesterday’s special meeting of the Young People Overview & Scrutiny Committee, the Tory-dominated committee voted to press ahead with the increase. Labour abstained on the issue.
Lib Dem County Councillor Caroline Seymour (Stokesley) said:
“After a 5% increase last year, and bearing in mind the economic climate, this rise is highly inappropriate. Added to the Tories’ above-inflation council tax rise, this will be hard for many families to cope with.”
“It will hit people in rural areas hardest, as they are much more likely to rely on home to school transport.”
“Once again Labour failed to oppose the Tories. Only the Liberal Democrats are fighting for people on modest incomes and providing some opposition at County Hall.”
March 3rd, 2009 by Group Office | Comment?
Faced with the news that the County Council will be under-spending on its capital projects by £12 million in this financial year, Liberal Democrats in North Yorkshire are calling for some of it to be spent on substandard schools.
In May last year Tory Chiefs received a damning report on the state of schools across the County and agreed to allocate £2 million in 2009/10 and £4 million in 2010/11 to raise standards.
However, despite imposing a 3.94% Council tax rise, having at least £63 million in reserves and heading for about a further £10 million under-spend this year, the Council has delayed the works.
County Councillor Bill Hoult, Liberal Democrat Leader at the County Council, comments:
“We believe that it is common sense in the circumstances to spend £6 million of the unspent money on bringing our schools up to a proper standard. The input of these works this year would be a double benefit by helping struggling small businesses due to the economic climate.”
February 18th, 2009 by Group Office | Comment?
Liberal Democrats at County Hall today proposed an amendment to the budget asking for a 2% increase in Council Tax.
But this was voted down by the ruling Conservatives who pushed through their plans for an inflation-busting 3.94% rise.
County Councillor Bill Hoult (Knaresborough), who leads the Liberal Democrats at County Hall, said:
“The Tories at the County Council have already put Council Tax up by 108% since 1997. Over that period the rate of inflation has been 23%.”
“Today’s rise is yet another slap in the face, or should I say, in the wallet, for thousands of hard working people trying to make ends meet in difficult economic times.”
County Councillor Keith Barnes (Harrogate Oatlands) seconded the amendment, adding:
“Our proposal for a lower than inflation increase was sensible, affordable and fully costed. The Tories won the vote but not the argument.”
February 18th, 2009 by Group Office | Comment?
Liberal Democrats at County Hall think that County Council contracts are becoming so large that local businesses can no longer compete for them.
The ruling Conservatives plan to reduce the number of contractors on the Council’s approved list.
In many cases this is sensible, as some existing contractors never bother to tender for work, have gone out of business, or fail to meet quality standards.
But the Tories also plan to construct larger contracts by lumping together different work. Lib Dems fear that smaller local companies will be pushed out in favour of large national ones, and so are urging the Tories to think again.
County Councillor Les Parkes (Harrogate Harlow) questioned the Tory Executive member at today’s meeting of the Council and was told that the matter would be kept under review. Cllr Parkes said afterwards:
“In view of the current economic downturn it is more important than ever that our Council supports local businesses.”
December 17th, 2008 by Group Office | Comment?
The ruling Conservatives at County Hall today kicked out a Lib Dem plan to help local businesses through the economic crisis.
Lib Dem Council Group Leader Bill Hoult proposed, and Margaret-Ann de Courcey-Bayley seconded, a motion which would have brought forward council spending on highway maintenance, upgrading schools and other useful schemes.
The motion also committed the Council to paying local contractors within 10 working days for work done.
But the Tories put in an amendment which removed any commitment to either bring forward expenditure or to reduce invoice payment times to less than the current 30 working days.
Councillor Margaret-Ann de Courcey-Bayley (Lib Dem, Starbeck) said:
“Our sensible plan to bring forward spending would have helped local businesses through these troubled times, as well as providing much-needed improvements to our roads and schools.”
Councillor Bill Hoult (Lib Dem, Knaresborough) said:
“The Tories like to think they are the party of business, but their actions today prove the opposite. Just like their leader at national level, the Tories locally have nothing to offer small businesses other than hoping that the crisis will just go away.”
