A lot has been said in the media about the performance of the Conservatives in elections early this month, and about how they are finally managing to make a breakthrough in the north.

However, the glowing plaudits are based on a superficial reading of results. Scratching beneath the surface reveals a rather less favourable story for them.

Even after eleven years of a very unpopular Labour government, the Tories have failed to have a single councillor elected in Liverpool, Newcastle, Gateshead or Durham City. They have very few in Manchester or Hull. And there’s more: this month they lost their remaining presence on Sheffield Council.

Much has been made about the Conservatives winning control of Bury (though they will rely on the Mayor’s casting vote to do so). But Bury is far from typical of northern Labour heartlands – it had two Tory MPs until 1997 and contains affluent Manchester commuter areas. It is certainly not Salford or Easington.

There is a reason for this. People in the north remember how bad it was under a Tory Government. Even a decade of Labour’s nannying, corruption, authoritarianism and general ineptitude has not persuaded the north to back the Tories again.

By contrast, the Liberal Democrats run councils in Liverpool, Newcastle, Hull, Sheffield, Stockport, Burnley and Durham, and are the biggest party in Warrington and York. It is clearly us who are the main opposition in the north.

Liberal Democrat Councillor Gordon Charlton today highlighted the failure of the ruling Conservatives at County Hall to fight for the post office network in the county.

In February this year the Lib Dems proposed a motion which would have committed the Council to opposing any further closures of post offices in North Yorkshire.

However, Tory and Labour councillors let the Government off the hook by supporting a Conservative amendment which watered down the motion to say that the Council “opposes any further closures without alternative appropriate provision being made.”

At today’s meeting of the North Yorkshire County Council Lib Dems were given no further assurance that there is a commitment to maintain the post office network.

22 post offices are earmarked for closure across

North Yorkshire, and it is apparent from local knowledge that there is enormous outrage among local communities that these facilities are likely to be lost.

Cllr Charlton said:“Everyone should make their voice heard by emailing consultation@postoffice.co.uk or by writing to the National Consultation Team, Post Office Ltd., Freepost Consultation Team. No postcode or stamp is needed.” 

“In Harrogate and Knaresborough the Liberal Democrats have organised a huge petition to defend the five post offices that are under threat there. Residents wishing to sign should contact Phil Willis’ office at Ashdown House on 01423 528888

Liberal Democrat councillors at County Hall are to make a donation of £100 to a local charity instead of sending each other Christmas cards.

At their December 2007 group meeting, Lib Dem members opted to each donate £5 to the Sensory and Physical Support Service’s Children’s Fund. The organisation is raising funds to take 24 sensory impaired children from North Yorkshire to Lapland to meet Santa in December 2008.

If anyone else wants to make a donation, they can do so by contacting Vicky Taylor on 01609 534397.

Liberal Democrat councillors at County Hall today expressed disappointment at the ruling Conservatives’ decision not to make North Yorkshire a “Fairtrade County”.

The Fairtrade Foundation aims to improve the lives of food producers in the developing world by ensuring that they are paid a fair price for what they produce. It has the support of many councils, charities and religious organisations.

Following a Lib Dem motion, the Council’s Environment & Heritage Committee set up a Research Group to look into Fairtrade. It reported back by recommending that the Council aim to gain Fairtrade status for the county.

However, the recommendations then went to the Council’s Management Board, which is made up of senior officers. It advised the Council’s Conservative dominated Executive that it should expand availability of Fairtrade products in its general business, but not to seek Fairtrade status for the county.

Richmond Lib Dem Councillor Stuart Parsons said:

“I am pleased that the Council has decided to expand use of Fairtrade products at meetings and in the County Hall canteen. Any use of their products will help bring about a fairer and more decent world economy.”

“But it is a great pity that the Conservatives have not opted to go for Fairtrade County status. We could have proudly declared our Fairtrade status to visitors on road signs and council vehicles.”

“Our neighbours in Cumbria have already become a Fairtrade County, and Lancashire is working towards it. North Yorkshire is in danger of being left behind, and has missed a golden opportunity to support the local economy.”

www.fairtrade.org.uk

Liberal Democrat councillors at North Yorkshire County Council today accused the ruling Conservatives of a lack of courage over post office closures.

The Post Office has proposed closure of 22 post offices in the county, with a further 18 becoming “outreach” offices, offering much more limited services.

In February this year the Lib Dems proposed a motion which would have committed the Council to opposing any further closures of post offices in North Yorkshire.

However, Tory and Labour councillors let the Government off the hook by supporting a Conservative amendment which watered down the motion to say that the Council “opposes any further closures without alternative appropriate provision being made.”

Richmond Lib Dem Councillor Stuart Parsons said:

“These closures will be a disaster for many communities, especially for elderly and vulnerable residents who rely on their local post offices for essential services.”

“When the Conservatives were last in Government, 3,500 post offices closed. Labour have already closed 4,000, and another 2,500 are set to close. That’s a rate of 300 closures a year over the last two decades.”

“The Tories are now asking people to make their voice heard and object to the closures – we urge them to join the national Lib Dem campaign at www.libdems.org.uk . But if they had spoken up more effectively for our communities in the first place we might not be in this situation now.”

Liberal Democrats on North Yorkshire County Council Hall have reacted angrily to Wednesday’s decision by the County Council’s Transport Scrutiny Committee to support the termination of the highway agency agreements with District Councils in Scarborough and Harrogate.

The decision came at the special meeting of the Transport & Telecommunications Overview & Scrutiny Committee at County Hall on 28 November. The committee voted by six to two to end the 30-year-old system where the County Council delegates responsibility for road maintenance to the District Councils in the urban areas. As usual, Labour and the Tories voted together. Only the Liberal Democrats voted against.

No substantial argument  was put for ending the agreements on grounds of quality or value, and no financial case was made.

The only argument made for changing the arrangement was that the County’s highway maintenance contract with its private sector provider is due for renewal in three year’s time.

Lib Dem County Councillor Dr Keith Barnes (Harrogate Oatlands), said afterwards:

“It may well be time to review the agency agreements in Harrogate and Scarborough, but to end them without consultation or evidence is unprofessional and a travesty of democracy.”

“The Council has made no attempt to find out whether local people are happy with the current arrangement.”

Honorary Alderman George Crowther OBE, former Leader and Mayor of Harrogate Council, spoke against the proposal before the debate, and commented after the meeting:

“The Tories appear more concerned with keeping their private sector contractors happy than with providing the best services for Harrogate and Scarborough residents.”

“And Labour have meekly backed them to the hilt.”

Liberal Democrats at County Hall have revealed that a report to the County Council Executive states that the authority is failing by almost £800k to meet its sickness absence targets for the first half of the year.

The latest quarterly report also admits that it is unlikely that the Conservative-dominated council will reduce sickness absence enough to meet the targets for the full year.

Also at today’s meeting of the Council’s Executive, Lib Dem Councillor Margaret-Ann de Courcey-Bayley asked a question about the expected savings from training staff using electronic learning.

The Council forecast savings based on 5000 members of staff doing health & safety e-learning courses this year. However, up to now only 800 have done so which raises questions about the effectiveness of the training package.

Failure to provide new computer resources for personnel services has reduced the potential for savings by a further £240,000.

Lib Dem County Councillor Margaret-Ann de Courcey-Bayley (Harrogate Starbeck), explains:

“The Tory figures are unrealistic, speculative and not based on well grounded data.”

“The Council has gone for non-cashable savings, which do not translate into real money saved. This will surely trip them up next year. Rule changes mean that savings will have to be in real money.”

The Liberal Democrat Group on North Yorkshire County Council today launches its own website – www.northyorkslibdems.org.uk

The aim is to help keep the public of North Yorkshire informed about what the Lib Dems are doing at County Hall, and to allow local residents to contact their councillors more easily.

The Lib Dem group has 19 members and is the main opposition to the ruling Conservatives at the County Council. Many members come from Harrogate, but there are also Lib Dem councillors right across the county, from places such as Scarborough, Ripon, Airedale, Knaresborough, Stokesley, Whitby, Skipton, Richmond, Settle and Norton.

The website will include a news section, contact details of all councillors and a facility to email the group directly.

County Councillor Bill Hoult, Liberal Democrat Leader at County Hall, explains:

“More and more people are using the internet as a way of communicating and finding out information, and we have to respond to that.”

“We want people to be able to quickly find out what we are doing to hold the Tory administration to account.”

“But more importantly, we want people to be able to contact us easily if they have issues or concerns.”

Liberal Democrats at County Hall are delighted following yesterday’s rejection of plans to split an important Harrogate committee in two.

In July this year there was a proposal by North Yorkshire County Council to split the Harrogate County Area Committee into two. This would have created two committees, one serving the rural areas of Harrogate borough and one the urban part.

The claim made by supporters was that the committee is too big (18 County Councillors plus Parish, District and voluntary sector members). It was also claimed that rural issues were being sidelined.

At the meeting of the County Area Committee on the 8 November the proposal was consigned to the “trash bin” when it was clear that the only clear cut support for the idea was from the Conservative county councillors.

Liberal Democrat county councillors, parish council representatives, district councillors and people from the voluntary sector all criticised the proposal as having more disadvantages than advantages.

Opponents to the change quoted increased costs of running two committees, the risk of a “disconnection” between rural and urban areas creating a “them and us” mentality at a time when County and District Councils are attempting to meet Government requirements to work closer together.

Parish and voluntary sector representatives also pointed out that the difficulties that they would meet in having to attend and contribute to two committees rather than one. This is wasteful when, in reality, the vast proportion of issues discussed would be the same.

Knaresborough County Councillor Bill Hoult (Leader of the Lib Dem group at County Hall) comments:

“It goes now to the Executive at County Hall for their view, and then on to Full Council, possibly in February 2008. However I sincerely hope that the Executive will not try and force the issue against the clear opposition on the Area Committee.”

“It made sense to look at splitting the committee when the County Unitary bid was a possibility but it makes no sense now.”

At last Thursday’s meeting to discuss the Liberal Democrat “call-in” of the £3.8 million overspend on the highway depot review, Tory and Labour councillors joined forces to defeat a proposal by Cllr Bill Hoult to refer the matter to the County Council’s Audit Committee.

The reason given was that the contract (£16 million in total) is just too small to be important enough, and that the Environment Directorate “had already learnt its lessons.”

County Councillor Bill Hoult, Liberal Democrat Leader at County Hall, explains:

“It is a shocking decision. There was an acknowledgement that there were faults. My view is that the County Council would benefit from an impartial audit of the process.”

“This is the third time this year that we have uncovered faults in project management at County, the NY Times newspaper and IT in schools being the other two.”

“£16 million is a huge amount of money, and we must ask “what have they got to hide?””