Autumn 2006 FOCUS
PDF document, version 1.4
Uploaded at 6.12.38pm GMT Sun 3rd Dec 2006
The Liberal Democrat Focus team consists of local Councillors and active Liberal Democrat members - all local residents who care greatly about the issues affecting life in the Borough. We work closely with the local community in a variety of ways. As well as campaigning year round on local issues, members of our team serve on local School Governing Boards, Residents' Associations, and other organisations such as the Friends of Reigate Priory , Redhill Police Consultation group, Redhill Town Centre Management group, Redhill Shopmobility, Earlswood Common Management Group and Woodhatch Day Centre. Merstham Lib Dem Resident and Councillor, Deanna Durward, is campaigning for our area. She told us "We welcome the regeneration of Merstham, especially Portland Drive, but proposals to build on open spaces in Bletchingley Road should only be implemented as a last resort. Parking is already a problem in this area. The traffic calming, whilst it has had the desired effect, has reduced the number of available parking spaces. The multi-purpose building at the corner of Portland Drive and Bletchingley Road could potentially add to our parking problems". Climate change is a major threat to our planet - and urgent action is needed. Liberal Democrats will lead by example by ensuring that Britain achieves its Kyoto targets well before the deadline. We will tackle traffic pollution by getting more people onto public transport. We will ensure that much more of the UK's electricity comes from safe renewable sources.
For full details of Liberal Democrat policy on climate change please visit our web site. The Harlequin Theatre is under threat through the lack of Council funding. Liberal Democrats recognise the need for the regeneration of Redhill and believe that this can be best supported by the promotion of culture and art through our local theatre.
Indeed the Arts Council England recommends the placing of culture at the heart of any regeneration agenda to maintain and develop strong communities. A thriving theatre would undoubtedly help stimulate incoming investment, boost job creation and make Redhill a more attractive business centre for East Surrey, as well as a more attractive and interesting town for our residents to live in. Liberal Democrats want to make tax fairer and greener, to encourage everyone to do the right thing for the environment. We would cut income tax for 28 million people. We would abolish the 10 pence starting rate. We would cut the basic rate from 22 pence to 20 pence, and we would raise the top rate threshold from £38,000 to £50,000. Drivers of greener cars would pay less.
We would reward motorists who drive less polluting vehicles by reducing Vehicle Excise Duty (VED) on the more environmentally friendly cars and motorcycles. We would abolish it altogether for the greenest vehicles and fund this by significantly increasing the amount of VED charged on the most polluting vehicles, such as new 4x4s.
Tax aircraft emissions, not passengers. To encourage more fuel efficient aircraft we would press for multinational agreement on aviation pollution. Meanwhile, we would implement charges per aircraft rather than per passenger. This would be based on aircraft emissions, to encourage more efficient aircraft and higher passenger loading of aircraft. The more you switch to greener living, the more of your income tax cut you will keep. Hospital trusts find themselves in an increasingly commercial environment, with competition from government subsidised private sector treatment centres, and great uncertainty as patients are encouraged to shop around for treatment. With trusts having to sack doctors and nurses and close wards in an attempt to balance the books, it is patients who suffer from cuts in front line services. It is unacceptable that changes made in the NHS are too often done by unelected bodies answerable only to the Health Secretary. We need open and honest debate about our health service. The NHS should not be placed in the hands of an unelected Quango, as recently proposed by Gordon Brown. There was a massive 14% swing from Conservative to Liberal Democrat in the Bromley and Chislehurst by-election. The Tories have retained what used to be their 17th safest seat by a margin of just 633. It is significant that, at the same time, Labour dropped from second place to fourth. It is clear that, as disillusioned voters turn away from Tony Blair and Labour, it's the Liberal Democrats they are turning to - not David Cameron and his 'new' Tories. Liberal Democrat research has shown that the Government's NHS reforms are seriously destabilising District General Hospitals in England. Pressure on hospital trusts is more acute in London and the South East, where nearly one in four trusts is facing serious financial shortfalls There is also competition from other areas of the health service or private providers. Labour has introduced market-fixated reforms and constantly changing financial arrangements that have created great instability as trusts face huge financial pressure. Local councillors Graham Norman and Steve Kulka are delighted to have been able to advise local residents in their campaign to get another proposed Mobile Telephone mast defeated. Pressure was put on the brewery who owned the pub where it was to be sighted, but a well argued case persuaded the brewery of the folly of placing it in this dense populated residential area. Masts can be a blight on a local community, where the health effects are unknown but the effect on the value of your house is definitely detrimental. In a large number of circumstances the Mobile Telephone companies don't even have to get planning permission! They have been given permitted development rights by the Government. Creating more nuclear waste when we are still not sure where to put the waste from the last fifty years is utterly irresponsible. Nuclear decommissioning and waste disposal costs are approaching £100 billion and continue to rise. Every person in the UK is paying £1,500 to clean up the waste from the last 50 years. Imagine how much more it will cost us if we add more nuclear power stations. The Labour Government has ignored recommendations from their own 2003 Energy Review, the Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution (2000) and the Sustainable Development Commission (2006). Lib Dems contend that going down the nuclear route would significantly reduce available funding for renewables. Energy conservation, gas, micro generation, wind and clean coal would be competitive low carbon options. Liberal Democrats want to give the average family a £1,000 income tax cut to help save the planet. By switching to green taxes instead, everyone can make a contribution to combating climate chaos. Liberal Democrats will radically change the way Britain pays tax, taxing less on good things like income, and switching tax to bad things like pollution. Then the more you choose to switch to greener living, the more of your Lib Dem income tax cut you will keep. It's your choice! While other politicians just talk about the environment, Lib Dem Leader Sir Menzies Campbell has won praise for his green tax switch plan, which would actually do something significant to tackle global warming. "We want fair tax, not more tax" says Ming, "but we do want to use tax to reward people who improve the way they live and do their bit to save the environment."
|
|
