Steven Lambert talking with Police Community Support Officers about crime issues

Liberal Democrats in Aylesbury have set out their General Election plans to put more police on the beat throughout the constituency. The extra officers for Aylesbury will be funded by the savings from scrapping ID cards, and are part of the Liberal Democrats’ Safer Streets – More and Better Police manifesto commitment.

Lib Dem Prospective Parliamentary Candidate for Aylesbury said “People in Aylesbury are often telling me how they feel unsafe. Expensive ID cards aren’t going to change that, but an extra officer walking down Elm Farm Road or more police in the Town Centre on a Friday night will. The Liberal Democrats are committed to more police, and this is the only way to create safer streets.”

Recently a Thames Valley Police survey revealed that people would be happy to see their council tax go up to pay for more policing. The Lib Dem policy would negate the need to do this as we would be scrapping large expensive government projects to fund the extra police. With 4189 officers – which increased by 5.5% last year, we have a detection rate of just 24% or 15% arrests per officer.

Steven added “as Aylesbury is set to grow by thousands of homes, we need to make sure we get the police numbers we need. The Lib Dem plans would bring that to fruition along with an elected Police Authority local priorities could be set by local people for the area.”

Commenting at the launch of the nation al policy on 4th February, Liberal Democrat Leader Nick Clegg said “the Liberal Democrats are the only party that wants to cut crime by putting more police on the street. When only one in a hundred crimes ends up with a conviction in court, it is time for things to change. Labour and the Conservatives may talk tough but they are unwilling to make the crucial decisions to cut crime.”

Arrests and Detections

Police Numbers Per Force

Safer Streets More and Better Police

Liberal Democrats launch High Street plan

Liberal Democrats in Aylesbury have this week set out plans to revitalise Britain’s high streets, protect the future of the Post Office, and help small businesses establish and grow in a fairer marketplace.

The announcement comes as research shows one in eight shops is now empty after the recession. The report, published by the Local Data Company (LDC), says that vacancies shot up by 24% in the second half of 2009.

Steven Lambert, Lib Dem Prospective Parliamentary Candidate for Aylesbury said “the report shows that in Aylesbury 9.9% of High Street shops are empty, ranking it 8th lowest in the region. The financial crisis has exposed Labour and the Conservatives’ folly of being entirely dependent on the City of London. The Liberal Democrats understand that it will be small businesses that are key to building a healthy and balanced economy.”

Cllr Alan Sherwell, the Lib Dem leader at Aylesbury Vale District Council said “we need a thriving high street in Aylesbury, one with real character that allows local businesses to survive and grow. For instance this is why the Lib Dems have raised concerns over the Asda super store application at Stoke Mandeville Hospital.

Even before the credit crunch hit, small independent shops had more or less disappeared from our high street, the Government’s skewed planning system has seen supermarket giants squeeze the life out of towns like ours and now almost every high street in Britain is an identical collection of chain stores and coffee shops.

Commenting at the national launch, the Lib Dem leader, Nick Clegg, said thriving high streets are at the heart of local communities. But it has been our high streets that have borne the brunt of this recession, with boarded up shops scarring towns and villages across Britain. I believe that people value the wide range of goods and services available locally and want to see their high streets thrive and prosper.”

Background information

1. The document includes proposals to

• Encourage the development of a PostBank and free the Post Office from the Royal Mail to enable it to develop new business
• Introduce a local competition test for all planning applications for new retail developments to establish a fairer balance between local independent stores and large supermarkets
• Establish a system of Local Enterprise Funds and regional stock exchanges to ensure small businesses get access to cost effective equity that meets their needs

2. A copy of Vibrant Local High Streets is attached.

3. A copy of the LDC report into high street vacancies is attached.

Vibrant_Local_High_Streets

LDC-End-Year-Report-2009-FINAL

At a meeting of the full Aylesbury Vale District Council the Tories unveiled their ideas for the 2010/11 budget, they artificially capped the increase in Council Tax to 1.95% or 5p/week, as a result of this temporary measure the following services will be cut:

- Introducing charges for pre-planning advice, this means that you will have to pay to talk to your planning department.

- Making a reduction in the amount of funding to voluntary and community groups, this will hit the most at need in the area, services such as Relate, Citizens Advice Bureau, the Southcourt and Walton Court community project.

- Removing council funding from events such as Parklife and Buckingham Festival Fortnight, this will have a massive effect on tourism, leaving the parish council to pick up the cost if these events are to continue.

- Removing funding from the Reflex Gym in Winslow and the Buckingham Tourist Information Centre, at a time when the local economy needs tourists and the country is facing an obesity crisis these cuts can only cause harm in our area.

District Councillor and Liberal Democrat Prospective Parliamentary Candidate for Aylesbury, Cllr Steven Lambert said, “These cuts particularly to the voluntary groups will have a massive effect on those most in need, the Tories seem to be taking the view that as this section of the population do not vote Tory that it doesn’t matter if they cut the funding, that view is simply unacceptable”.

Cllr Steven Kennell the Liberal Democrat finance spokesman added “The Liberal Democrats asked that a small amount be taken from reserves to allow funding of the voluntary groups to continue, the fact that the Tories voted against this just shows how detached they are from reality, they can afford a new theatre, a new council chamber, but anything that relates to the lives of the people of our area they simply do not get”.

Other measures to fill the hole in the AVDC budget include charging villages for public toilets and an increase in car parking charges. Speaking about the effect on Aylesbury Town Cllr Mark Willis, Town Councillor for Bedgrove, said “Increasing car parking charges will drive away visitors from shopping in the town, to our rivals MK and Oxford, the Tories have the money to leave the Kingsbury water feature on all day and night, and to put flagpoles up at the parks, but supporting our local shops seems to be beyond them”.

The Liberal Democrat amendment calling for £39,000 to be taken from reserves to protect the work of the voluntary groups was defeated by the Tories, but one of their councillors later remarked that he would have voted in favour if he had realised exactly what the amendment was calling for.

Notes for editors
Steven Lambert PPC for Aylesbury can be contacted on 07884428833 for interviews.
The budget for AVDC is £20.7 million, £8.8 million is raised through the Council Tax

“The Liberal Democrats are the only party committed to increasing police numbers of every area of the country,” said the Liberal Democrat Shadow Home Secretary.

Commenting on figures showing the number of police officers has fallen in most forces, Chris Huhne said:

“This is a worrying sign of what is to come as budgets are cut and numbers fall in over half of all police forces.

“Instead of squandering billions on ID cards, the Government should concentrate on getting more police officers out on the beat.

“The Liberal Democrats are the only party committed to increasing police numbers of every area of the country. It is time for the other parties to come clean about their plans.”

Steven Lambert Liberal Democrat PPC at Rayners Hedge

Aylesbury Liberal Democrats were horrified to learn of the planned closure of Rayners Hedge neurology rehabilitation unit in Croft Road Aylesbury, and are set to fight the move by Buckinghamshire Health Trust.

Lib Dem Prospective Parliamentary Candidate for Aylesbury, Steven Lambert, said, Whilst we all understand the pressures on the NHS to make savings in the current economic climate, axing this vital services will impact on the most vulnerable residents of our town. The closure of Rayners Hedge will mean that many people who already find travel a challenge will have to go to Amersham to get essential treatment and support.  This will be traumatic for those who are part way through a course of treatment at the time of closure and make life harder for future patients too.

If Rayners Hedge was uneconomic to run because it did not have enough patients I could understand why they would consider closing it, but it’s a purpose built small personal environment which is vital for rehabilitation. In addition it employs about 30 local people directly and many more indirectly. This is yet another example of cost over care and it’s not right.”

Aylesbury Lib Dems are launching a campaign to save the Rayners Hedge unit with a petition to the Prime Minister via the Number 10 Downing Street website and I would urge everyone to sign the petition and help save this small but essential rehabilitation unit.

To sign the petition go to http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/Braininjury/ or go to our Facebook site to find out more information at http://bit.ly/685TNr or contact our campaign team on 01296 395 511 for more details.

Over 1800 Aylesbury pensioners are set to miss out Cold Weather Payments from the Government which was triggered by the recent cold weather, according to analysis of Government figures by the Liberal Democrats.

Cold Weather Payments of £25 a week are paid to people on low incomes who receive a qualifying benefit, such as Pension Credit, which goes unclaimed by as many as 1.7m pensioners.

Commenting, Liberal Democrat Parliamentary Candidate Steven Lambert said “it is a scandal that over 1800 Aylesbury pensioners on the breadline are missing out on these payments, worth an estimated £450,000. But this is the tip of the iceberg as nationally there are over 1.7m pensioners who will miss out on £42.5m of payments.”

Steven added “with Fuel prices at an all time high, Cold Weather Payments become essential to people already struggling on a poverty pension. Labour has failed pensioners by creating a complicated system that makes it difficult for them to get the help they desperately need. The Government should be making every effort to identify pensioners who are missing out and get them this extra cash.”

Fair Taxes For ALL
The first priority is to introduce fair taxes, with radical proposals for the biggest tax reform in generations. The Liberal Democrats will close loopholes for the richest and introduce a tax on mansions to fund tax cuts of £700 for everyone else. No-one will pay income tax on the first £10,000 they earn, meaning millions of low earners and pensioners will stop paying taxes altogether, while millions more will get hundreds of pounds back in their pockets. Only the Liberal Democrats will make taxes permanently fair.

A Fair Start for Children
The next priority is to give every child the fair start they deserve through a huge transformation of our education system that will build the foundations of fair society. That means cutting class sizes so children get the individual attention they need to thrive. The Liberal Democrats will be putting an extra £2.5 billion into schools to pay for more teachers, better discipline and catch-up classes so children get the individual attention they all need. This means an average of £2,500 extra per pupil for the schools teaching the million most deprived children in the country, funded by taking above-average earners out of the tax credit system and cutting wasteful programmes at the Department for Education. The Liberal Democrats will also phase out tuition fees over the course of six years, so that, after school, everyone who gets the grades has the opportunity to go to university without fear of debt, no matter what their background.

Fair and Transparent Local Politics
Thirdly, the Liberal Democrats are the only party committed to real change of our political system. This means getting big money and corrupt donors out of politics altogether, reducing the number of MPs by 150, giving power over the police and NHS to local communities, changing the voting system to abolish safe seats and giving you the right to sack corrupt MPs. These are changes that would upend our political establishment. Neither Labour or the Conservatives will ever offer change on this scale – they will defend the status quo to the last. Only the Liberal Democrats offer the chance for a different politics. Another whitewash is unacceptable, we need permanent change to make politics clean, fair and local.

A fair and sustainable economy
The Liberal Democrats will shift the economy away from the traditional over-reliance on the City of London and on financial services. Our plans will usher in a new era where growth is enabled in every part of Britain in a way that promotes green technology and creates lasting jobs. We will put an end to the casino banking that caused the financial crisis by breaking up the banks and encouraging regional and local ways to bring competition back to the financial sector and make sure businesses can find the money they need to grow. Under our plans, councils will regain control of business rates, reconnecting local enterprise with local politics; Local Enterprise Funds will help people invest in growing businesses in their area and Regional Stock Exchanges will give companies a way to move into public equity without the huge risks and costs of a London listing. The Liberal Democrats will also create a new National Infrastructure Bank to bring in private money to build the transport links, energy grid and public buildings we need for a sustainable, low carbon economy in every part of Britain.

The recent snow is Buckinghamshire has led to a number of problems, not just transport related, the bin collections so needed after the Christmas period have also been cancelled due to the Bucks CC landfill site at Calvert being closed for safety reasons, but residents trying to get rid of their rubbish at the local tip were again stopped, as the site at Rabans Lane site was closed, with residents being directed to the Aston Clinton site.

Liberal Democrat prospective parliamentary candidate for Aylesbury Steven Lambert said “I can fully understand and appreciate not collecting rubbish for safety reasons, there is not much point if there is now where to put it, but to close Rabans Lane stopping people trying to get rid of the Christmas waste, with no word of an explanation but divert people to Aston Clinton is very strange, how is the Aston Clinton facility able to open when Rabans Lane is not?”

Residents have also not been helped by the fact that the Bucks CC website has been down since the snow started, Cllr Graham Webster the Liberal Democrat candidate for the Central ward by-election said “It’s very annoying for people trying to do the right thing, they cannot get the information required due to the fact that the Buckinghamshire CC website has gone down, and is still not fully functioning, it is a very poor service”

Nearly 25,000 people, including nearly 6,000 children under 10, have required hospital treatment after a dog attack in the last eight years, according to research by the Liberal Democrats. Figures show for Buckinghamshire Hospitals NHS Trust that 503 cases were reported making Bucks the 9th highest in the whole country. Of these 152 dog attacks were on children under 18 years of age and more worryingly, 88 were on children under the age of 10.

The figures, released in a Parliamentary answer, show:

• 24,992 people in England required hospital treatment after being bitten by a dog between 2000 and 2008. Of these 9,323 were children aged under 18 and 5,954 were under 10
• There was a 43.3% rise in people requiring treatment in the period, from 2,678 in 2000/01 to 3,837 in 2007/08
• This includes a 65.6% rise in adults requiring treatment and an 11.6% rise in children requiring treatment

Commenting, Liberal Democrat Prospective Parliamentary Candidate for Aylesbury, Steven Lambert, said “It is astonishing that thousands of people are undergoing hospital treatment every year after violent dog attacks. The Dangerous Dogs Act is one of most ineffective pieces of legislation of recent years – costing millions and being completely unworkable.

The huge rise in attacks is undoubtedly due to the worrying trend of dangerous dogs being used as fashion accessories or, worse, as weapons. Irresponsible owners are more likely to make a dog ‘dangerous’ than it being born a particular breed. Police need to be able to get tough with reckless owners of out-of-control dogs, regardless of the breed.”

After speaking to concerned staff after the announcement, Steven said “It seems that there is an agreement with HBOS staff for no compulsory redundancies, but that is not the case for Equitable Life staff. I hope that HBOS management will afford the same agreements and processes to all staff going through this and will offer real help to those affected to find new roles regardless of which company they work for.”