Dinner with Phil Willis 5th Feb

Not to be missed this one. Come and celebrate the 20 years of service that Phil Willis MP has given to Harrogate and Knaresborough, as Councillor, Council Leader and Member of Parliament. Dinner at the Crown Hotel, Harrogate 5th February 2010, tickets £30 per head. All welcome. Phone 01423 542112.

Tremendous Libdem Victory

Congratulations to Councillor Greta Knight, our new, very excellent Libdem Borough Councillor for Woodfield Ward. A great team effort:

Greta - 688
Conservative - 246
Labour - 73
BNP - 92
Turnout 27% - pretty good given the voter-unfriendly weather. But who on earth called the election for January 7th?

This augurs well for the forthcoming general election when we fully expect Claire Kelley to take over Phil Willis's mantel as our local MP. If anyone out there wants to help make that happen, let me know at ksbarnes@ntlworld.com

Vote Libdem in Woodfield

This Thursday, 7th January, is by-election day in the Woodfield Ward of Harrogate Borough Council. We have an excellent Libdem candidate in Greta Knight - ex primary school head, active local campaigner and a lovely person. Labour have no chance here and a victory for the Libdems will wrest overall control of the council from the Tories. Come out and vote for progressive, caring, cost-effective policies - vote Libdem - vote Greta Knight this Thursday.

A changed climate now?

With an unprecedented period of snow and below zero temperatures, thoughts turn to climate change again. Before Christmas I joined the Climate Change march in London. 39,999 people and me, urging our political leaders to sign up to action before it is too late. People from many organisations, from all over the country and from all walks of life. We started in Grosvenor Square, then sashayed through Berkeley Square, noticing its Rolls Royce and Porsche showrooms. The poor nightingale was drowned out by all the noise my younger colleagues made – all very good-natured of course. It was good to see so many of the younger generation ready to campaign for the future of their children’s children. I resolved to look again at my carbon footprint. With local authorities now having to restrict their gritting operations, they should be doing the same.

Tory Chief criticises North Yorkshire Times

Liberal Democrats in North Yorkshire have welcomed the support of a Tory Shadow Cabinet member over the row about the North Yorkshire County Council’s free news sheet, the North Yorkshire Times. Speaking this week to over 150 elected councillors from across the country, Caroline Spelman, Conservative Shadow Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, said that Council publications “threaten local newspapers” and that “councils should reconsider providing them.”
Her comments come only four months after the Labour Minister for Culture Ben Bradshaw referred to local authority “newspapers” as “propaganda sheets masquerading as newspapers”.
Cllr Bill Hoult, Leader of the Liberal Democrats at North Yorkshire County Council, attended the conference. He comments:“It is good that national politicians are waking up to the reality that these so called newspapers that only peddle good news and are paid for by Council Tax payers are a direct threat to local newspapers in the area.”“The North Yorkshire Times costs £500,000 a year of taxpayers’ money to produce and, as the County Council has discovered, is not that widely read.”“We hope that the Tory chiefs at the County Council will now listen to us and the views of Tory Central Office and close this free sheet down.”

Blinkered Approach to Winter Gritting

I have been asking for winter gritting outside doctors’ surgeries, especially where a short detour from a main road would achieve this. With the County Council reclaiming responsibility for winter maintenance (from the Borough Council) there has been the opportunity to take a fresh look at what the community needs. However, not only has the County refused to consider my request they have decided to reduce overall the number of roads gritted in the Harrogate District. There seems to be a blinkered rather than a common sense approach to this critical safety issue.

Fresh Start For Britain

Just back from a very excellent Libdem annual conference in Bournemouth. Whether it is raising the tax threshold to £10,000, stopping prisons from becoming crime academies, proposing a fairer deal for farmers, ensuring green, affordable and secure energy supplies or devolving more power away from Whitehall, (plus many other progressive policies), the party has an exciting agenda to put before the country in the forthcoming election. As the only party that has serious debates at its conferences, it is a pity the media misinterpret debate as disunity. Nick Clegg, Vince Cable and their very able, united team offer a Fresh Start For Britain. Read Nick's closing conference speech at http://www.libdems.org.uk/

Profligate Use of Refuse Sacks

I'm fed up with the bin men leaving me too many black sacks. O.K. it's a small thing, but at a time when Harrogate Borough Council is way below average on recycling, why don't they conserve resources better? My wife and I hardly ever put out more than one black sack, but we frequently get left two in exchange. I've protested to the council but they seem unable to prevent this happening. Apart from the waste it send out the wrong message when we should be minimising waste. The other day we didn't put out any rubbish at all - but we still got left two new black sacks. We are swimming in them!