Local Liberal Democrat councillors for Chells and Manor have been celebrating a super new children’s playground in their wards featuring something for every age group from 1 to 16. Funding for the new playground was supported by funds from councillor's Locality Budgets.
Responding to the news that Kwasi Kwarteng has been sacked as Chancellor, Liberal Democrat leader Ed Davey said:
From 14th October 2022, over 50s will be invited to book in their autumn booster vaccine thanks to the huge uptake of Autumn boosters.
The Tory Leader of Surrey County Council this week used his statement at the head of the full council meeting on 11 October to admit that "we have let some people down." His comments referred to the chaos in the Home to School transport service that organises travel for mainstream and special needs pupils, which had prompted a series of questions from Members to find out what had gone wrong.
North Shropshire MP Helen Morgan has called for a General Election to be held as soon as possible before Liz Truss inflicts any more damage to the economy. Reacting to the latest U-turn and sacking of Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng, the Lib Dem MP said...
Helen Morgan met with staff and students for an update on the challenges facing schools in North Shropshire during a visit from the Liberal Democrat Education Spokesperson. Helen was joined by Munira Wilson at the Grove School in Market Drayton and St Mary’s Primary in Shawbury this week.
Wera Hobhouse, Liberal Democrat MP for Bath and spokesperson for Energy Security and Net Zero, called on the government to provide incentives for energy providers to develop solar power in the UK.
Mrs Hobhouse slammed the government for falling behind on meeting the UK’s renewable targets for solar energy capacity. The government plans to deploy 70 GW of solar power across the country by 2035. However, as of 2022, the UK had only installed 14.3 GW of solar pv.
Following a visit to a rooftop solar system installed by Bath & West Community Energy (BWCE) at Beechen Cliff School last year, Wera Hobhouse is keen to encourage the development of similar solar projects across Bath. The solar system is predicted to significantly cut the school’s fuel costs and reduce their carbon emissions by 52 tonnes a year.
In the House of Commons on the 27th February, the Bath MP noted that the UK is lagging behind the rest of the world in renewable energy investment, she urged the government to offer incentives to energy providers to improve solar capacity.
However, Andrew Bowie, Parliamentary Under Secretary for Energy Security and Net Zero, ignored Hobhouse’s proposals, failing to describe the ways in which the government could incentivise solar energy. Instead, Bowie said that the government’s Solar Taskforce would publish recommendations for solar power and reiterated the government’s target to deploy 70 GW by 2035.
Wera Hobhouse, Liberal Democrat MP for Bath and spokesperson for Energy Security and Net Zero, commented:
“The Conservatives are falling dangerously behind on meeting our targets for renewable energy production. It is no good the government setting an ambitious 70 GW solar target if they are nowhere near reaching it.
“It is clear that they have no plan to get us back on track to reach Net Zero. Evidently, they are more than happy to dismiss perfectly good proposals like incentivising solar power. That is why I am so proud that Bath is home to many community energy projects like the solar system at Beechen Cliff School, so that we can lead the way in renewables.”
“It is not just our climate targets harmed by the Conservatives’ delay. Families in Bath and across the country are struggling to pay soaring energy bills which investment in renewables could curb. That is why we Liberal Democrats would build significantly more renewable energy, aiming to generate 80% of our electricity from renewables by 2030.”
Peter Capener, Managing Director of Bath & West Community Energy said:
“Our work with schools is really demonstrating the value of community energy in both addressing the climate crisis and reducing fuel bills. Rooftop solar installed last year has already saved local schools a combined total of £134,209 and has reduced carbon emissions by 224.3 tonnes, which is equivalent to 12,173 journeys from Bath to Edinburgh by train!”
