Rugby Liberal Democrats are proposing that a cross-party task group is set up to review the Special Expenses scheme because Rugby town residents are paying more Council Tax when residents in the Parish areas are not.
At Rugby Borough Council's budget setting meeting to be held on Tuesday 27 February 2018, Liberal Democrat Councillors will be pressing the Conservative administration who run Rugby Council to improve our play areas and invest in upgrading and opening changing rooms for greater community use. Rugby Lib Dems are also proposing measures to kick start a green recycling education programme.
Conservative councillors have voted to increase Council Tax and car parking charges while closing public toilets. They refused to debate the option of increasing council tax on second homes when they dismissed budget amendments put forward by the Liberal Democrats at Follaton House on February 22nd.
A £45 million plan to clean up Birmingham before 2022 is to be unveiled by the city's Liberal Democrat councillors at the Council's Budget-setting meeting tomorrow. The proposals would restore free collections of household bulky waste and would bring back free garden waste collections. The free garden waste collections would be fully restored in 2020 as part of tendering of fleet and waste services. In the meantime, the Liberal Democrats issuing green bags in the autumn for a "leaf collection" together with big reductions in subscriber rates for brown bins. They would also cancel proposed cuts to street cleaning and see investment in anti-flytipping cameras. The city's 69 new wards would receive substantial funds, enabling local councillors to oversee the purchase of special street collections as well as to invest in facilities for the young and the elderly and taking measures to manage roads and problems with speeding. As part of the programme there would be a crackdown on rogue landlords
Your car idling produces up to 150 balloons of exhaust gases containing harmful chemicals EVERY MINUTE. Car idling contributes to premature deaths and unnecessary health issues. Turning off your engine could help children's health, reduce asthma, heart disease and lung cancer. Idling wastes fuel and money as well as increasing wear and tear on your engine. This graphic is from a campaign under way in London. Small changes like this can make a big difference in Newcastle where we exceed pollution targets on many of our streets.
It has taken quite some time to get Linden Homes, the developer of the old 'Government Offices', to take responsibility for the maintenance of the hedges on their development in Beeches Road. This was just one of the conditions of their planning permission for the development.
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!”
