Candidate Simeon Hart talks about his vision for Central Ward
Simeon Hart lives in Liverpool since 2001. He is standing to be elected Councillor because he wants to deliver the needs of people and communities. He has a strong track record as a campaigner for Deaf & Disabled people to get fair and equal access not only to employment, apprenticeships and education but in everyday life in the society. Including politics! In Liverpool Central ward, vote for Simeon on the third of May 2012.
Community First Panel
St Michaels ward saw a rise in unemployment of over 10% last year. Because of this, the ward has qualified for funding from the Community Development Foundation. We have established a panel that includes members of the ward’s residents associations and community groups, an RSL, and council officers, who will assess bids from ward-based groups who would like to offer a service or project that would benefit the ward. Whatever the group can offer, the panel will match fund – this could be in cash, or labour. The maximum bid from each group is £2,500. If you belong to an organisation that has a project that needs funding, please contact Sarah Jennings in the first instance: sarah.jennings@liverpool.gov.uk or on 07969 257420, or follow the link to download an application form.
PRESS RELEASE: TAX RISE TO PROTECT SERVICES
In response to the news that further central government restrictions will cap any council tax rise in the Liverpool to 1.85%, Green councillors are proposing an amendment that will let Liverpool residents make a decision on their council tax for the coming year.
The Greens are calling for a referendum to let the people of the city, rather than Conservative minister Eric Pickles, decide whether we can protect services that will otherwise be reduced or lost due to central government cuts. In an amendment to Labour’s budget, the Greens have proposed a city wide referendum on a 4% council tax rise.
Sarah Jennings, leader of the Green Group on the council, said:”The people of Liverpool should decide whether we should use the only power left to us to defend local services, through an increase in council tax. This is the only way we can realistically protect vital services for vulnerable people in our city.”
John Coyne, Mayoral candidate for the Greens added: “This Conservative and Liberal Democrat government is on a damaging path of centralised cuts. These are damaging our city and our communities. The people of Liverpool deserve the chance to vote to protect services that will otherwise be lost. I urge the Labour, Liberal Democrat and Liberal groups to back our amendment and let the people decide.”
AMENDMENT The Green Party group recognises the extreme pressures faced in drawing up a budget for 2012/13 and planning for subsequent years. Therefore any criticism of the administration's budget will be fair. We welcome the change of mind on three issues which were part of a previous Green Party amendment to the January interim budget meeting: retaining Bulky Bobs as a free service, protecting school uniform grants and restoring some funding for child and adolescent mental health services. The council must set a legal, balanced budget and there are no easy choices. This amendment does not and cannot change the nature of the choices that need to be made. Instead it seeks to reduce the scale of future service cuts mainly by increasing the only tax which the city council controls - the council tax. Our disagreement with the administration is not on what kind of cuts will need to be made, but on how many and how deep. One capital investment, in particular, should be welcomed and that is the plan to deal with the problem of the dangerous unadopted roads near Sefton Park. The £6m cost over two years would be planned to be financed by unsupported borrowing. We welcome this long overdue improvement however we do not wish to see the future spending cuts caused by servicing and repaying a new debt of that size. We propose instead to apply the effect of a 4% increase in council tax to reduce and repay that borrowing. The government has recently imposed a "cap within a cap" for Liverpool which limits our ability to ask citizens for more than a 1.85% rise in council tax without having to hold a referendum. We believe that the future finances of the council and its ability to cope with a worsening funding crisis cannot be managed without breaking out of this government stranglehold. Previously we had planned to move a 3.5% council tax increase believing that this would not have triggered a referendum. The increase to 4% allows for the cost of a referendum and of some slippage if the budget decision is delayed. The time has come for the people of Liverpool to be asked to reject the government's perverse micro management of this local authority's finances. Having won a referendum once, the council would be likely win again if the government tried to reject the democratic wishes of the people to protect vital services for vulnerable people in future years. This amendment also proposes the following savings which would also be used to reduce and repay unsupported borrowing. Costs of financing such borrowing have to be found from future council budgets, adding pressure for further and deeper spending cuts. (1) Save at least £60,000 p.a. by removing the right of councillors to have free car parking and by removing the right of councillors to reclaim mileage or any travel expenses incurred within the city boundary. Councillors would, instead, absorb those travel costs from within their basic allowances. (2) Council gives up its policy of refusing to allow mobile phone antennae on council-owned buildings, except for school buildings. That policy, having been ineffective in preventing the spread of mobile telephony, serves no purpose other than sometimes to displace antennae onto less suitable locations. Potential income from rental of council-owned antennae sites is hard to estimate but may be of the order of £25,000 p.a. (3) Discontinue City Magazine with a saving of £111,000 p.a. ENDS.
Liverpool Green Party is opening up another Fringe Meeting to members of the public. At 12.30 on Monday 27th Feb, Green councillor John Coyne will lead a discussion on policies for “core cities” such as Liverpool.
We will look at the challenge and opportunity created by the direct election of city mayors and we will hear from guest speaker Liam Fogarty on the constitutional issues of having a directly elected mayor. Liam is a long standing, principled campaigner on that issue and he is a declared candidate for the election here on 3rd May. (No endorsement is implied in either direction between the Greens and Liam Fogarty.)
The Fringe takes place in the Derby Room at the Adelphi Hotel. Please use the entrance on Mount Pleasant and refer to this invitation.
The Court Order required the next St Michaels “Focus” to contain an apology. Instead it contains the falsehood that the Greens had demanded a change to “twice monthly”(sic) bin collections, during the Budget meeting.
The last “Green View” gave a full account of the Greens’ involvement in the Budget. Read it here…
And check the City Council Minutes to see the Green Party Budget Amendments had nothing to do with rubbish collection. City Council Budget Meeting 02/03
The Green Party has NO INTENTION of proposing a reduction in the frequency in rubbish collections. There are some local authorities which have introduced fortnightly collection – such as Lib Dem controlled Winchester City Council and now Cheltenham .. read it here
But in Liverpool it could only work if all parties worked together and put aside party advantage to find a way to provide a better service, including separate weekly food waste collection and a decent composting service.
Recent antics from the Lib Dems here show they prefer to keep their politics firmly in the dustbin. See it here….
Liverpool Daily Post Columnist Mr Brocklebank gives his view on the recent defamation case
As reported in yesterday’s Daily Post, a SENIOR Lib-Dem was hit with a £6,400 bill after agreeing to pay damages to two Green councillors who he alleged had forced homeless people to sleep in the snow. Cllr Paul Twigger agreed to settle with Cllrs John Coyne and Sarah Jennings, who both represent the St Michaels ward, ahead of a defamation trial.
Note that the Greens will not make any money from this – £6,000 covers the cost of the original legal action and the remaining £400 will be donated to charity.
Lawrence Brown (co-chair of the Green Party) was interviewed by Larry Neild recently on the City Talks Politics show to discuss the concept of a Citizen’s Income and how it would work. You can listen to the radio piece below (note this requires Quicktime):
John Coyne had a letter published in today’s Liverpool Echo:
You may wish to read Ruth Knox’s letter on the Liverpool Echo first (second letter on this page called – Stand up to Cuts).
John’s response, entitled “Act Responsibly” is reprinted below. You can view it at the Echo website here (note, once again, it is the second letter on the page).
RUTH Knox (ECHO letters February 4) puts the case well for a return to the 1980s – the refusal of the city council to set a balanced budget. And, to be fair, maybe the 47 councillors then believed they could prevail over the will and the resources of the Thatcher government. But in 2011 we have the benefit of hindsight. Liverpool would not be well served by a reprise of that heroic defeat. Within days, London civil servants would take over the reins of power at the town hall. We could threaten to shoot ourselves in the foot until David Cameron surrenders, but he is unlikely to tell George Osborne to write us the cheque that would rescue us. I forecast that no local authority in England will refuse to set a balanced budget. The grim reality is that the Tory-Libdem coalition is taking money away from the areas of greatest need. Councillors here have only very limited scope to try to protect our most vulnerable citizens, but that scope needs to be used responsibly, not abandoned. John Coyne – Green Party councillor for St Michael’s ward
An article appeared on Inside Housing Letters page on 4th February from Elaine Stewart, Head of Housing Renewal for Liverpool Council, regarding the housing regeneration programme in Liverpool. Amongst the points she makes, she refers to the statistic that only 5 of the 295 properties scheduled for demolition have not been ‘voluntarily’ sold to the council. She states this is in contrast to the “hundreds in opposition” being articulated by William Palin (Secretary of Save Britain’s Heritage) in an article in the same publication.
John Coyne, in the Reader’s Comments section, responds to both articles, and discusses what the definition of ‘voluntarily’ really means here.
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