Comments(0) Please be advised that ARLE COURT ROUNDABOUT will be temporary closed each night (7pm – 6am) and on both Sundays between 12th and 20th February 2012 to allow for essential carriageway resurfacing works by Gloucestershire Highways.
If you should require further information please contact Gloucestershire Highways on 08000 514514.
Comments(0) On future development for our area
Cheltenham, Gloucester and Tewkesbury Borough councils have launched a consultation document, called “Developing the Preferred Option”, this will help to inform a Joint Core Strategy (JCS), which is a partnership between Gloucester City, Cheltenham Borough and Tewkesbury Borough councils.
The strategy will set out the three councils’ long-term approach to new development, climate change and the environment up to 2031.
The consultation document looks at the potential number of homes and amount of land for employment use that will need to be provided across the area for the next 20 years, as well as those areas that should be protected and enhanced. The document, which is based on a wide range of evidence, sets out different scenarios through which this may be achieved.
There will a range of exhibitions, presentations and seminars throughout the consultation period, which runs until 12 February 2012. There will also be summary leaflets available at libraries in each area and at each of the council offices. Local exhibitions with members of the JCS team will be held in the Regent Arcade on Friday and 20th Saturday 21st from 10am – 5pm. A Static display will also be available in the Municipal Offices, Promenade, Cheltenham: Monday to Friday 9.00am – 5.00pm, Wednesday 9.30am – 5.00pm
Everyone is invited to have their say on the consultation document – comments can be made on a wide range of issues, including the potential locations, the evidence used to produce the proposed housing requirements or on the document itself.
For a full list of planned consultation activities across the three areas, please visit the Joint Core Strategy website.
The consultation document will be published for public consultation and be available to view, download and comment on at: www.gct-jcs.org.
I recognise that with a rising local population we do need new homes, especially affordable homes for the younger generation. However we also need to think about the impact on our local environment and I am concerned that scenarios B,C and D would damage our greenbelt forever where as Scenario A, focuses on using existing brownfield sites, and protects the greenbelt and open countryside around the town.
We also have to work co-operatively with neighbouring local authorities especially Tewkesbury whose council boundary is adjacent to The Reddings. The impact of housing developments near our boundary would be immense through increased traffic and reduced access to places at local schools as well as a loss of wildlife habitat and opportunities for local agriculture and horticulture. I would strongly urge all local residents to make their views known during the consultation period which ends on the 12th February.”
Comments(0) All residents can have their trees collected for composting this year. Trees should be put out at the kerbside on the same day as the refuse is due for collection in the two weeks between 9 and 20 January. Christmas trees up to five feet or one and a half metres tall can be left out whole. Trees larger than this need to be cut down before being put out for collection. The council also accepts Christmas trees at its Swindon Road recycling centre.
Christmas cards can be put into the kerbside recycling boxes, recycled at the cardboard banks at bring sites around the town or at the Swindon Road recycling centre. Unfortunately, wrapping paper cannot be accepted for recycling as it is often dyed or laminated, or contains non-paper additives such as gold and silver coloured shapes, glitter and plastics which cannot be recycled.
At this time of year there is more to recycle than any other time of the year, so it’s really important that people recycle as much of their waste as possible. I would to urge people to continue to use their kerbside boxes, and to take any other materials such as bulky cardboard to Swindon Road recycling centre. If you have more food waste than normal, you can put both your small and large caddies out together for collection.
Lib Dem Leader and Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg has outlined a £1 billion pound Youth Contract to tackle youth unemployment. The aim is to ensure that all jobless young people are earning or learning again before long-term damage is done.
Deputy Prime Minister addresses the Party Conference in Birmingham. You can read the full text of the speech here.
Thousands of Liberal Democrats gathered for their annual conference in Birmingham this week. They discussed what has been achieved in the first 500 days of Government and policies for the future. Highlights include:
The Lib Dems are opposing calls for an immediate cut in the 50% tax rate paid by higher rate taxpayers.
Nick Clegg’s party instead wants to give more help to those on middle and low incomes who need it the most.
NIck Clegg: We need fairer taxes to help ordinary people, not tax cuts for the richest
Lib Dem Chief Secretary to the Treasury Danny Alexander said, “At a time when the whole country faces serious financial challenges, the priority needs to be people on low and middle incomes.”
A key part of the coalition agreement was the Lib Dem commitment to making taxes fairer. The Lib Dems are well on their way to delivering on their pledge that no one should pay tax on the first £10,000 they earn.
Nearly a million low paid workers are no longer paying income tax thanks to this. All basic rate tax payers are paying £200 less in income tax.
Each year more and more people on low and middle incomes will gain more thanks to the Lib Dem fairer tax plan.
Danny Alexander said, “Fairer taxes is our goal. I don’t see why, in the next parliament, we shouldn’t be trying to get to a situation where people in a full-time job on the minimum wage are paying no income tax at all.”
This would mean that no one would pay tax on the first £12,500 they earn.
Nick Clegg: NHS reforms must deliver for patients
The Lib Dems are continuing to work in Parliament to ensure NHS reforms deliver a better deal for patients.
Nick Clegg’s party won major changes to the reforms earlier this summer.
These included measures to ensure there will be no privatisation of the NHS and no special favours for the private sector.
Nick Clegg said, “With the Lib Dems, the NHS will always be free at the point of use and will deliver top quality treatment for patients. We want to deliver a better NHS that can cope with the increasing demand and rising health costs.”
The NHS reforms will cut waste and bureaucracy that costs billions of pounds. They will help the NHS cope with the costs of Britain’s steadily ageing population and the rising cost of many treatments.
By making the NHS more efficient and by protecting the NHS budget from cuts, more money can be spent on improving care for patients.
NHS faced disaster with Labour
Had Labour won the last election, the NHS would have faced deep spending cuts. That along with Labour’s refusal to tackle waste and inefficiency would have been a disaster for our health services.
Labour rigged the market in favour of the private sector by giving contracts that were unfair for the taxpayer and for patients.
Over £250million of taxpayers’ money was handed over by the last Labour government to private providers for operations they didn’t even perform.
The Liberal Democrats have made sure that this kind of favouritism towards the private sector will now be illegal.
Lib Dem MP Simon Hughes has led a review of access to higher education. He spent six months traveling around the country to speak with thousands of young people about the changes to university financing and all other concerns they have about access to higher education
Last week he published his final report. It contains over 30 recommendations directed towards schools and colleges, universities, government and regulators on what they can do to encourage participation in higher education. You can download a copy of the report from the Cabinet Office website here: Hughes Report
Leader of the Lib Dems Nick Clegg talks to fellow Lib Dem MP Julian Huppert about the issues raised by the phone hacking scandal.
The phone hacking scandal has uncovered a crisis that strikes at the heart of our democracy, calling into question our trust in the institutions and individuals tasked with protecting our freedom and enforcing the rule of law.
Liberal Democrats have for more than a decade challenged the dominance of News International, with successive Parliamentarians raising the issue, from Paddy Ashdown in 1998 to Chris Huhne just before the General Election. We have time and again battled both the Conservatives and Labour to push for stronger laws on media plurality seeking to prevent the concentration of power in the hands of a few media moguls.
It is vital that we now build on the select committee hearings and cast a greater spotlight on what was clearly a murky relationship between the press, police and indeed politics. That is why the Liberal Democrats have made sure the inquiry is Judge-led and has the power to summon witnesses to give evidence under oath and sits in public.
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