NO to 25% Pay Rise For Councillors ...

The number of signatures on the online-petition has now passed the 700 mark with at least 400 more people signing the paper version. Have you signed yet? The petition link is available here;

http://noto25percent.com

If you'd like to sign the paper-based petition the Liberal Democrats will be in the markets of Cambridge and Ely this Saturday if you can come and visit us.

We are encouraging people to download, circulate, and return the paper petition forms wherever they can. This is a cross-party effort supported by members of the Trade Unions, as well as Councillors from across the political spectrum; Labour, Green, UKIP, as well as Independents. There are two versions attached - one with our (Liberal Democrat) logo and one without.

Don't let them get away with it ... help us reverse this unjust pay rise.

Petition to stop the Tory 25% pay rise

The Conservative group on the county council is set to award themselves a 25% pay rise while cutting services and making staff redundant.

The LibDems oppose this.  Cuts were made to sort out the mess of the economy.

If you're as angry as us, please sign the petition at http://epetition.cambridgeshire.public-i.tv/epetition_core/view/remuneration asking them to reverse this decision, before December, when there will be a full council meeting.

Campaign Against Cuts to the Fire Service

Tomorrows scheduled meeting of the Fire Authority was originally intended to be the kick-off meeting to implement the cuts to the service. Fortunately Cambridgeshire Fire Service has had a stay of execution until next year in order for the Fire Authority to assess their Financial situtation - particularly with regard to changes to the grant settlement.

The Liberal Democrat group on the Fire Authority have been working hard to safeguard the front-line Fire Service including opposing cuts to the number of fire-fighters.

We have organised a petition to oppose the cuts and this petition will now be extended until the February Fire Authority meeting. To add your signature just follow the link below;

http://cambslibdems.org.uk/en/petition/petition-against-cambridgeshire-fire-service-cuts

The FBU is similarly campaigning against the cuts, for information on their campaign see;

http://www.savecambsfire.org.uk/news.html

The FBU recently did a street survey across the County that showed around 99% of respondents were happy to have the Fire Authority increase Council Tax in order to avoid front-line service cuts.

Help us to protect Cambridgeshire Fire Service - Oppose the cuts to your Emergency Service!

Coming to a Library Near You ...

As part of the County Councils plans for the Library Service our local library (Arbury Court) will be closed for a week to allow the installation of self-service machines (like the one pictured from the Central library) and to allow time for staff training.

This investment in the local library is welcome. What is less than welcome is this Conservative Administrations' cuts to staffing and opening hours - a library is only useful to it's local community when it's open and people can only get the best use out of it when there are trained staff on-hand to help.

You can keep up to date with events at your local library by following the Friends of Arbury Library blog. The County Council has just finished a consultation on opening hours the results of which are not yet available - when something is available I will post it here.

Library Service - Opening Hours Consultation

Cambridgeshire County Council are currently running a consultation on the opening hours for Arbury Court Library, Histon Library, and the Cambridge Central Library which directly affect King's Hedges. The catchment for Milton Road Library *apparently* does not include King's Hedges. 

Looking first at Arbury Court (where I'm a friend of the Library) at the moment the library is open for 32.5 hours a week. The proposal is that this be reduced to 27 hours a week. This reduction is around 17%, substantially more than overall reduction of 7% being proposed for the entire service.

Unfortunately the news for both Histon (a 10% reduction) and the Central Library (a 9% reduction) are not substantially better.

It seems after attempting to rig the original survey identifying the libraries under threat of closure against City Libraries the Conservative administration is now attempting to rig the opening hours cuts so that they disproportionally affect city libraries - and this is surely what these cuts (based on the population of the catchment area - rather than actual usage) will do.

Once again the Conservative administration is ensuring that the harshest cuts are inflicted on Cambridge City.

The surveys can be completed online by following the following links;

Arbury Court

Histon Road

Cambridge Central Library

And for those of you for whom the Milton Road Library is more appropriate a link to this survey is available here.

Cambridgeshire's Music Service Saved Following Successful Campaign!

The County Council Music Service which runs the county’s Youth Orchestra, four music academies and music lessons for thousands of children has been saved after a campaign run by the Lib Dems with parents and music teachers.

The County Council had planned to siphon the government music grant of £670,000 but the money will now be kept for music provision for local children.

Cambridgeshire Lib Dem Deputy Leader, Peter Downes, is a past chair of the Cambridgeshire Youth Orchestra. He said: “There is clear evidence for the beneficial effect of music-making on children’s general development as well as their specific musical skills. Cutting money for music is short-sighted and counter-productive at a time when we are committed to raising standards for young people.”

Area music academies run by the service also provide the opportunity for children of all ages and abilities to perform in groups. The four academies provided ensembles for players from Grade 1 – 8 in classical music, jazz, folk music and samba bands.

These academies are free for children whose schools buy tuition from Cambridgeshire Music Service and available for all other children at a modest termly fee.

City Council Leader Fighting Government For Fairer Deal

Cambridge City Council Leader Sian Reid is battling with the government for a fairer deal after a 20 per cent cut in the city council’s grant from government next year.

Cllr Reid has talked to Local Government Minister, Andrew Stunnell after the city council was told it would receive 12 per cent less in grant funding than it was expecting for 2011/12.

Prudent management by the Lib Dem controlled city council has meant that some of this can be absorbed but the reduction in government grant gives the council less to spend in future years.

The figure includes a £900,000 bill to support the government’s concessionary bus fares scheme for the elderly and disabled which has already cost the city council £4.8 million in the last four years.

Cllr Reid said: “The council will come in under budget this year and that helps us to deal with the news that we will be receiving considerably less than was anticipated. We can cope without increasing our long term savings targets that were set out in November.

“But the government promised that no council would face more than an 8.9 per cent reduction this year. And we have been penalised through the concessionary fares scheme because the government is under the impression that we received £900,000 more than we actually did.

“I am pushing the government to look again at the funding for Cambridge city so that we can get a fairer settlement.”

Cuts to Services Across Cambridgeshire - Have Your Say!

On Thursday the County Council released some preliminary information of the spending cuts it is currently planning in response to the financial mess the Labour party left this Country in. The really surprising thing was that only on Tuesday, at Full Council, the Conservative Administration was refusing to release details of the cuts - turns out a lot can change in two days*.

A few days earlier the Conservative administration briefed County Councillors (including Liberal Democrats) regarding the scope of the cuts. Those attending this briefing were sworn to secrecy regarding the changes - we are *still* unable to discuss specific areas of the cuts that have not yet been "leaked" by the administration into the public domain.

The BBC News covered the story here (with an interview with John Reynolds the cabinet member responsible).

One of the interesting things about the review is that the County Council is asking residents across Cambridgeshire to prioritise the services the County offers (i.e. say which areas should be cut and which should not). 

The survey is available here. I'd urge as many local residents and residents groups as possible to complete this survey - the County Council will be using it to "justify" the areas they are planning to cut (for example one of the "options" on the Survey is to close 19 libraries across Cambridgeshire - almost certainly including some in the city - if you think this is a bad idea let them know!)

*- The slightly more cynical amongst you will probably be thinking that, given the tuition fees debate and vote taking place on that date, it was "a good day to bury bad news".