The Tory cut in council tax of 2% for Lancashire County Council is not only irresponsible, but extremely foolish. The cut will remove almost £7.5m per year from the county’s budget and that will accumulate year on year so that within the four year life of the next administration there will be almost £30m less […]

Report from Mark Pack A little quietly, the good ship HMS Tycoon Tax slid off the policy speculation slipway and into the waters of the real world* with the start of the tax year earlier this month. The full details are over on the official HM Treasury website of how the March 2012 budget announcement has […]

 At the launch of the first phase of the Business Bank on 10th April Liberal Democrat Business Secretary, Vince Cable, [ pictured] said: “Small and medium-sized businesses are still telling me that access to finance is their number one problem, preventing them from investing and growing.That’s why, through the business bank, we are developing a […]

The   Vince Cable is hopeful that the government will meet its target to have more women on the boards of top companies by 2015, but he admits that the “experiment in voluntary encouragement” has seen a slowdown in the last six months.   “It is a warning not to be complacent,” he says of a […]

“Community Gateway has done well to find funding to refurbish this valuable play area.  Our surveys indicated that most people in Threefields and the Dovedale areas wanted something better for their kids. Let’s hope it’s all done for the summer and that we actually have some fine weather” says Bill Winlow

“Like all other Liberal Democrat councillors I know, I believe that the bedroom tax is mistaken and is so complicated and unfair that it should be scrapped, says CC Bill Winlow. “It seems grossly unfair to all of us that someone should have their rent increased for having an unoccupied bedroom, if there is no […]

Government plans to ease planning rules in England for three years have been amended to give neighbours the right to be consulted on building work. It comes after 26 coalition MPs voted against the Government on Tuesday. The Communities Secretary Eric Pickles has written to MPs setting out a “light-touch neighbours’ consultation scheme”. He said […]

Thanks to Liberal Democrats 2,628 of the poorest toddlers in Lancashire will benefit from 15 hours free childcare a week from this September, an investment of £2,762 per child. This is in addition to the £100m investment in capital spending for additional nursery places announced by Liberal Democrat Leader and Deputy Prime Minster, Nick Clegg, […]

The Coalition Government has announced a £4.2m boost for school sports in Lancashire from September. Every state primary school in the County will receive funding for sports in 2013/14 and 2014/15. Approximately £68,415 will be spent in  primary schools  in Preston West is as follows: £8,540 for Pool House Primary School £8,510 for Holy Family Catholic […]

Congratulations to Cllr Alan Skepelhorn (Lib Dem) who won a by-election in Luton last night with a very strong performance to hold the seat with a swing of 3% from Labour.  The Lib Dems took 47% of the vote, up 6% since 2011. The UKIP vote was unchanged at 11%, but  the Conservative vote share […]