onlineFOCUS – News and Stuff For Rochford District since 2003

Lib Dem Priorities for Essex

County Council Elections – 2 May 2013

Four years of Tory scandal and financial mismanagement

Over the last four years Conservative run Essex County Council has been hit by a series of financial and other scandals

The former Leader, Lord Hanningfield, was forced to resign over his House of Lords expenses for which he was imprisoned
Lord Hanningfield’s ECC expenses were exposed which showed £287,000 had been spent over the five years 2005-10, the previous five years records having been destroyed.

Further revelations showed his office staff claimed £70,000 over three years and ECC paid his £4,600 bar bill at the House of Lords
The Conservatives, with Labour support, refused a Liberal Democrat call for an Inquiry to establish who authorised those payments and why
The use of ‘P’ cards (payment cards) by officers was exposed which revealed £1.7m had been spent on luxury hotels, trips abroad and shopping sprees
Five cases of personal identity data were leaked or mislaid

The revelation that ECC had £14.5m of art treasures hidden away from public view
Developer contributions (Section 106 monies) were lost through inaction

Now is the time to sweep away the secrecy and open up the County Council to public scrutiny

The Liberal Democrats will make that change by:

Council meetings to be web cast
Allowing the public to speak and ask questions at Council meetings
No more decisions made behind closed doors

During the last four years the standard of basic services has fallen. The Liberal Democrats will change that by restoring services and improving others by:

Repairing roads properly, not just patching up
Improving poorly performing schools
Ending the shortage of school places
No more cuts to Library opening hours
Re-opening the Martins Farm, St Osyth Recycling Centre
No more Recycling Centre closures
Ensuring the under 5′s nursery provision is fully taken up
Providing swimming concessions for the under 16′s
Improving youth provision
Providing concessionary fares passes for those on Job Seekers Allowance and undertaking Apprenticeships
No more increases in car parking charges in ECC Country Parks
Protecting concessionary fares for pensioners
Stopping the street light switch off for review
Introduce ’20 is plenty’ – 20mph speed limit near schools and in residential areas

The Liberal Democrats will ensure value for money by:

Cutting waste and bureaucracy at County Hall
Using cash sitting in the Council’s Banks
Cutting business trips and conferences
Reducing the number of Cabinet members and Deputies receiving allowances
Cutting the publicity budget
Slashing the use of expensive consultants
No more gimmicky projects like Banking in Essex which wasted £400,000
Making sure Developers contributions (Section 106 monies) are spent in time and not returned

April 30th, 2013 | Category: Elections, Essex & East, Liberal Democrats | Leave a comment

Pam Waldie – the LOCAL Candidate who can beat the Chelmsford Tory

Dear Fellow Resident,

My name is Pam Waldie and I have lived in Rayleigh for the past 9 years. I have been helping our local Liberal Democrats deliver their newsletters and now I am stepping forward and standing for election to the County Council for Rayleigh South.

I am particularly interested in health issues and care for the elderly. Also, with two children serving in the police service I understand crime and policing issues. I am certainly not a career politician but I have the local knowledge to help residents.

In the last year or so the appearance of Rayleigh has suffered – too many potholes and too much graffiti. The very least I expect from the County Council is that they remove graffiti from their own bus shelters, but it didn’t happen until local Lib Dems chased this up. I also want to see the police catching the people who make the grafitti !

Potholes aren’t just a cosmetic issue – they damage cars and are a danger for cyclists. Our part of Essex simply hasn’t been treated fairly by the County Council – we have been getting much less money for road maintenance than other areas of the county.

I’ve already mentioned that I’m local; I am  amazed to find out that the Conservative candidate lives miles away near Chelmsford. He doesn’t tell people that in his first leaflet. Rayleigh deserves better. Rayleigh voters are being taken for granted.

We need someone to put forward the local view, and not just follow a party line. Please give me your support on May 2nd, and if you would like to help my campaign, please phone or email me.

Best Regards
Pam Waldie

46 Deepdene Avenue Rayleigh. Phone: 01268 780003
Email: jamelapj@googlemail.com Website: www.onlinefocus.org

April 22nd, 2013 | Category: Elections, Liberal Democrats, Rayleigh | Leave a comment

Essex Liberal Democrats
Our Priorities for the 2013 Elections

Four years of Tory scandal and financial mismanagement

Over the last four years Conservative run Essex County Council has been hit by a series of financial and other scandals
•
The former Leader, Lord Hanningfield, was forced to resign over his House of Lords expenses for which he was imprisoned
•
Lord Hanningfield’s ECC expenses were exposed which showed £287,000 had been spent over the five years 2005-10, the previous five years records having been destroyed
•
Further revelations showed his office staff claimed £70,000 over three years and ECC paid his £4,600 bar bill at the House of Lords
•
The Conservatives, with Labour support, refused a Liberal Democrat call for an Inquiry to establish who authorised those payments and why
•
The use of ‘P’ cards (payment cards) by officers was exposed which revealed £1.7m had been spent on luxury hotels, trips abroad and shopping sprees
•
Five cases of personal identity data were leaked or mislaid
•
The revelation that ECC had £14.5m of art treasures hidden away from public view
•
Developer contributions (Section 106 monies) were lost through inaction

Now is the time to sweep away the secrecy and open up the County Council to public scrutiny

The Liberal Democrats will make that change by:
•
Council meetings to be web cast
•
Allowing the public to speak and ask questions at Council meetings
•
No more decisions made behind closed doors

April 13th, 2013 | Category: Elections, Essex & East, Liberal Democrats, Local Democracy | Comments (6)

We have two strong local candidates for the County Council Elections this year – Pam Waldie and Chris Black. They both live in Rayleigh, and both have a decent chance of winning.

Chris Black is standing again in Rayleigh North – he came second last time, losing to the Conservatives by 356 votes. He is of course a district councillor for Downhall and Rawreth Ward, and is the leader of the small Lib Dem group on the District Council. He lives at 56 Love Lane Rayleigh. He says:

Rayleigh has always been my home. I grew up in Down Hall Road, went to local schools and have a son who went to Fitzwimarc and SEEVIC. So if I was elected as your County Councillor I would be working for my home town. I’m not interested in standing for parliament or wasting time discussing national politics in the council chamber. We need councillors to work on local issues like highways, care for the elderly, schools, development and open spaces…

Pam Waldie has been one of our helpers for the past couple of years, and she is standing for us in Rayleigh South She lives at 46 Deepdene Avenue. Pam says:

My name is Pat Waldie and I have lived in Deepdene Avenue for the past 9 years. I have been helping our local Liberal Democrats deliver their newsletters and now I am stepping forward and standing for election to the County Council for Rayleigh South.
I am particularly interested in health issues and care for the elderly. Also, with two children serving in the police service I understand crime and policing issues. I am certainly not a career politician but I have the local knowledge to help residents.

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Obviously we’ll be writing a lot about the elections across the district from now on-if you want to help us, one thing you can do is share two or three of our election items on facebook.

April 5th, 2013 | Category: Elections, Liberal Democrats, Rawreth, Rayleigh | Leave a comment

December 29th, 2012 | Category: Coalition Government, Liberal Democrats, National Politics, Poverty | Comments (4)

Congratulations to Brentwood Lib Dems on a council by-election victory last night!

They won a seat from the Conservatives in Shenfield -which used to be solidly, totally, true blue. The result was:

Liz Cohen (Lib Dem) 728
Conservative 557
UKIP 119
Labour 31

December 7th, 2012 | Category: Elections, Essex & East, Liberal Democrats | Leave a comment

There are some BIG misunderstandings about student loans. You only actually pay this loan back if you are earning enough money…. graduates only pay money back when they earning over £21,000 per year. And then they pay back 9% of whatever they earn above £21,000 per year. And this £21,000 level will be adjusted for inflation in future years.

After 30 years, even if you haven’t paid back a penny, the debt is wiped.

This video explains things and is described as the “best half-hour I have spent on you-tube”:

Proceeds are going to charity:

September 20th, 2012 | Category: Education, Liberal Democrats, Money Tips, Music, National Politics, YouTube and Video | Leave a comment

A brand new video from Nick Clegg:

I’d like to take this opportunity to put a few things straight.

September 19th, 2012 | Category: Liberal Democrats, National Politics, YouTube and Video | Comments (1)

We’ve just had a new Focus leaflet printed for Downhall and Rawreth Ward. If anyone wants to help deliver it, please let us know !

August 17th, 2012 | Category: Liberal Democrats, Rawreth, Rayleigh | Leave a comment

Back in the 1970s and early 1980s, when the Liberals were first taking off in Rayleigh, that’s who we were, the Liberal Party. It was the same party that had Gladstone, David Lloyd George and Jo Grimond. Then in the late 1980s we merged with the SDP to form the Liberal Democrats.

But a small element of the party in the UK decided to stay as they were, and so the Liberal Party still exists today, with about 30 councillors around the UK and no MPs. Some of their policies include – dismantling our nuclear weapons, returning the water and rail industries to public ownership and opposing the common agricultural and fisherishes policies of the EU.

Anyway, to cut a long story short, a Lib Dem councillor in Southend , Ric Morgan, has just quit the Lib Dems to join the Liberals.

Southend Lib Dem blogger Neil Monnery writes about it here.

July 19th, 2012 | Category: Liberal Democrats, Southend | Leave a comment

We’ve recently added links to three Southend blogs in our right sidebar. Rather neatly , there’s one Lib Dem, one Conservative and one Labour. Though we haven’t done this out of any deliberate political balance – they are all worth a look in their own right.

Neil Monnery is a Liberal Democrat in Southend who writes in a thoughtful but frank manner.

Anna Waite is a well-known Conservative and former Borough Councillor who actually lives in Barling.

Ms Jack Monroe is a Labour blogger in Southend who writes in a pretty lively manner. Some of her recent posts are particularly interesting; she is attempting this years Living Below The Line Challenge. As she explains:

I’m a day late with this one, but I thought I’d join in with this years Live Below The Line challenge, whereby participants are challenged to live on £1 a day for food.

Having done this already when I left the Fire Service, I figure that I’m a bit more prepared than most people for how to actually prepare 3 meals a day for less than a pound. So I’ve got 4 days left, £4 to spend, and 12 meals to keep myself going on. I’ll blog my progress here…

One of her meals was carrot, cumin and kidney bean soup for 14p…

May 9th, 2012 | Category: Conservatives, Food and Drink, Labour Party, Liberal Democrats, Money Tips, Southend, Web Stuff | Comments (1)