At the launch of the new Draft Bill on energy, Liberal Democrat Secretary of State of Energy and Climate Change Ed Davey, writes:
Over the next decade, around a fifth of existing power plants are due to close, against a background of increased energy demand and increasing prices. We need new investment simply to keep the lights on.
But more than that, we need a clean energy revolution to meet our ambitious climate change goals and make this the greenest government ever.
That’s why I am bringing forward a new Energy Bill today.
You can read more about our clean energy revolution here.
We also need to transform our energy market to reduce the risk and cost of low carbon technologies.
That’s what our Bill does.
The UK is fast becoming a world leader in renewable energy, especially in off shore wind. I want us to lead the world in Carbon Capture and Storage too.
And we are also tackling rising energy bills. Without reforming the energy market bills will rise by around £200 in the coming years. Our reforms will mean bills are around 4% lower than they otherwise would have been.
Going green is good for the economy, good for Britain and good for you.
The latest Police SNT meeting set a new priority of the night time economy in the town centre of Sudbury for the summer. With the onset of Euro 2012, the Olympics and summer holidays the local Police want to have this as their focus.
The good news was that in the past 2 months there had been only 1 crime on the Meadow View/Middleton estate after it had been set as the previous priority. The Police reassured residents that they would still be very visible.
The second piece of very good news was that total crime in Sudbury fell by 213 crimes in the year upto April 2012 when compared to the previous year up to 2011. In South ward, crime fell 136 crimes or by 14.7% in the same period. This is very re-assuring and great work by the local team.
The disappointment at the meeting was that no officer from Suffolk CC was available. Residents had many questions about some lighting being on especially near junctions and the play area/field. We will do our upmost to get someone there for next time.
Finally, you can use the Police.uk link via this website’s side menu to see the map of crime locally and by type. Hope you find this useful.
For me, nothing better illustrates the Liberal Democrat mission to make Britain a fairer place than our Pupil Premium: extra money for the most disadvantaged children in our schools.
We are letting schools decide the best way to spend this money. I want to strike a deal with our schools and teachers: we’ll give you the cash, the freedom, and we’ll reward and celebrate your success. But in return, we want you to redouble your efforts to close the gap between your poorer pupils and everyone else. We won’t be telling you what to do; but we will be watching what you achieve.
(Click picture to play video)
It is shameful that, despite all the promise on a four or five year old’s first day at school, or the passion of their teachers, you can all too often plot that child’s path just by asking how much their parents earn.
The £2.5billion Pupil Premium was one of the four pledges on the front page of our manifesto. And now, with Liberal Democrats in government, schools are using the money for things like breakfast clubs; homework clubs; or to provide one-to-one-tuition. These are the sort of experiences many middle class children take for granted but a poorer child might rarely enjoy.
At the 1 hour consultation evening tonight with the Ormiston Trust who would run the “Sudbury Academy” they said that the Sports Centre will be open in September. They guaranteed it. (This is a big shift since I publicised the fact just over 2 weeks ago that there were saying there was no guarantees.)
The question they could not answer was about accountability. If the school chose to reduce hours or close the sports centre in the future who would the public complain to? Would it be the Governors of the school or would it be the Ormiston Academies Trust?
I will continue to fight to keep this important community facility open and will seek answers to these questions.
There is consideration of extending the AONB towards and even around Sudbury. This could create a big hurdle for our future western bypass/relief road case.
We need to get the HGV’s out of the Ballingdon end of town as they equal 7% of the traffic but over 40% of the air pollutants that have led to the creation of the Air Quality Action Area in Cross St/Ballingdon St & Church St area.
There are only 2 solutions to reducing HGV’s here 1) down grade the A131 from being the Primary Lorry Route and use the A134 instead with the new interchange to the A12 nr Horksley. 2) a western relief road.
I have started the debate about the importance of dealing with the traffic issues affecting residents in South ward. See the article below in today’s EADT:
This week, Paul Burstow (Liberal Democrat minister at the Department of Health) has launched a national £4 million lung cancer awareness campaign. The campaign, the first of its kind, will use TV, radio and press adverts, and advertising on pharmacist bags and inside GP surgeries, to raise awareness of the disease.
One of its aims is to persuade anyone who has had a cough for more than three weeks to see their doctor.
With 33,000 new cases diagnosed each year, lung cancer is a blight on the lives of far too many of our families and an early diagnosis can make all the difference. Please take the opportunity of the Be Clear on Cancer campaign to find out more about prevention and diagnosis, and to visit your local doctor if you’ve had a persistent cough – it is always better to be safe than sorry!
Lots of different important organisations are after your views….
Wednesday 9th May 7 till 8 pm there is a consultation on Sudbury Upper School becoming an Academy in September under the Ormiston Trust as the sponsor. Most people have not heard of Ormiston so it will be interesting to find out more of them and we already know that there are no guarantees over the future of the sports centre there.
Thursday 10th – 11th May 5-9pm at All Saints Middle School and Sat 12th May 10-3pm there is a public consultation on the proposed Chilton Woods development by Redrow and Suffolk CC. Redrow seem keen to consult so that they submit a planning application in the late summer.
Thursday 17th May is the next Police SNT meeting with residents at 6pm at Delphi Social Club. All views on crime & police related issues are welcome. I will be in the chair.
ALSO….
Last week, the West Suffolk Hospital consulted on its plans to sell off the former NHS sites in Sudbury with planning permissions for each site.
They will not sell Walnuttree & St Leonards till our new health facility is built at Church Field Rd.
They were seeking views on possible plans to put upto 120 homes on People’s Park with 40% of the site remaining as open space. Walnuttree Hospital site could have the main old building converted and the more recent buildings demolished for housing. St Leonard’s could also see conversion of some of the original building and demolition of the parts to the rear. They seem to realise the access problems also to this site. Finally, there is a piece of land behind the new health facility site which could be disposed of too.
We should see more plans for the People’s Park site this year. The other sites will be later.
West Suffolk say that the receipts from sale will be invested in the hospital to improve facilities/services. The money will not go back to the central NHS pot.
Official reports have confirmed that no Liberal Democrat-run council in England has increased council tax for their residents. This is unlike both other major parties, many of which are increasing council tax by up to 3.5% this year.
Commenting on Labour and Conservative councils’ record on Council Tax, Liberal Democrat Party President, Tim Farron said:
“While Labour and the Tories fight over how many of their councils raised Council Tax, it’s clear that with the Liberal Democrats your money is safest: no Liberal Democrat-run council in England has raised Council Tax.
“Ordinary working families are struggling already with paying bills, without their councils increasing the burden.
“The choice in next month’s elections is clear: vote Liberal Democrat for financially responsible councils that create jobs. Vote Labour and the Tories for waste, mismanagement and tax rises.”
As well as freezing council tax across the country, Liberal Democrat councils are protecting front-line services, fighting to keep libraries and Sure Start centres open. This is in addition to the achievements of the Liberal Democrats in government, which after the Budget include a £130 income tax cut for all working families, the largest-ever rise in the basic state pension, an increase in child tax credits for the poorest families, and an increase in the Lib Dem Pupil Premium to £600 for every pupil receiving Free School Meals.
At every level of government, the Liberal Democrats are cutting taxes for low- and middle-earners and better targeting help to those that need it the most. It is a record of financial responsibility of which we can be proud.
A first look at part of this week’s Liberal Democrat Local Election Broadcast. This clip looks at our key pledge to cut taxes for working families, and celebrates the fact that Liberal Democrats in government have achieved:
The biggest-ever single uplift in the tax-free personal allowance
A £3.5 billion tax cut for working men and women
840,000 of the lowest earners in the country lifted completely out of paying Income Tax
Next year, the allowance increases again (to £9,205) – within touching distance of our manifesto promise to increase the Income Tax threshold to £10,000.
These are all significant achievements that are already making a difference for millions of hard-working men and women across Britain. Real change for real families in tough times – promised and delivered by the Liberal Democrats.
On the 19th March the Chair of Governors at Sudbury Upper stated it was hoped that the Sports Centre would continue as the status quo IF money allows!
Suffolk CC have finally responded, only taken 2 months for them to do so. It is now clear that if Ormiston are given the freehold of the school buildings and the land it will be solely down to them whether the sports centre continues in its present format, the service is reduced, stopped or improved. Below you can read the response received. You will notice that they state there are NO guarantees!
Please respond to the consultation and please comment on the importance of the sports centre.
SCC response:
“In your email you referred to the sports facilities at Hadleigh and how SCC was able to deal with that matter when Hadleigh converted to academy status (without a sponsor). The main reason that we were able to influence the situation with Hadleigh was that Sport England had provided grant funding for facilities at Hadleigh. A condition of that Sport England grant was that a Dual Use Agreement be written/enforced. It was this grant and the Dual Use Agreement that assisted when the school converted to academy status. Sudbury Upper is in a different position. The land has already been vested to the Foundation and as such all the facilities sit with the foundation (as opposed to the council). The governing body of Sudbury Upper has passed a motion that they will seek to transfer the freehold to the sponsor academy trust. They will require Secretary of State approval to do this, but this is likely to be granted. Given this, there isn’t anything formally/legally that SCC can do to protect the community use of the sports facilities. If the school fails to obtain Secretary of State approval then SCC would take back the land from the foundation and then grant a 125 year lease to the sponsor. In this scenario we may have some more influence. However, in our experience to date we find that academy sponsors want to retain the existing community use. They do this as it provides important revenue funding to them and secondly because they do genuinely want to be part of the local community. As such, there would be reason to be hopeful that this would happen in this instance. I have taken the opportunity to speak to the academy sponsor concerned here (Ormiston). They raised two points which they were happy for me to cite;
1. Ormiston are committed to extended school services and to engaging with the local community (and as such would seek to make facilities and services available wherever possible); and
2.At this stage they are not able to offer any guarantees.”
I am your Babergh District Councillor. I am also a Sudbury Town Councillor and was Mayor in 2003 and 2007. I stood as Parliamentary Candidate for South Suffolk in 2010 too.
I am Head of Geography at Great Cornard Upper School where I've worked for over 20years.
In the local community, I chair the Police Safer Neighbourhood Panel which sets local police priorities with residents. I sit on the Citizens Advice Bureau board representing the Town Council and I am a Heritage centre & Museum trustee.
Finally, I represent you for Babergh DC on the community panel working with NHS Suffolk making sure we get our new Health facility with all the clinics we were promised would stay in the Town after Labour closed our Community Hospitals.
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