“The Liberal Democrats are the only party committed to increasing police numbers of every area of the country,” said the Liberal Democrat Shadow Home Secretary.

Commenting on figures showing the number of police officers has fallen in most forces, Chris Huhne said:

“This is a worrying sign of what is to come as budgets are cut and numbers fall in over half of all police forces.

“Instead of squandering billions on ID cards, the Government should concentrate on getting more police officers out on the beat.

“The Liberal Democrats are the only party committed to increasing police numbers of every area of the country. It is time for the other parties to come clean about their plans.”

Aylesbury Liberal Democrats were horrified to learn of the planned closure of Rayners Hedge neurology rehabilitation unit in Croft Road Aylesbury, and are set to fight the move by Buckinghamshire Health Trust.

Lib Dem Prospective Parliamentary Candidate for Aylesbury, Steven Lambert, said, Whilst we all understand the pressures on the NHS to make savings in the current economic climate, axing this vital services will impact on the most vulnerable residents of our town. The closure of Rayners Hedge will mean that many people who already find travel a challenge will have to go to Amersham to get essential treatment and support.  This will be traumatic for those who are part way through a course of treatment at the time of closure and make life harder for future patients too.

If Rayners Hedge was uneconomic to run because it did not have enough patients I could understand why they would consider closing it, but it’s a purpose built small personal environment which is vital for rehabilitation. In addition it employs about 30 local people directly and many more indirectly. This is yet another example of cost over care and it’s not right.”

Aylesbury Lib Dems are launching a campaign to save the Rayners Hedge unit with a petition to the Prime Minister via the Number 10 Downing Street website and I would urge everyone to sign the petition and help save this small but essential rehabilitation unit. 

To sign the petition go to http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/Braininjury/ or go to our Facebook site to find out more information at http://bit.ly/685TNr or contact our campaign team on 01296 395 511 for more details.

Over 1800 Aylesbury pensioners are set to miss out Cold Weather Payments from the Government which was triggered by the recent cold weather, according to analysis of Government figures by the Liberal Democrats.

Cold Weather Payments of £25 a week are paid to people on low incomes who receive a qualifying benefit, such as Pension Credit, which goes unclaimed by as many as 1.7m pensioners.

Commenting, Liberal Democrat Parliamentary Candidate Steven Lambert said “it is a scandal that over 1800 Aylesbury pensioners on the breadline are missing out on these payments, worth an estimated £450,000. But this is the tip of the iceberg as nationally there are over 1.7m pensioners who will miss out on £42.5m of payments.”

Steven added “with Fuel prices at an all time high, Cold Weather Payments become essential to people already struggling on a poverty pension. Labour has failed pensioners by creating a complicated system that makes it difficult for them to get the help they desperately need. The Government should be making every effort to identify pensioners who are missing out and get them this extra cash.”

Yesterday, Nick Clegg set out the priorities that will be at the heart of the Party’s election manifesto. The value that connects everything the party wants to achieve is fairness. There are four priorities for how the Liberal Democrats will make Britain a fairer place: fair taxes; a fair start for every child; fair, clean and local politics; and a fair, green economy with jobs that last.

Fair Taxes For ALL
The first priority is to introduce fair taxes, with radical proposals for the biggest tax reform in generations. The Liberal Democrats will close loopholes for the richest and introduce a tax on mansions to fund tax cuts of £700 for everyone else. No-one will pay income tax on the first £10,000 they earn, meaning millions of low earners and pensioners will stop paying taxes altogether, while millions more will get hundreds of pounds back in their pockets. Only the Liberal Democrats will make taxes permanently fair.

A Fair Start for Children
The next priority is to give every child the fair start they deserve through a huge transformation of our education system that will build the foundations of fair society. That means cutting class sizes so children get the individual attention they need to thrive. The Liberal Democrats will be putting an extra £2.5 billion into schools to pay for more teachers, better discipline and catch-up classes so children get the individual attention they all need. This means an average of £2,500 extra per pupil for the schools teaching the million most deprived children in the country, funded by taking above-average earners out of the tax credit system and cutting wasteful programmes at the Department for Education. The Liberal Democrats will also phase out tuition fees over the course of six years, so that, after school, everyone who gets the grades has the opportunity to go to university without fear of debt, no matter what their background.

Fair and Transparent Local Politics
Thirdly, the Liberal Democrats are the only party committed to real change of our political system. This means getting big money and corrupt donors out of politics altogether, reducing the number of MPs by 150, giving power over the police and NHS to local communities, changing the voting system to abolish safe seats and giving you the right to sack corrupt MPs. These are changes that would upend our political establishment. Neither Labour or the Conservatives will ever offer change on this scale – they will defend the status quo to the last. Only the Liberal Democrats offer the chance for a different politics. Another whitewash is unacceptable, we need permanent change to make politics clean, fair and local.

A fair and sustainable economy
The Liberal Democrats will shift the economy away from the traditional over-reliance on the City of London and on financial services. Our plans will usher in a new era where growth is enabled in every part of Britain in a way that promotes green technology and creates lasting jobs. We will put an end to the casino banking that caused the financial crisis by breaking up the banks and encouraging regional and local ways to bring competition back to the financial sector and make sure businesses can find the money they need to grow. Under our plans, councils will regain control of business rates, reconnecting local enterprise with local politics; Local Enterprise Funds will help people invest in growing businesses in their area and Regional Stock Exchanges will give companies a way to move into public equity without the huge risks and costs of a London listing. The Liberal Democrats will also create a new National Infrastructure Bank to bring in private money to build the transport links, energy grid and public buildings we need for a sustainable, low carbon economy in every part of Britain.

The recent snow is Buckinghamshire has led to a number of problems, not just transport related, the bin collections so needed after the Christmas period have also been cancelled due to the Bucks CC landfill site at Calvert being closed for safety reasons, but residents trying to get rid of their rubbish at the local tip were again stopped, as the site at Rabans Lane site was closed, with residents being directed to the Aston Clinton site.

Liberal Democrat prospective parliamentary candidate for Aylesbury Steven Lambert said “I can fully understand and appreciate not collecting rubbish for safety reasons, there is not much point if there is now where to put it, but to close Rabans Lane stopping people trying to get rid of the Christmas waste, with no word of an explanation but divert people to Aston Clinton is very strange, how is the Aston Clinton facility able to open when Rabans Lane is not?”

Residents have also not been helped by the fact that the Bucks CC website has been down since the snow started, Cllr Graham Webster the Liberal Democrat candidate for the Central ward by-election said “It’s very annoying for people trying to do the right thing, they cannot get the information required due to the fact that the Buckinghamshire CC website has gone down, and is still not fully functioning, it is a very poor service”

Nearly 25,000 people, including nearly 6,000 children under 10, have required hospital treatment after a dog attack in the last eight years, according to research by the Liberal Democrats. Figures show for Buckinghamshire Hospitals NHS Trust that 503 cases were reported making Bucks the 9th highest in the whole country. Of these 152 dog attacks were on children under 18 years of age and more worryingly, 88 were on children under the age of 10.

The figures, released in a Parliamentary answer, show:

• 24,992 people in England required hospital treatment after being bitten by a dog between 2000 and 2008. Of these 9,323 were children aged under 18 and 5,954 were under 10
• There was a 43.3% rise in people requiring treatment in the period, from 2,678 in 2000/01 to 3,837 in 2007/08
• This includes a 65.6% rise in adults requiring treatment and an 11.6% rise in children requiring treatment

Commenting, Liberal Democrat Prospective Parliamentary Candidate for Aylesbury, Steven Lambert, said “It is astonishing that thousands of people are undergoing hospital treatment every year after violent dog attacks. The Dangerous Dogs Act is one of most ineffective pieces of legislation of recent years – costing millions and being completely unworkable.

The huge rise in attacks is undoubtedly due to the worrying trend of dangerous dogs being used as fashion accessories or, worse, as weapons. Irresponsible owners are more likely to make a dog ‘dangerous’ than it being born a particular breed. Police need to be able to get tough with reckless owners of out-of-control dogs, regardless of the breed.”

Speaking after today’s announcement that HBOS and Equitable life are to make around 600 Aylesbury people redundant over the next 18 months, Lib Dem Parliamentary Candidate Steven Lambert said “this is a devastating blow to the dedicated staff of these firms and to the Town. Many of the staff have worked at the site for several years and today they and their families will be fearing for the future.
This announcement will create more fears and uncertainty for Aylesbury and will have a massive knock on effect to the local economy. It’s yet another example bought home of the devastating effect of Labour’s mishandling of the crisis in the banking industry and the direct knock on effect local people and the local economy.”
Noting that the plans will see about 150 staff remaining at the site from 2011, Steven added “with HOBOS being an Edinburgh based company, the local links and history have been severed. I doubt there will be enough people at the site to sustain HBOS using the ‘blue leany’ and this could inevitably, see the site close altogether creating further fears for the remaining staff.”

After speaking to concerned staff after the announcement, Steven said “It seems that there is an agreement with HBOS staff for no compulsory redundancies, but that is not the case for Equitable Life staff. I hope that HBOS management will afford the same agreements and processes to all staff going through this and will offer real help to those affected to find new roles regardless of which company they work for.”

Steven Lambert, the Parliamentary Candidate for Aylesbury, has slammed the Government’s changes to the Local Housing allowance. Steven said “The changes to the housing allowance were sneaked through by Labour in the last budget and the government clearly hoped they would be swept under the carpet. Now we find that, once again, Aylesbury’s residents will feel the brunt of Labour’s failed policies.

The government is destroying the original intention of Local Housing Allowance which was to bring choice and flexibility to the benefits system while also combating poverty. Anyone who has had to get by on a low income or manage a household budget will know that every penny counts and a £15 is a significant amount to lose from your family budget without any warning.

The people who would lose out under this proposal are poorer than those who would have been hit by the 10p tax debacle, and will be hit harder. Worse still, the government will not actually save any money by clawing back these £15 payments. I’m supporting the Lib Dems in Parliament and calling on local Tory MPs David Liddington and John Bercow, to protect low income families by signing the Early Day motion in Parliament.”

This week, Nick Clegg, the Leader of the Liberal Democrats challenged Gordon Brown directly over the issue at Prime Minister’s Questions and the Liberal Democrats in parliament will continue to do all they can to oppose this latest government assault on some of the very poorest families in the country.

Background information
The Early Day motion 2069 was tabled by the Liberal Democrat Shadow Housing Minister Sarah Teather and supported by the housing charity, Crisis, to oppose the government’s proposed cuts for the poorest tenants.
- Link to the policy motion
http://edmi.parliament.uk/EDMi/EDMDetails.aspx?EDMID=39300

Following their recent success at ensuring a free Universal Health Visitor Service, to support families as their children grow up, be set up under a Liberal Democrat Government, Aylesbury Lib Dems are now calling for free childcare for every family and are supporting an online petition set up by Lib Dem MP Susan Kramer.

Steven Lambert the Lib Dem Parliamentary Candidate for Aylesbury said “life is a real struggle for parents. The Government has not made things easy and the Tories look set to make things worse if they win the General Election. Parents who need to go back to work must be properly supported. Parents should be entitled to 20 hours of free, high quality childcare for each child from the age of 18 months to when they start school. Successive Labour and Tory governments have failed our families. It’s time to change this once and for all.”

Lib Dem County Councillor Jenny Puddefoot, said “the campaign for free high quality child care is very much linked to the Lib Dem plans for a Universal Health Visitor Service which will see help and advice given to all families by a qualified professional Health Visitor from when a baby is born to the age of five. It’s been proven beyond doubt that the more you invest in a child in their early, the better life chances that a child will have.”

The petition can be found at http://www.libdems.org.uk/our_campaigns_detail.aspx?title=Petition%3a_Free_Childcare_for_Every_Family&pPK=eef38f95-16e5-4add-b1aa-962d4ea3a0f5

To remember and not act is unforgivable.

After attending the reception for returning armed forces personnel at Judges Lodgings in Aylesbury last Monday, Liberal Democrat parliamentary spokesman for Aylesbury, Steven Lambert, has signed up to the Royal British Legion’s manifesto for the next election. Steven also laid a wreath at the ceremony on Remembrance Sunday in Aylesbury’s Market Square alongside South East MEP Sharon Bowles.

Steven said “It’s crucial that we honour the commitment and sacrifice of our armed forces. Too often they have been let down by our government. Labour has sent our brave young men and women into battle without adequate kit with which to do their jobs. The average wage for a private in the army is below that of other public service workers. And, of course, sending our troops into Iraq was a massive blunder that cost so many lives. We must take better care of those who are prepared to put their lives on the line for their country.”

The Liberal Democrats have an ongoing campaign to get the Government to stop short changing our armed forces. Follow this link to find out more. Don’t short change or Armed Forces.