Peter Coley

The Lib Dems will be delivering on another manifesto commitment when car clamping on private land is banned.
Liberal Democrat ministers Lynne Featherstone and Norman Baker have announced that car clamping on private land is to be banned as part of the Freedom Bill this Autumn.

Home Office minister Lynne Featherstone MP when making the announcement said:

“The Government is committed to ending the menace of rogue private sector wheel clampers once and for all.

“For too long motorists have fallen victim to unscrupulous tactics by many clamping firms. Reports of motorists being marched to cash points or left stranded after their car has been towed are simply unacceptable.

“A ban on clamping and towing on private land will end this abuse and companies who decide to flout new laws will face severe penalties.”

This is a link to the BBC website article: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-10993473

I would just like to say a big thank-you to everyone who voted for me on May 6th.

Although the result was a little disappointing we increased our share of the vote in West by 4.4% which was the best result for us in the City and about the 4th best swing in Leicestershire. Labours majority was thoroughly slashed in what has been described as an ultra safe for them.

Roll on the City Council elections in May 2011, your chance to show this incompetent spendthrift Labour Council what you think!

The Labour government have become embroiled in what has the makings of a damaging political scandal.  Ministers have condemned ex-cabinet colleagues who were secretly filmed apparently offering to try to influence government policy in return for cash. read the full story on the BBC News site  here 

 Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg told BBC One’s Politics Show the story “just beggars belief” and illustrated the need for “reform of the whole rotten system from top to bottom”.   

Watch Channel 4 Dispatches program tonight at 8pm

Lord Ashcroft is estimated to have saved more than £127m in British tax since he became a member of the House of Lords, according to Liberal Democrat research.

Lord Ashcroft’s annual tax saving is conservatively estimated to be £12.76m and he has been a member of the House of Lords for a decade.

Commenting, Liberal Democrat Shadow Home Secretary, Chris Huhne said:
“Anyone who wants to pass laws in this country should pay this country’s full taxes and not hide behind the special offshore status of non-doms”.
 
“Non-doms have to tell the taxman that their first allegiance is to another country. No-one should be a British lawmaker whose first allegiance is not to Britain”.
 
“On even the most conservative estimates, Lord Ashcroft has avoided vast amounts of British tax by deploying the non-dom tax dodge. If he challenges our estimate of how much tax he has dodged, then there is a simple solution: publish the figure.”

Peter Coley commented ” It is appalling that  the Conservative election campaign is apparently being bankrolled by someone who does not give his allegiance to this country yet makes laws which affect us all and avoids paying his share of taxes.  If the Conservative leadership had any sort of moral compass they would hand the money back and either demand Lord Ashcroft declares his allegiance to the UK and pays taxes like the rest of us from now, before the General Election, or that he resigns his peerage. The same should apply to any other Peer in the same position”.

Liberal Democrat Shadow Home Secretary Chris Huhne with Peter Coley during a recent visit to Leicester. 

The Liberal Democrat Council Group put forward a budget amendment at last nights City Council meeting to try and stop cuts that were proposed by the ruling Labour group.

They included;

Reinstate arts & festivals grants, reinstate central libraries consolidation, reinstate sports & leisure opening times, reinstate community schools budget, and the reinstatement of the cuts proposed to creches at leisure centres, Peter Coley, Leader of the Liberal Democrat group said, “Many single parents rely on the crèche facility to enable them to take part in sporting or leisure activity and without it there may be no alternative childcare provision.”

The amendment also included a growth bid for Primary school IT Literacy scheme. Peter Coley said, “A laptop for all Primary school children was a commitment the current administration made to the people of Leicester in 2007. to date this commitment has not been delivered and the proposal in this years budget of £500k would only provide laptops to a small fraction of those children. This position does not change in the final year of this administration, as there is no significant investment shown for 2011/12. This is an unworkable and failed commitment which will provide no benefit to the vast majority of Primary school Children.”

He went on to state, “This proposal is to delete the failed laptop scheme but retain the funding, adding significant extra resources to enable an IT Literacy scheme to be put in place which will provide £10,000, this year to every Primary school in the city for them to create a tailored program to meet the IT needs of their students. This could be hardware, software, specialist ancillaries, but the program must be IT led, and must meet the pupils educational needs and must be able to demonstrate a tangible benefit to the pupils.”

Both the ruling Labour group and the Conservative group voted against the amendment.

Post Offices are often the centre of shopping areas and usually the hub of communities.When Post Offices are closed many small businesses around them suffer a loss of trade and often people are faced with a long trek to get pensions, post parcels, pick up forms or the myriad of services we take for granted from our local post Office.  Under the last Tory Government, 3,500 local post offices were closed and Since 1997, this Labour Government has closed nearly twice as many again weakening the network and damaging communities along the way. It is significant that despite a high profile campaign to save Henley Rd Post Office in Western Park ward our Labour MP did not support it, would not accompany residents, cllrs and staff to lobby Post Office HQ and then voted at Westminster for closure.   

Peter Coley told a community meeting at the time,  “As one of those leading the community campaign to save Henley Rd P.O it was very disheartening. Having leafleted, knocked doors, collected petitions and even met with Post office senior management at their HQ to try and save a very busy well used facility, our MP would not even help the community she is supposed to serve.  She just voted with her party for closure.” The Post Office has a huge amount of customer goodwill and an unrivalled retail network. Through expansion of its services it could be transformed from being a burden on the public finances to an asset, generating positive social and economic returns. 

We want to allow the Post Office to take control of its future.
The Government has allowed the Post Office to gradually decline without making any strategic decisions to secure its future. The Liberal Democrats would free the Post Office from Royal Mail and allow it to establish its own board. The board would be responsible for developing a wider range of services in order to stimulate sufficient demand to maintain the network. 

Development of a PostBank
There are still approximately 900,000 adults without access to a bank account. The trusted brand and extensive network of the Post Office make it uniquely placed to provide universal access to banking while also growing its revenues. We would encourage the development of a PostBank as part of wider moves to diversify the financial infrastructure. 

Acting as a shop window for government services
The Government has focussed on providing online access to government services.We believe that people should have a choice of ways to access public services and should have the option of speaking directly to a human face. We would ensure government uses the Post Office more as a first point of contact with the citizen, providing a local access point to services. 

Use of Post Offices as alternative collection/delivery points
Up to 30% of deliveries fail on the first attempt and are returned to a distant centralised depot. The Post Office provides an ideal local network to hold items locally for collection, saving people time, reducing unnecessary journeys and bringing people to the High Street. The Post Office has already agreed one such deal. We would encourage further agreements to meet the demand arising from growth in online shopping. 

The Labour controlled City Council ran up an £11.5 million bill in consultancy costs last year, including paying one £1,625 for just a day’s work.

Leicester Lib Dems have recently been asking questions about the use of consultants and their value for money. The City Council admitted the increase use of consultants and that the cost was too high however they did not seem to have a plan or a desire to change it.

Peter Coley recently told a meeting of local residents  ; “If the City Council needs a specific skill on a short term basis and there is no-one suitable or available amongst it’s 15,000 employees, then it is quite legitimate to engage a consultant to get the job done.  However it is inconceivable that it was neccesary to spend an extra £11.5m on top-up skills last year and quite obscene that this labour administration has seen fit to waste money like this, particulary at a time  when money is short and taxpayers have been hit with high council tax rises.

It is only right that we question whether the City Council is spending this huge amount of taxpayers money wisely and when you look at this in context with other decisions they made, to spend £7,000 for Labour councills to go on a “jolly” to Nicaragua, to spend £300,000 on pointless “one Leicester” banners, to spend over £30,000 to give labour councillors a better view from Town hall ………………..it’s obvious Labour locally are wasteful and incompetent”

 We need to remember this waste when the Labour council start making cuts to  Museums, leisure centres, community centres, Education and libraries next year.

Peter Coley recently pledged to do his bit for the Armed forces Family.

Peter made the pledge at the armed forces campaign website www.timetodoyourbit.org.uk

The website also features the charity’s general election manifesto, which sets out priorities for the next government to improve conditions for Service Personnel and their families, the bereaved, veterans and dependants.

Kevin Shinkwin, the Legions Head of Public Affairs, said, “We’re really grateful to Peter for pledging to do his bit. The entire Armed Forces family needs the support of politicians from all parties, and our manifesto outlines practical ways the next government can help. We hope all parties will give it serious consideration and that every Prospective Parliamentary Candidate will pledge to do their bit.

Peter commented ”I was delighted to support the Royal British Legion, they have an important role to play in highlighting the needs of the whole Armed Forces family

At the City council meeting on 25th November, Labour, supported by the Tories, rubber stamped the closure of one of the best performing schools in West Leicester.

Many people have said they think the forced closure is about land, not education, as the college is situated on an idylic 40 acre site at the edge of Rowley Fields and although some of the site is on a flood plain, much of it would attract developers.

The Labour administration have known since they took control of the city in 2007 that the college needed help in boosting the numbers of pupils coming in at year 7 but, despite having a report on the issues, with potential solutions comissioned just before the elections in 2007 by the previous administration, they did nothing and then pretended to be surprised that numbers did not rise.

It is interesting to note over 20  bodies were consulted on this closure, the list is in the Council report at appendix e, (section 4a).  It includes  families, pupils teachers, unions, governors, MP,s, Learning & Skills Council, Schools forum, Leicester Strategic Partnership, Admissions Forum, Council of faiths, etc etc. 
Crucially the report acknowledges that the vast majority these bodies oppose the closure yet this discredited labour administration are still going ahead and scrapping yet another  school, this will be the 7th.

At last nights City Council meeting Labour and the Tories voted to close Riverside Business and Enterprise College, which means Parents, the Unions and the City Council Liberal Democrat group, have now lost their battle to save and promote one of the best performing secondary schools in West Leicester. 
The implications of the now certain closure of the college in 2yrs time are that parents in West Leicester will now have even less choice of a good local school and may have to bus children across the city or go out into the county if they cannot get the school of their choice.
So far in West Leicester, Labour have closed New Parks, Alderman Newtons, Wycliffe and now are closing Riverside.  

The recent History of the College

 Historically Riverside has not been the first choice for many parents in the area, whether by previous reputation or location it is not clear but a third of the pupils tend to come to the college during the term.
In early 2007 the previous Lib-Dem led administration of the City Council commissioned external educational experts to establish why the intake at year 7 was usually quite low and in March 2007 they reported back with a number of positive steps which would help make Riverside the school of choice in the area. 

Move forward to the City Council elections in May 2007 and the incoming Labour administration then did precisely nothing with the report, ignored the known issues, failed to act on the report  and left Riverside to flounder. 

Move forward again to 2009 when only 29 parents choose Riverside for their child at yr 7. Labour make a snap decision to close the College. 
In March 2009 the Labour cabinet bring forward a report on closure of  the  college which seemed very one sided. It effectively rubbishes the college, pours scorn on the Principles estimation that it would achieve 32% 5x A-C’s at GCSE in the coming exams and dismisses all options except closure. 

Cabinet put forward what it described as a business case for closure and decided to start the consultation process, which was the first stage of a statutory “tick in a box” procedure to close the college. 
The consultation process has been described by many, including Peter, as a complete sham. Parents rightly complained that it wasn’t  meaningful as the only option on the form was closure and consequently the majority did not fill them in. Of those that did respond to the consultation 89% rejected the councils business case for closure. 

Move forward to exam results and the college exceeded it’s expectations by a significant degree, achieving 36%  5A-C’s at GCSE, contrary to the expectations of the council who then try to belittle the achievement saying it is not sustainable  due to the high staffing ratio. 

At the Cabinet meeting 5^th October,  Labour councillors decide to ignore the results of the parents consultation on the basis that not many responded and that they were bound to object anyway. They decide to carry on and publish a statutory closure notice, which is the final tick in the box.  
Peter and the Lib-Dem group submitted a formal objection to the decision which forced a full debate about the closure and reconsideration of the decision at the full council meeting on 25^th Nov. At the council meeting  Labour, supported by the Tories continued to force through a vote for closure. 

The situation is summed up well in a letter sent by the Chair of Governors to Children & Young People’s Service dept where he says:

An alternative outcome

 Clearly a college which only attracts 29 pupils/yr to yr 7 is not sustainable and nobody disputes that, this is why the Liberal Democrat Cabinet in 2007 asked for options to improve it’s popularity. Had we remained in control we would have ensured that steps were taken to ensure the college had a viable future.  

Taking the situation we have now, where the school will close in 2 yrs there would still be time to identify why parents have not chosen the college and to promote it bearing in mind it’s performance now is significantly better than all the nearby schools. 

In addition, the school sits on a 40-acre site and the nearby Ellesmere Special school, which is due for a rebuild, is on a very cramped site, the logical solution would be to build the new Ellesmere on a part of the Riverside campus, so the 2 schools could share admin etc. and reduce the running costs of both.

These options were suggested by Peter as leader of the Lib-Dem group but Unfortunately unfortunately were dismissed, out of hand, by Labour both at the March and the October Cabinet meetings.