Alderney & Bourne Valley Liberal Democrat Focus Team

Don't forget you have THREE votes in Alderney & Bourne Valley. Our team is spread about the ballot paper from top to near the bottom (1st, 4th and 11th) so seek us out. We need a full team to do the area justice.

Time to introduce our candidates for the 4th May (or sooner if you have a postal vote)...

Tony with the 'new kid on the block' Adrian Chapmanlaw, bringing our team up to full strength again. Hopefully we will all get elected on May 4th, but you are in charge of that :-)

Facebook have made it more difficult to post to these pages and we will need to sort it out, but for ongoing information we still deliver Focus leaflets, though the next proper Focus will be the other side of the BCP Council Elections to be held on May 4th. Alderney & Bourne Valley offers three Liberal Democrats... Adrian Chapmanlaw, Rachel Maidment, and Tony Trent - and you have three votes. Remember to bring photo ID to the Polling Station or you will be unable to cast your votes.

Published and promoted by Martin Rodger on behalf of Adrian Chapmanlaw, Rachel Maidment, and Tony Trent (Liberal Democrats), all at 1 Salisbury Road, Poole, BH14 0DP. Hosted by Meta, 1 Hacker Way, Menlo Park, CA 94025, United States.

Apologies for the shortage of new postings. There appears to be changes to the way FB functions and it seems harder to share postings than it used to be.

A few long cherished improvements to our area seem on the cards. I'm not going to jeopardise them by getting too optimistic at this stage, but determined effort and good contacts seem to be helping.

That's got to be one of the pictures of the year. Good to see Tim Farron fronting it too.

The Guardian view on North Shropshire: a warning to the Tories | Editorial Editorial: The Liberal Democrat triumph in this week’s byelection is a damning verdict on Boris Johnson’s leadership

It's time to take the Lib Dems seriously again | The Spectator As far as seismic by-election results go, North Shropshire is one for the ages. The Tories had held onto the seat for 200 years before they lost to the Liberal Democrats last night. And their majority at the last general election was over 22,000. The Lib Dems managed to increase their share of the v...

This looks like an advertising campaign. Is this the same Council that has failed the basics - like answering phone calls? The one area they seem to have taken on more staff is..... PR!

is to ensure Lansdowne - a prime business district in Bournemouth - is able to fulfil its potential.

With support from the Dorset Local Enterprise Partnership Local Growth Deal, our £7.5 million Lansdowne Programme aims to transform the public realm and create new spaces for people to enjoy.

The area is set to become an exciting and attractive place to live, work, study and enjoy, and will benefit from a series of major investments to create new urban areas for people to interact, sit outside, host meetings, enjoy events and innovate.

Find out more about our Big Plan at www.bcpcouncil.gov.uk/ourbigplan

https://www.ft.com/content/3b5059c4-4ef1-44d1-ae1f-43a875efb7ca?fbclid=IwAR37oe7b7Qu1F8DUF2rPeZUsU-55qMGrCNSBdaumG4rqTt9uL2suQRsXArk

Northern Ireland economy has outperformed rest of UK, ONS figures show Region’s third-quarter GDP only 0.3% below pre-pandemic levels, according to experimental new data

We had 100% success rate with the latest CIL awards in Alderney & Bourne Valley, but are challenging three of the awards as they should have come from a broader pot. The way this round was handled strips our area of funding despite having at least two neighborhood bids pending for the next round. It was not done in an open and transparent way as the previous round was. Last time we had a committee of Poole based Councillors from all parties and none. This time was a bit closed and with minimal Poole input.

We still need to take Covid seriously, and not get lulled into smugness with headlines that don't tell the full story. The one shock to me was how "average" our vaccination rates look compared to our biggest neighbours. We should at least still have mandatory mask wearing in close places and on public transport. Our Government need to show some leadership.

Covid-19: Fourth wave hitting us with 'full force' - Merkel - BBC News As Germany grapples with record Covid cases, the chancellor describes the situation as "dramatic".

Over and over again the Conservative Party, locally and nationally, seek to mark their own homework and even be in charge of policing their actions. The sooner we change our voting system to something more proportional, the better. The local stuff will become more apparent over the next few months, but this example is atrocious!
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-59154221

Owen Paterson: Anger as Tory MP avoids suspension in rule shake-up The opposition cries "shame" as Conservatives vote through plans to overhaul the way MPs' behaviour is policed.

Another tragedy. Do we want our MPs and Councillors to be accessible or not? There is too much hate and violence - and the UK seems to be following the trend of other countries. Once it was the Middle East and South America, now it's the USA and UK. Where are we heading?

We are shocked by the tragic news of Sir David Amess' death.

We send our sincere condolences to his family, his friends and his staff.

Our former colleague, who is Vice Chair of the Planning Committee, seems to lack sensitivity when it comes to planning matters. Thank you Marion, the only Liberal Democrat Councillor left on the Planning Committee, for keeping us informed. Planning Committee can be a difficult committee to be on as it operates in a quasi-judicial way, and planning law favours the developer, but when there is overall opposition to an application, and sound legal reasons can be found to support refusal, it is the duty of the committee to challenge the plan. From past experience as a member of that committee, a refusal can often bring about desirable changes to the plan when it's re-submitted, but you need to make sure that all concerns are expressed as part of the first refusal - not raised out of the blue the next time round.

Pandora Papers: Businessman linked to Tory donations made millions from alleged fraud Victor Fedotov is awaiting government approval for a controversial energy link between UK and France.

Our planet is priceless, carbon is not The climate crisis is an incoming storm. We must act now to undo the damage already done to our planet.

The real Tory story :-(

NHS workers set to see income fall as universal credit cut and new health tax cancel pay rise Figures from the Commons Library suggest that the typical healthcare assistant will have an income reduction of more than £900 a year

A brilliant cartoon that says all that needs to be said about our UK Government.

This week's cartoon from for

Pick up a copy of iweekend now! 📰

It is with sadness that we have to announce that one of our colleagues, Toby Johnson, has decided to join the Conservative Group on BCP Council. The Tories have being trying to get him to cross over for some time - even nominating him as Vice Chair of the Planning Committee. We will continue to do our best to maintain our service to the community, and keep you in touch through our regular Focus newsletters. Our opponents only ever put things out as an election looms. We have put out 4 over the last year despite the long periods of lockdown. If you want to help us then please feel free to message one of us. Tony Trent.

The effects of global warming are not limited to one area. Even in the UK we’ve already seen extreme weather increase in frequency.

We need urgent action to tackle the climate catastrophe, and Britain needs to be a global leader in that fight.

Heatwaves, flooding, wildfires and other extreme weather events are only going to become more common if we do not tackle the climate catastrophe now.

We need urgent government action, not just kind words. The planet can't wait.

Read our plan ➡️ www.libdems.org.uk/green

We cannot afford to be dragging our feet and lagging behind as we race to address the climate crisis.

As host of the COP26 UN Climate Change Conference, the UK Government needs to lead the way in cutting emissions and protecting nature.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-58170865

New scheme to replace just 60,000 gas boilers ‘barely scratches surface’, PM warned Grants of £7,000 – instead of £4,000 – to switch to low-carbon heat pumps, but scale of plan comes under fire

Priti Patel criticised over failure to introduce mandatory GP checks on gun owners’ mental health MPs demand to know why changes – which 2015 report could avoid ’another tragedy’ – have still not been introduced

A tall order, but I am glad our Lib Dem leadership nationally at least recognises the challenges. How feasable would it be for the international community to establish the safe passage? We at least need to explore the idea.

Chaos as thousands try to flee at Kabul airport Video shows crowds of Afghans attempting to flee, as the Taliban take over the capital.

Treasury blocking green policies key to UK net zero target Experts say chancellor refusing to commit spending needed to shift economy to low-carbon footing

Ministers accused of leaving care homes 'exposed' as number of Covid-19 cases among staff triple in July There were 14,660 positive tests among care home staff in the four weeks to 27 July, triple the 4,552 recorded in June, figures show

PM urges international unity over Taliban as he recalls parliament Boris Johnson calls on nations not to give individual recognition as MPs summoned to discuss Afghanistan

We need to get to grips with the issues. The Tories are all talk and little action. Our world just won't survive unless our leaders get moving with real action. This will involve lots of unpopular things. I'm still advocating the concept of a "Carbon Credit Card", but not a lot of traction yet on the idea (Tony. T).

Lib Dems' Green Recovery Plan We need action now to restore nature, clean our air and invest in a green future.

We are hoping that the bid for Community Infrastructure Levy (collected from developers) we helped residents with, to get the Mary Hillman Play Area re-furbished, will be successful. We still don't know how this bids will be reviewed. We believe it should be a panel of Poole based Councillors as was the case with the last batch of CIL bids. As you can see from the photo below, the play surface is shot and is potentially hazardous.

We are concerned that much of this one off funding will get used for schemes that are of benefit to the wider BCP area rather than our locality. This is not in the spirit of ward based CIL.

Just over a fortnight ago, following further complaints from a concerned resident, we chased up this drain that has been sprouting weeds for some time. We were promised action last week - but it's still in the state first reported a year ago and is now growing a tree! The adjacent road was re-surfaced to correct earlier poor work almost a year ago, double yellow lines were re-painted, but the drain was left sprouting vegetation. Not sure where the "cleaner and greener" claims come from - though it might in a perverse way be described as "greener", if growing trees from drains count!