Newcastle City Council's ruling Lib Dem group will call this week for the Government to establish its new Green Investment Bank in Newcastle, helping to create jobs and stimulate sustainable economic development in the North East.
The local party's motion's motion to Regional Conference in Oxford (Oxford Brookes University, Saturday, October 30) on the 'Speaker's Seat' issue was carried overwhelmingly with only one vote against. The motion was proposed by Bette Melling, with Llew Monger providing the summing up.
Lib Dem County Councillor Tim Prater has slammed suggestions on the BBC website that cross-Channel swims from the UK to France should be banned as "barmy". A BBC report at http://tinyurl.com/2undlgs says that the French coastguard is calling for swimmers to be banned from crossing the Channel from Dover to Calais.
Liberal Democrat Energy and Climate Change Secretary, Chris Huhne announced today that by 2015 up to 100,000 Green Deal workers could be employed in the effort to upgrade and insulate Britain's homes. The Green Deal, a Liberal Democrat manifesto commitment, is the Government's new and radical way of making energy efficiency available to all, whether people own or rent their property.
The Lib Dems' East Midlands Regional Conference discussed university tuition fees on 30 October, and the following motion as proposed by myself (Sam Boote, parliamentary spokesman for Rushcliffe)and amended by Daniel Jones was debated:
Residents in Bedford and visitors to town may have noticed the new signage on the pay and display parking ticket machines advertising the facility now available to enable you to pay by phone for parking. I launched the 'RinGo' scheme at Melbourne Street Car Park last week, and have had some good feedback so far from residents who have used the service. The purpose of this is simply to make paying for parking easier and more convenient, whether you are using one of the Council-run car parks or on-street parking. Payment can even be made via an iPhone app (other smartphones are available!).