Derby Liberal Democrats

I take my role as a city councillor very seriously. It is an honour, and a responsibility, and I do it to the best of my ability. I believe in democracy, and encourage others to take part too.

But I'm not primarily a politician. My first career was as a professional engineer. This is still more part of who I am than politics. Parliament needs people with real life experience.

At present hospital beds can be blocked because local councils, which are responsible for social care, have not found somewhere for patients to be cared-for out of hospital. It shouldn't be like this.

Liberal Democrats want health and social care budgets for each area to be joined up by 2020. This will also place a bigger incentive on areas to keep people healthier for longer. At present many people spend their last 20 years of life with poor health.

The Liberal Democrats have long been seen as the 'greenest' of the main parties. In Government they pushed home energy efficiency, supported higher standards for new homes and more renewable energy.

As a result people use less fuel and there have been some days where UK electricity has been coal-free for the first times ever.

Results are back from the air quality test set up by Focus Team member Tom Bull last month with support from Friends of the Earth.

Air in one of the front gardens near the Royal Derby Hospital is three times as polluted with damaging nitrogen dioxide as air close to Nutwood Local Nature Reserve in Darley Abbey.

A year ago Labour made improving the T junctions at Blagreaves Lane and Goodsmoor Road with Stenson Road a priority. There will be money from developers to do this.

The scheme put forward by the council is for linked traffic lights. Consultation with local people raised lots of concerns, but these have largely been ignored. Members of the Blagreaves Neighbourhood Board (who include Labour party supporters) have complained, but the scheme is currently still continuing.

Over 1000 three and four year-olds in Derby would benefit from Liberal Democrat plans to triple funding for the early years pupil premium, which gives extra cash to nurseries, preschools and school receptions when they take on children from disadvantaged backgrounds.

The cash would triple the funding to £1,000 per pupil per year - up from £302 in 2015-16.

This will increase the allocation for local authorities in Derby from around £300,000 to over £900,000 and will pay for every disadvantaged child who benefits to receive 570 hours of state-funded early education.

It forms part of a series of policies the Liberal Democrats are announcing ahead of launching their manifesto, with a focus on giving children and young people a brighter future.

These include:

As Theresa May continues on her damaging hard Brexit agenda, it seems Derby Conservatives are picking up support - from UKIP.

After local UKIP chairman Gaurav Pandey announced he'd joined the Conservatives, news emerged that former Mackworth UKIP candidate Rob Cooper has followed his example.

Lib Dem candidate Joe Naitta said "Nigel Farage said Theresa May was repeating UKIP's pledges almost word for word. It seems UKIP members are agreeing and joining the Conservatives."

The Liberal Democrats have a 'five-point recovery plan' for NHS and social care services.

This will include a 1% rise on the basic, higher, additional and dividend rates of income tax in the next financial year raising around £6bn per year, which will be ring-fenced to be spent on NHS, care services and public health.

The Liberal Democrats have announced plans to address the housing shortage in Derby and build more affordable homes.

The most recent figures show over 4700 families in Derby are on the waiting list for council homes, up from 4300 in 2015.

In addition, official figures show nearly 4500 homes in Derby have been empty for over six months.

The Liberal Democrats have announced they would plug funding gaps for the NHS and social care by putting a penny on income tax, in their first major manifesto commitment of the election campaign.

The tax would raise an additional £47.8m for the wider Derby area with £38m for the NHS and £9.8m for social care each year.

This is the party's flagship spending commitment and its first major policy announcement for the election. The Liberal Democrats manifesto will also set out a 'five-point recovery plan' for NHS and social care services in their manifesto.

At least 70% of Brits would happily pay an extra 1p in every pound if that money was guaranteed to go to the NHS, an ITV poll found last October (link).

Liberal Democrat spokesperson Lucy Care said: "Right now in Derby we are sadly seeing patients lying on trolleys in hospital corridors, urgent operations being cancelled and elderly people being denied the care they need.

"The Liberal Democrats are prepared to be honest with people and say that to secure the future of the NHS we will all need to chip in a little more.

"A penny in the pound would allow us to invest in improving local NHS services and ensuring people can receive the care they need.

"This Conservative government knows our health and care services are chronically underfunded. But without a bit extra to invest in change, the crisis just gets worse.

"We need to give the system the resources it needs to enable change and improvement."

Liberal Democrat Health Spokesperson and former health minister Norman Lamb said:

"The NHS was once the envy of the world and this pledge is the first step in restoring it to where it should be.

"A penny in the pound to save the NHS is money well spent in our view.

"But simply providing more money on its own is not enough and that's why this is just the first step in our plan to protect health and care services in the long-term."