Derby Liberal Democrats

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:

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."

As the lead petitioner, Lib Dem Campaigner Maggie Hird said, "I would like to say a big thank you to everyone who has signed the petition and collected signatures to protest against Labour's plans to only have 4 of the 17 libraries remaining as part of the statutory service. The petition has now been handed in to the Council.

The Government has finally come clean over its plans for Brexit. They want to pull Britain out of the Single Market.

Such an extreme version of Brexit might please UKIP supporters but it will be bad for jobs and the economy - and it wasn't what the vast majority of people voted for last June.

Millions of moderate Leave and Remain voters need someone who will fight their corner. The only party united in doing that is Tim Farron's Liberal Democrats.

The planning agreement to build the homes in Highfields Farm (beyond Heatherton) includes giving support for bus services. The developers are working with Trent Barton and the City Council on this. Local councillors have also had a meeting with Trent Barton. Until the new roads are adopted, buses won't be going through the site. Instead the V3 service on Rykneld Road will be improved and the Harlequin is likely to have a Sunday service again.

Varsity estate residents approached local Lib Dem campaigner Maggie Hird to find out when they and their children will be able to use the children's play areas and football pitch on their estate which have been chained up for at least eighteen months.

Someone has removed the chains from the larger of the two play areas, probably out of frustration!

It has been over a year since the last Mickleover Forum was held. We know the Labour-controlled council has cut the local community budget. This shouldn't stop our local Tory councillors from organising a Forum meeting themselves.

Here is what our agenda would be for the next meeting:

1) Library cuts - The next step

Since the Brexit vote last June, the value of the pound has fallen by 20% (one fifth) against other currencies.

This means that it is now more expensive for us to buy things like petrol that are traded on the world markets in dollars.

Food imports have also become more expensive because they are bought by food retailers in Euros or other currencies that are not as weak as the pound.