Derby Liberal Democrats

After last May's local elections, Central Midlands Audit Partnership were asked by the City Council to investigate the troubled A52 project and why it had gone wrong. The report does not make for pleasant reading. It has uncovered what can only be described as a disaster. Anything that could go wrong seems to have gone wrong.

The Local Government Association has done a follow-up visit to Derby after the Corporate Peer Challenge they carried out on Derby City Council in 2017. They have found significant improvements since the council changed political control in May 2018

The 2017 report highlighted deep concerns about accountability, governance and political culture. Particular mention was made of poor conduct by some councillors. The LGA state, "The issue was very much about a small number of individual councillors who were in key positions and who had been behaving in ways which appeared to be well adrift from the standards expected." The LGA made it clear that "the vast majority of concern was expressed about a small number of members of one political Group." The LGA highlighted that this political Group had failed "to properly hold those individuals to account and to use Group and Party processes to act against poor behaviour."

Plans for new park

Kier have submitted plans for the last phases of the Manor Kingsway housing development. This includes the main park, beyond the Hospital car parks. Take a look at https://docs.derby.gov.uk/padocumentserver/DownloadDocument.aspx?docid=134682790 and send your comments to the Council's planning department quoting DER/08/18/01304.

This year Littleover had two highway priorities. One was for parking restrictions to make roads safer, mostly double yellow lines. These will be consulted on before Christmas and if agreed should be going in shortly after, weather-permitting.

The second was to assess several roads to help people cross. Only one, Manor Road near Constable Lane, was deemed busy enough.

Worldwide, it is estimated that one in ten children has a mental health problem. In the UK, only 5% (one twentieth) of mental health funding is spent on children and the NHS has a target to treat just one in three of the children who need help.

Is that good enough?

Barry Holliday, your Derby North Lib Dem candidate said "Imagine if your child was one of the two out of three with a mental health problem who wasn't getting help. I'm sure you'd say this wasn't good enough. And I would agree."

It is more than four years since local people supported lower speed limits as one of the road improvements with the last of the planning money from the Royal Derby Hospital.

It is nearly two years since the Council measured traffic speeds on the roads which became 20mph limits about eight months ago. These speeds have now been measured again.

That's a conclusion from recent opinion surveys by Ipsos MORI. Correct information that most people don't know included:

European immigrants paid around £4.7bn more in taxes than they received in welfare benefits and public services in 2016/17.

Other correct information that many people don't know includes:

After four years of delay and uncertainty from Labour over what to do with the Assembly Rooms, it seems a solution is still not in sight.

After several years of working with consultants, Labour came up with a plan for an expensive new building. This however proved unpopular with local groups, who felt that it wasn't well suited to their needs.