Derby Liberal Democrats

As we're by now painfully well aware, the A52 upgrade project started under Labour has been far from a success. Tens of millions have been wasted and extra delays and congestion caused by Labour's failings.

The report by Central Midlands Audit Partnership doesn't make for pleasant reading. The project went disastrously wrong. And the seeds of its own destruction were there right from the beginning.

In mid-January the Council published its plans for the new Moorways swimming pool complex. It includes a 10 lane 50m pool that can be divided into 3 smaller pools, and much-improved leisure water - flumes, racer slides, splashpad and a beach area.

There will also be a WOW ball in the leisure pool that creates waves.

Churned Up Grass Verges

A few months ago, the Council repaired and reseeded the grass verges at the lower end of Blagreaves Lane. The effort and expense the Council went to has all been in vain. The verges have now been badly churned up AGAIN by cars parking on them.

"We have had a lot of complaints from local people about this," said Danielle Lind. "Council staff have been speaking to residents in that part of Blagreaves Lane."

Latest official figures show that violent crime recorded in England and Wales has gone up by nearly a fifth in just a year. Crime across Derby has risen every year since 2015.

Lib Dem spokesperson for Derby North, Barry Holliday said "Behind these shocking figures lie hundreds of tragedies. All Tory Ministers have done is make things worse. Severe budget reductions have left people and communities in danger. Yet the Tories are blaming others for their own failings. Lib Dems demand more police and more youth services to stop the violence epidemic spreading further, that's why we would invest £300m per year into our local police forces."

The Council has a duty to ensure there is a place in school for every child. This is easier said than done, particularly when money is short and the number of children increasing.

Barry Holliday, the Lib Dem campaigner for Derby North, said "New homes often mean more children, so developers like Kier building Manor Kingsway, pay the Council to provide more school places.

New hospital car park opens

The new car park for hospital staff beyond Aldi is now open. As staff are issued passes and parking habits change hopefully there will be fewer parking problems in other places around the area. Please share any observations with the Focus team. Thanks.

Allan Avenue housing

The Council planners are not happy with the detailed layout of the housing being planned beyond Leslie Close. They are expecting a new plan/layout in the next few weeks. People who have objected before should be told when new plans are received, and there will be new signs displayed on the street.

Many tax payers have recently received a statement of how their tax and national insurance payments have been spent. It included a pie chart showing where the money had gone.

After the biggest spends on Welfare, followed by Health, Pensions and Education, there were another ten categories of progressively smaller amounts before the final tiniest slither of spending was on the EU.

Ever since the traffic lights were installed at the junction of Blagreaves Lane and Stenson Road, the number of cars rat running in front of the shops in order to avoid the lights has increased dramatically. That was until the shop owners took action after it had become clear that there was a real danger of a crash.

Labour's hated brown bin tax has now ended. Labour lost their majority at last May's election, so lost power. Liberal Democrats have made sure that the Lib Dem manifesto pledge of scrapping Labour's £40 brown bin tax has been achieved.

To sign up for the new free service, go to www.derby.gov.uk/bins or call 01332 640000 by 1st March. If you previously paid £40 for the service, you will be automatically enrolled for the free service. If you still have a brown bin from when the service was previously free, you need to sign up. Your service will start in April. If you have no brown bin, you need to sign up, and your service will start by August.

In recent times there has been an increase in unwanted household items (e.g. fridges) being dumped on pavements and grass verges in our area. Many people don't realise that doing this is fly-tipping, which is breaking the law. The penalty for this is a maximum fine of £50,000 and/or 12 months in prison.