Derby Liberal Democrats

Sunnydale Path

Sunnydale Park woodlands' footpath that has now been upgraded using money from developers. This will make it easier for more people to enjoy the park all year round.

Top of Moorway Lane

After pressure from your local Lib Dem team, the Council have now installed the bollards at the junction of Moorway Lane and Blagreaves Lane. The white lines over three driveways still have to be done.

The UK helped write, and approve, the rules for how countries can leave the EU. At the time the UK was a member with no plans for leaving. Now it is putting those rules into practice.

It is becoming clear that many - if not all - of the promises made by the Leave campaign can't be delivered under the EU's rules. The UK can't have the same benefits outside the EU as in - from market access, hosting EU bodies, to having a say in making future rules. We are already getting poorer as businesses are leaving, closing, and investing elsewhere.

Derby City Council have declared that all Education & Health Care Plans (EHCPs) for children with Special Educational Needs (SEN) have now been completed - meaning they did a record-breaking 502 in just one month to meet the deadline, in contrast with just 40 a month until recently.

Derby News journalist Russell Pollard has said that there is "clear evidence the Council has significantly compromised on quality in order to achieve the target." Derby parents have provided him with examples of sub-standard plans completed for their children.

Over the past few months the wider Littleover area has suffered a spate of "professional" burglaries. In February your Lib Dem councillors helped to organise a public meeting so that residents could meet with the Police to ask questions and get information.

By late March, the Police confirmed that there has been a dramatic reduction in burglaries in our area. The criminal gangs responsible have moved on somewhere else. So far no-one has been charged with these burglaries.

Derby Liberal Democrats today launched their manifesto for the upcoming local elections. Group Leader Cllr Ruth Skelton and Vice-Chair of Derby Liberal Democrats and Mackworth Ward Candidate Tom Bull told Lib Dem supporters and activists about the party's pledges to "Take our City Forward".

The Liberal Democrats are committed to stopping the wasteful rebuild of the Assembly Rooms, funding Derby Streetpride to start to clean up our City and to fixing the crisis around Special Educational Needs.

Parking and Crossings are priorities

Littleover's has two highway priorities being agreed for the coming year. One is to introduce more parking restriction to improve traffic flow, for example at the top of Pastures Hill. The second is to study and design at least one extra main road crossing point.

Local councillors will be asked for more information on both of these in the coming months, so please share your thoughts.

It's over a year since the speed limit on Rykneld Road from Hillsway to the Hollybrook Pub was reduced to 30mph. Speeds have reduced, but not as far as ideal. The mean average speed is now 31mph. Some of those still speeding have been written to or fined by the police.

Several people have asked about more 30mph signs. The Council is not allowed to put up more 30mph roundel signs as frequent lamp posts alone mean 30.

Muirfield Dr bus stop

Lucy Care has again been told by the Council that there are no plans to remove this bus stop. If plans are done, local councillors will be consulted. Many local people had emailed Lucy around the New Year with their comments about the bus stop. Lucy passed these to the Highways team, and the team seem to have had second thoughts. One resident said "Lucy has done a great job making our Labour run Council see sense. I was gob-smacked when the Labour candidate claimed it was all his work. And Lucy and the Lib Dems are there for us all year round, not just when an election's coming."

Twenty-one months ago voters gave their views in an advisory referendum on the European Union. What has happened since?

1. The value of the pound has fallen, meaning food and many other goods are costing more.
2. Businesses are making plans - and already moving staff - to other EU countries, meaning jobs in local services are also threatened and government gets less tax.
3. Rather than there being more money for the NHS, there is less - and staff are harder to recruit. Waiting lists are rising.
4. It is 20 months after the referendum and nearly 12 months after 'Article 50' divorce process was started by Theresa May, with support from Jeremy Corbyn. Theresa May has made little progress in even defining what she wants to achieve.
5. More and more people are saying Brexit is a mistake, including: Tony Blair, Gordon Brown, and John Major, big business (the CBI), manufacturing sectors like automotive and aerospace, universities, creative industries, environmental groups, food producers, etc., etc. - and the leaders of almost every other country.