Derby Liberal Democrats

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.

Pastures Hill and Burton Road had bad delays from road works in late January. Some Sunday work overran onto a Monday and a power cable failure and a mains water leak happened the same day. For planned work, the Council gets companies to work outside busy times and fines ones which get it wrong.

After road works lights were on Pastures Hill all day with no activity, Cllr Lucy Care reported them to the Council and thankfully they then went!

In mid-January the Council's Licensing Committee unanimously agreed to a 90-day public consultation on its draft strategy for having lower exhaust emissions from taxis, and an age limit for vehicles.

Liberal Democrats welcome the 90-day consultation period. There are plenty of issues that need to be carefully considered. "We want to see Council officers and the taxi trade work through the issues and come to a mutually acceptable solution that is practical and affordable," said Cllr Ruth Skelton. "We encourage everyone to take part in the consultation. There will be consultation events as well as a questionnaire. We expect that changes will be made to the draft strategy as a result of the consultation responses."

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.

All welcome on 13th February!

The next Neighbourhood Forum is on Wednesday 13th February from 7pm at Grange Hall. Do come with questions for the police and local councillors, and to hear updates on local issues.

Hedge-cutting

Households are responsible for keeping their trees and hedges from obstructing paths and pavements. This is a good time of year for pruning or trimming most (though not plums and cherries, which should be pruned in the summer). Please trim hedges back to the back of the pavement as needed.

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."

Public consultation on various new parking restrictions in Littleover ends on the 5th February. Notices have been displayed for the last few weeks on lamp posts close to where changes are planned .

These include many areas where people have expressed concerns over the last year or so, including Old Hall Road, Pastures Hill, Elgin Avenue and Fresco Drive.

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.