FOCUS 63

FOCUS

A personal letter from David Hedges

www.peterboroughlibdems.org.uk

Edition: 47

“Working All Year Round”

SOUTH WERRINGTON and NORTH GUNTHORPE RESIDENTS’ NEWSLETTER

Edition: 63

Printed by P’boro Lib Dem Printing Soc c/o 37 Swift Close, Deeping St James PE6 8QQ. Published and promoted for and on behalf of the Liberal Democrats by Martin Land c/o 88 Elmfield Rd, P’boro PE1 4HB

APPEAL TO COUNCIL SUPPORTS CARNIVAL The increasing costs and funding cuts that

were threatening Werrington‟s incredibly

popular annual Scout and Guide Carnival

led Liberal Democrat councillor Darren

Fower to race to the rescue. He made a

successful direct appeal to the city

council leadership to approve a

Community Leadership grant of £2,000. Werrington Tory councillor Paula Thacker

was away on a cruise while the April

deadline for dispensing the unused portion of

the funding fast approached. Her absence

meant that without Darren‟s timely

intervention the important community

funding could have been lost!

FOCUS Editor David Hedges said:

“Councillor Colin Burton had readily agreed

to the payment but without Darren‟s tenacity

and insistence this year‟s event could well

have been threatened. Our community would

have lost one of the most colourful events in

its annual calendar.”

Correction: AGM Sorry – we slipped up! We said in the

most recent FOCUS that the AGM of

Paston & Gunthorpe Community

Association starts at 7:00 pm on 19 May

2011, at the Paston and Gunthorpe

Community Centre in Hallfields Lane. It actually starts at 8:00 pm. Sorry for

any confusion caused.

For further information or to request

attendance at the event please email

[email protected].

FOCUS TEAM CONTACT DETAILS:

Councillor: Darren Fower

FOCUS Editor: David Hedges Tel: 07860 649578

Text or call Darren’s mobile: 07581 711 434

Email: SWNG_FOCUS @peterboroughlibdems.org.uk

Ward website: www.campaigns. libdems.org.uk/SWNG

Darren’s website: www.darrenfower. mycouncillor.org.uk

Facebook: www.facebook.com/SWNG. FOCUS.Team

Post: Cllr Darren Fower, Town Hall, Bridge Street, Peterborough PE1 1HG

DID YOU KNOW? If you got an unexpected credit card bill through your door,

claiming you owed £6,124 you would be rightly amazed and

annoyed. However, that, according to recent figures, is the amount that every

man, woman and child resident of South Werrington and North

Gunthorpe* owes all the unknown investors that are propping up our

national economy.

It‟s an appalling figure that never should have been allowed to

accumulate and it‟s why we are facing the level of cutbacks that are now

affecting us all… and that figure doesn‟t even include the indebtedness

of our own city council.

Because of the need to borrow money to finance the waste incinerator

and several other projects, the city council‟s borrowing requirement is

predicted (in its own financial strategy) to increase to around £60

million by 2012.

The Liberal Democrats, both locally and in the coalition government,

are working hard to minimise the impact of these massive debts. Just

imagine what the cuts would have been like under an exclusively Tory

government!

*based upon Peterborough City Council population estimates 2007

Don’t cut the police, make the criminals pay! “Don‟t cut the police, make the criminals pay” says local Liberal

Democrat council candidate David Hedges. The latest official figure show that fines imposed in our courts amount

to nearly £300 million* each year and that money goes to the

government in one form or another. However, in these difficult times,

David questions whether those members of our population that incur the

cost of policing shouldn‟t make a greater contribution.

Hence, David is approaching both the Deputy Prime Minister and

Home Secretary with the suggestion that a form of „VAT‟ should be

charged on all fines and that the money raised should go directly into

police budgets in the area of collection.

“The decent citizens in our society are rightly getting more and more

upset about increasing costs and lowering of services.” Said David.

“If I buy something in a shop, I pay VAT. Why shouldn‟t the

shoplifter do the same?

“The collection cost would be negligible, given that the original fine

has to be collected anyway, and £60 million, even spread across the

country, would make a real difference to police budgets.”

*Excluding parking and other ‘public nuisance’ fines.

Peterborough Liberal Democrats, led by local councillor Darren Fower and our South Werrington and North Gunthorpe candidate David Hedges, are opposing cuts in the opening hours at Werrington library. If elected to the city council in May, David has pledged to continue the campaign to get the cuts reversed.