Tewkesbury Liberal Democrats

Tories on Gloucestershire County Council voted down a Lib Dem plan to boost spending on road repairs by an extra £5.3m. The Liberal Democrats proposed using spare cash in the council's £106m reserves to invest in the county's highway network. However, the Tories decided to hoard the money instead and let the county's roads fall into further disrepair.

Alistair Cameron, Liberal Democrat Parliamentary Spokesman for Tewkesbury Constituency has written to Richard Benyon MP, Under-Secretary for Natural Environment and Fisheries urging the Government to renew the Statement of Principles with insurance companies on flood insurance as soon as possible.

Alistair said: "The current Statement is due to expire in July 2013. However, households renew their insurance on an annual basis and therefore a renewed Statement needs to be in place as soon as possible and well before July 2012."

The LIBERAL DEMOCRAT group has lodged a legal challenge called a 'call-in' under Gloucestershire County Council's constitution after the Tory cabinet approved plans for a new library strategy.

The 'call-in' will halt the strategy from coming into force until councillors on the Overview and Scrutiny Management Committee can meet to review the grounds that have been put forward.

The Coalition Government has announced that Gloucestershire will get an additional £2million this year to relieve the pressure on school places.

This is part of an additional £600m of capital spending in England this year, which is for investment in, for example, extra classrooms. This comes on top of the £800m to address the shortage in pupil places already announced for 2012-13.

Alistair Cameron, Liberal Democrat Parliamentary Spokesman for Tewkesbury Constituency has written to Jan Stubbings, Chief Executive of NHS Gloucestershire to express concern about the possible closure of Seven Posts Surgery in Prestbury due to its potential relocation to the Greyholme Site in Bishops Cleeve.

LIBERAL Democrats on Gloucestershire County Council yesterday received unanimous cross-party support at Shire Hall.

A motion submitted by the Liberal Democrats and debated by full council praised the hard work of staff employed at Gloucestershire's children centres.

Liberal Democrats also called on the Cabinet to ensure that any changes to the future operation and management of children's centres follow robust processes.

The Liberal Democrats manifesto commitment to increase the income tax threshold to £10,000 took a step closer today when the Chancellor George Osbourne delivered his third Budget.

Commenting on the Budget and in particular the personal tax threshold, Liberal Democrat Leader Cllr. Jeremy Hilton said:

Over 20 million working people will be better off next year after Liberal Democrats in the Coalition Government delivered the biggest ever increase in the income tax personal allowance in the Budget.

The massive £3.5bn tax cut for working people delivers:

• The biggest ever single uplift in the tax threshold
• A personal allowance of £9,205 in April 2013
• 21 million working people getting an extra £220 tax cut
• Brings the total tax cut for basic rate tax payers to £550
• Brings the total number of people lifted out of tax to 2 million.

Following the detection of Schmallenberg Virus (SBV) in Cornwall, Devon, Dorset, Somerset, South Gloucestershire and Wiltshire, Lib Dem MEP for the Westcountry Sir Graham Watson has called for better coordination among European states to tackle the threat.

The virus, first detected last autumn inGermanyand The Netherlands before making its way across the channel earlier this year, has now been identified in the South West too. MEPs in the European Parliament on Thursday asked the European Commission to confirm exactly how it plans to ensure EU coordination to tackle the problem.

Alistair Cameron, Liberal Democrat Parliamentary Spokesman for Tewkesbury has expressed concern at reports that the Ministry of Defence are making plans to submit an outline planning application to develop the Ashchurch Army Depot site.

Last June, Alistair wrote to the then Secretary of State for Defence, Dr Liam Fox urging him not to close the Defence Storage and Distribution Agency (DSDA) at Ashchurch.