More Council spending should be done at a local level

It is wonderful when residents attend Council meetings to give their views on how their Council taxes are being spent.

What is sad though is that there are too few people attending meetings because the process seems to not want people to have their say. The Liberal Democrats are the only party in Ealing Borough to be proactive to want views and act up on them, raising these matters in Council meetings.

A great example of this is where the Labour party cut the number of local ward meetings (where local issues are discussed) from 4 to 2. The Southfield Liberal Democrats made a commitment to fund two additional meetings so we still have four meetings a year. In fact, we are the only party who have done this in our borough!

Some of the successes that we have shared and developed with residents include:

• New lighting across over half the ward.
• Stopped cuts to the local police team.
• Additional play equipment in local parks to encourage more children and adults to exercise and not put on weight.
• Working with local residents' groups and the police team to make the area safer and more attractive.
• Many initiatives to help support cyclists.
• Lighting across well used parks to reduce the attacks and the fear of crime particularly reported from women.
• 20 mph traffic scheme to reduce accidents to pedestrians, cyclists and car drivers.

One of the problems we face is that Labour-run Ealing Council has made cuts so that people are not consulted in a way that is acceptable to many. This is especially true of planning matters where many residents have not been informed apart from a notice on a lamppost away from where they live.

Liberal Democrats want to see more decisions taken locally at a ward level or clusters of wards. To do this, it would not require any more money, but simply the decision making powers are taken at a more appropriate level which means more residents can be involved in the decision making process.

The areas of decision making could be some of the following:

• Street lighting
• Pavement repairs 
• Road resurfacing
• Tree planting sites
• Improvements to parks
• Road safety schemes

This would lead to a greater openness. Many council decisions are taken in meetings that are either not public or not publicised. It would be great to open up Council meetings having a live feed for important meetings. Advertising should be looked at to see if this is feasible. Many local companies would pay if they knew a controversial debate was taking place about a planning issue or concerning a possible new Controlled Parking Zone scheme.

Liberal Democrats are proud that we constantly want to know what is important to residents and then act to improve our local area.

Lib Dems alternative budget would increase spending on roads and pavements and cancel the Garden Tax

At an Ealing Council meeting last night Liberal Democrats put forward an alternative budget which would have meant an extra £1.6 million would have been spent on roads and paving across the borough, as well as getting rid of the garden tax.

Sadly the Ealing Labour Party voted against our fully costed and approved budget it will mean that residents will still have to pay £40 to have their garden waste collected on top of the Council Tax.

On the doorstep we are constantly are told that people are sick of having to pay the garden tax. It is a stealth tax. Only the Liberal Democrats put forward proposals to ensure the Council spend more on maintaining our roads and pavements. Both the Tories and Labour party voted again this sensible plan.

Ealing Lib Dems

In my speech I gave a summary of what Labour-run Ealing Council has done over the past four year and it does not read well...

• Cutting of enviro-crime officers
• Cutting of many Park Rangers
• Cutting respite care
• Cutting transport services for the vulnerable
• Cutting Sheltered Housing provision
• Culling of numerous day centres. Numbers of disabled and vulnerable residents will suffer. Elderly and the disabled. I expected more of Labour!
• Then cuts to the very sheltered housing
• People waiting too long to speak to staff when they call the Council
• Our streets dirty and unclean - STILL

Looking at my home ward of Southfield, only two roads have been resurfaced in the past four years. The Liberal Democrat amendment would have helped many roads in Southfield as well as the whole borough.

In the forthcoming local elections on May 2012 people will have the choice to vote Lib Dem for a party who are hardworking all year round and in opposition focus on what the Council needs to do to treat residents fairly, whether the administration does not agree to sensible proposals.