Residents of The Cloister are furious about proposals to put a fllodlit football pitch directly behind their homes. When plans to rebuild St Mary’s School were discussed with residents 3 years ago, they were assured that no floodlit pitches were being considered. The proposed pitch would cause excessive noise, light pollution & disturbance & could lead to security problems for residents. WENDY & KAREN will call on resident stomorrow to get a petition signed opposing the plans & to make sure as many letters of objection as poosible are sent in to the planning department.

Residents of Freeman Road have had to put up with unsightly drainage works opposite their houses for over a year! The Council has been arguing with Northumbria Water about who is responsible for the water leak, but the delay in fixing the problem has led to the death of a number of trees & a large crack in the road. After the Dene Liberal Democrat FOCUS Team contacted Councill officers to complain about the delay, the cause of the leak has been found & fixed. KAREN, WENDY & BOB will be pressing the Council to get the trees replace & the road mended as soon as possible & to seek compensation from Northumbria Water

Residents from Killingworth Road have had to cope with water flooding into the front of their houses due to drainage problems in the street. Cllr WENDY TAYLOR arranged for the gully on Killingworth Road to be inspected & cleaned & hopefully the water is now draining away properly. Please contact WENDY, KAREN ROBINSON or BOB RENTON if you know of other blocked gullies.

We believe that the Labour Council in Newcastle was elected last year largely because of national factors, and it’s taking our city backwards.

• Back to the days of decisions being taken in secret.
• Back to top-down, unaccountable, partisan politics
• Back to a lack of leadership on economic development
• Back to the days when the last Labour Council ignored environmental sustainability

Labour has created nothing. It’s been a year of vacuous politics, when the windbags have taken over. “Let’s Talk” they say – but there’s no action. Meetings all over the city but nothing to show for them.Setting up commissions and panels which have taken all year to deliberate but just happen to report after the elections.Reorganising the deckchairs at the civic centre.

Instead Labour has scrapped plenty – the popular neighbourhood charters, an effective process for scrutinising the council’s decisions and policies, the £5m Myplace project for young people in the city centre, the joint economic development company with Gateshead, the Local Strategic Partnership (the platform for working with other key players in the city), and the Sustainable Communities Strategy which set out the needs of the city and guided the council – Labour still has no replacement plan. What have they been doing?

A year on and there’s not only no plan for the city and no direction for the council, but no Enterprise Zone for Newcastle and no City Deal agreed with Government. Others are stealing a march on us.

Instead there’s been a hapless Labour budget that scrapped the mobile library service, park keepers and rangers, the collection service for garden waste and support for care home wardens, with disproportionate cuts to local environmental services and a disgraceful and a unjustified switch of resources for road and pavement maintenance to “Labour’s areas”. And there’s been a crude and clumsy threat to the Green Belt of the city through the badly-handled Local Development Framework process.
Labour is obsessed with blaming the government for everything and taking responsibility for nothing. It’s been a wasted year for Newcastle, a year of local government by slogan and no action.

Our message to the electors at this election is:

• Newcastle needs a strong Liberal Democrat Opposition to defend our legacy when in power and to hold Labour to account.
• Newcastle needs a council that will restore open and accountable local government.
• Newcastle needs a council that will protect the environment and promote sustainability.
• Newcastle needs a council committed to targeting resources on those most in need, with a focus on prevention, the closest cooperation between agencies and on value for money.
• Newcastle needs a council that will get on with kick-starting economic development and regeneration, in partnership with central government, and end the slogans and posturing.

Nationally we recognise that the huge deficit in the public finances left by an irresponsible and incompetent Labour Government needs to be tackled. However we continue to lobby for the burden to be shared more fairly across the country and in particular for cuts to local government to be more evenly apportioned.

The Liberal Democrats’ commitment to community politics means we work tirelessly for local people – we are not beholden to either big business or the trade unions. Despite very difficult times, Liberal Democrats are dedicated to doing what is right for the country and right for local people.

Wildlife Corridor Route Big Walk 12 Feb

February 26th is a crucial date for Save Gosforth Wildlife. On that day, Newcastle’s Labour Councillors will decide whether or not to throw out proposals to build 600 houses next to Gosforth Nature Reserve. Growing public outrage has already had an influence, but we need one last big push.

So, on Sunday February 12th there will be a walk along the wildlife corridor from Gosforth Nature Reserve to the River Tyne. Starting at 11 am at the nature reserve entrance, with additional start points from West Moor, and Melton Park. The route will pass the proposed site on Salters Lane, down Heathery Lane, then towards South Gosforth, Jesmond Dene, Heaton Park, and down the Ouseburn to the Tyne.
Please come & join in this protest

Proposals to abolish the Sheltered Housing Warden Service have been condemned by many Newcastle residents. The Labour-run City Council are proposing replacing the service with Telecare, but many elderly people value the human touch that a resident warden can provide & would be reluctant to phone for help except in an emergency. Newcastle Liberal Democrats are asking the Council to reconsider this plan as the wardens are very important to the quality of life of sheltered housing residents. If you want to support us, please sign our on-line petition at http://newcastle-libdems.org.uk/wardens

I must apologise for an error in the recent Dene FOCUS leaflet. The correct emial address for comments on the Green Belt strategy is
Planning&HousingStrategy@newcastle.gov.uk. Comments must be received by tomorrow Jan 4th. Please help to save Gosforth Nature Reserve from Labour’s housing plans.

Cllrs WENDY TAYLOR, BOB RENTON & SHARON BAILEY are opposing Council plans to move a polling station from the Lochside Pub to Henderson Hall on Coach Lane. The change would cause considerable inconvenience to residents of Victoria Glade, Hayden Grange & Church Green, as Henderson Hall is much further from their homes. WENDY, BOB & SHARON believe that anyone who wants to vote in person at a polling station should be able to do so without needing a car. Elderly & disabled residents would be particularly affected by this change. Please let WENDY know if you’d like to sign the petition opposing this change.

Newcastle Labour Councillors “Let’s Talk” slogan is looking very shaky after they failed to send any Labour representative to the Save Gosforth Wildlife meeting at Gosforth Civic Hall on Nov 15^th. The meeting was called to discuss worrying proposals would see 600 homes built on Green Belt land right up against Gosforth Nature Reserve. Over 400 people turned up to hear about the plans from Council officers. Cllr Murison, the Cabinet member for “Quality of Life”, who has responsibility for planning & housing issues, was invited to explain his reasons for including this controversial proposal in Newcastle’s  plans, but decided not to attend this important public meeting. He only let the organisers of the meeting know he wasn’t coming at 10.30 pm the night before! The Labour Council launched “Let’s Talk” in July and claim it is “an honest, open conversation with as many people as possible”, but that doesn’t seem to include the 400 people in Gosforth. So much for a listening Council! Lib Dem Shadow Cabinet member Bill Shepherd did accept the invitation & told the meeting that under the Liberal Democrats this proposal would never have been included in the plans.

Cllr WENDY TAYLOR is extremely concerned that these proposals would seriously damage the nature reserve. The reserve is a designated Site of Special Scientific Interest. The wildlife in the reserve forages in the fields surrounding the reserve. It is those fields on which the housing would be built. The animals that live in the area include; Deer, badgers, hares, otters, red squirrels, owls, bats, voles and countless species of small bird. This is yet another example of Labour’s lack of commitment to the environment.  This is a terrible blunderand if it goes ahead, it cannot be undone. Liberal Democrat Councillors are calling on Labour to withdraw the proposal immediately.

WENDY is strongly supporting the campaign to scrap proposals to build 600 houses right next to
Gosforth Park Nature Reserve, which would destroy buffer zones, and block off the wildlife corridor that extends from the nature reserve right down to the Tyne. The proposals are included in the City Council’s draft development plan (the Local development Framework), which also includes proposals to build on other important green belt sites. WENDY believes that all brown field sites should be used for housing before any green belt sites are even considered. It is also crucial that local residents are fully consulted about any plans. Unfortunately, because Dene Ward residents are not directly affected by these proposasl, we have been excluded from any of the consultation events, whcih are only being held in the North & West of the City. Many High Heaton, Heaton, Jesmond & Sandyford residents will have strong views about protecting the Green belt & WENDY has asked officers to hold a consultation meeting in our area.
A meeting to discuss the Gosforth proposals will take place at 7 p.m. on Tuesday November 15th at Gosforth Civic Hall. The format of the meeting will be similar to the BBC’s ‘Question Time’. There will be three main speakers: Professor David Byrne (Director of Postgraduate Studies and Professor in the School of Applied Social Sciences, Durham University), Nicola Woodward (Head of Planning and Housing Strategy, Strategic Housing, Planning & Transport, Environment & Regeneration), and James Littlewood (Director of The Natural History Society of Northumbria, and Director of Gosforth Park Nature Reserve). Two councillors have also been invited to make up the panel of five. They are Councillor Bill Shepherd and Councillor Henri Murison. Everyone is welcome to attend