Lib Dem Leader and Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg has outlined a £1 billion pound Youth Contract to tackle youth unemployment. The aim is to ensure that all jobless young people are earning or learning again before long-term damage is done.

• Over three years, the Youth Contract will provide at least 410,000 new work places for 18 to 24 year olds into work. Starting April 2012
• Including 160,000 wage subsidies and 250,000 new work experience placements.
• In addition, there will be at least 20,000 more incentive payments to encourage employers to take on young apprentices.
• A new programme to help the most disengaged 16 and 17 year olds – getting them back to school or college, onto an apprenticeship or into a job with training.

Pic From Jonnykeelty's Flickr account.

So planning permission has been granted for the conversion of Jardines Bowling centre into a shop, I don’t normally do this but I’m going to quote a Tory Councillor, Tom Hunter-Watts, from his comment on the Bucks Herald website, “It became clear that Jardines had no future as a business”, now having sat upon the Aylesbury Town Council planning committee I find this an interesting planning view, the argument should be along the lines of, is this space a Leisure space, or a Retail space, not is Jardines struggling financially, if that is the criteria then most of the shops and businesses in the town would fail Mr Hunter-Watts test, and close.

In another part of his reply on The Bucks Herald website he also states “We could have refused the application, the bowling club would still have closed and we would have been left with vacant premises for an indefinite period – and there are enough vacant premises in this town as it is” well who is to say that this new shop, tucked away as it will in all probability be, will be empty for some time anyway, particularly given the current dreadful economic climate.

Another  part of the argument is about providing financial help to Jardines, now obviously AVDC shouldn’t provide any help to struggling businesses, except for the massive subsidy to the private company running the theatre, (In fairness the Civic Centre received a subsidy, but this was run by AVDC so the money stayed in the area), or the new Waitrose & Travelodge developments, or the Enterprise academy, or Aqua Vale and the Swan Pool, all of these are given hefty support from the Council Tax payer, all are run by private companies or trusts, so where do we draw the line?

One of the things that AVDC, the Tory controlled District Council could and should be doing is helping to ensure that business rents in our town are reasonable, I know several people who have tried to run shops  in Aylesbury, several have had to admit defeat, not just because of business reasons, but rents in our town are very high, landlords aren’t doing badly, unless of course they have a lot of empty shop space, and are creating more.

So yet again Aylesbury will lose another local company, we will lose a local leisure facility, but gain another empty shop which will in all probability struggle to find a tenant, this wasn’t an easy decision to make I’m sure, but I have to fundamentally disagree with this decision, our town is poorer for it, competitor towns of Aylesbury must be laughing their socks off.

Deputy Prime Minister addresses the Party Conference in Birmingham. You can read the full text of the speech here.

Thousands of Liberal Democrats gathered for their annual conference in Birmingham this week. They discussed what has been achieved in the first 500 days of Government and policies for the future. Highlights include:

• After decades of campaigning, and thanks to Lynne Featherstone: Equal marriage, straight or gay.
• More power for consumers over the energy companies
• Calling time on rewards for failure in boardrooms
• New powers to turn empty homes back into family homes.
• A £500m investment in growth.

The Lib Dems are opposing calls for an immediate cut in the 50% tax rate paid by higher rate taxpayers.

Nick Clegg’s party instead wants to give more help to those on middle and low incomes who need it the most.

NIck Clegg: We need fairer taxes to help ordinary people, not tax cuts for the richest

Lib Dem Chief Secretary to the Treasury Danny Alexander said, “At a time when the whole country faces serious financial challenges, the priority needs to be people on low and middle incomes.”

A key part of the coalition agreement was the Lib Dem commitment to making taxes fairer. The Lib Dems are well on their way to delivering on their pledge that no one should pay tax on the first £10,000 they earn.

Nearly a million low paid workers are no longer paying income tax thanks to this. All basic rate tax payers are paying £200 less in income tax.

Each year more and more people on low and middle incomes will gain more thanks to the Lib Dem fairer tax plan.

Danny Alexander said, “Fairer taxes is our goal. I don’t see why, in the next parliament, we shouldn’t be trying to get to a situation where people in a full-time job on the minimum wage are paying no income tax at all.”

This would mean that no one would pay tax on the first £12,500 they earn.

Nick Clegg: NHS reforms must deliver for patients

The Lib Dems are continuing to work in Parliament to ensure NHS reforms deliver a better deal for patients.

Nick Clegg’s party won major changes to the reforms earlier this summer.

These included measures to ensure there will be no privatisation of the NHS and no special favours for the private sector.

Nick Clegg said, “With the Lib Dems, the NHS will always be free at the point of use and will deliver top quality treatment for patients. We want to deliver a better NHS that can cope with the increasing demand and rising health costs.”

The NHS reforms will cut waste and bureaucracy that costs billions of pounds. They will help the NHS cope with the costs of Britain’s steadily ageing population and the rising cost of many treatments.

By making the NHS more efficient and by protecting the NHS budget from cuts, more money can be spent on improving care for patients.

NHS faced disaster with Labour
Had Labour won the last election, the NHS would have faced deep spending cuts. That along with Labour’s refusal to tackle waste and inefficiency would have been a disaster for our health services.

Labour rigged the market in favour of the private sector by giving contracts that were unfair for the taxpayer and for patients.

Over £250million of taxpayers’ money was handed over by the last Labour government to private providers for operations they didn’t even perform.

The Liberal Democrats have made sure that this kind of favouritism towards the private sector will now be illegal.

A repaired shelter, please keep it this way.

A quick update for you on the damaged teen shelter in Bedgrove Park, the damage has been repaired, the floor and roof have been patched, and a new panel of plywood fixed onto the side.

The council cannot afford to keep repairing the shelter, so take care of it, or you will lose it, given the cuts to youth services that we have had, the youth of Aylesbury cannot afford to lose ANY more facilities so you need to respect what you have.

If you know who was responsible for the damage to the shelter then please get in touch with me, I can pass the information on in strict confidence, or you can contact Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111 or on their website at http://www.crimestoppers-uk.org they don’t even need your name.

Cllr Penni Thorne and Alan Sherwell inspect some of the damage

On a day when Bedgrove park was once again given a green flag, at a meeting of the Neighbourhood Action Group  residents talking to Councillors and the Police – we discussed the vandalism and mindless destruction of the Bedgrove Teenage Shelter. This mindless destruction could well lead to the shelter being removed from the park, there is only so much money in the council’s repair pot.

Cllr Thorne said “The residents of Bedgrove raised the money to build this shelter for all the youngsters of the area, it would be a real shame if their hard work was wrecked, and a useful facility had to be removed”. Echoing Cllr Thorne’s comments Alan Sherwell said “This sort of mindless vandalism is simply not acceptable, there is not a bottomless pit of money, repairs cannot go on for ever”. For what it’s worth, I feel that losing it would be unfair on the teenagers who use the shelter responsibly. Other areas manage to avoid their shelter being vandalised, it’s sad Bedgrove doesn’t seem to be able too.It does have to be said it may well not be Bedgrove residents who are causing the damage, but if you do know who it is, ask them to stop or contact the Police or PCSOs. You could even get in touch with me, and I’ll pass the information on to protect you anonymity.

Mark

Bedgrove teen shelter

Following the election in May, where unfortunatly I lost my seat on Aylesbury Town Council I decided to take my mind off of politics for a while, the disapointment of losing my seat while being (at least in my eyes) a hard working ward councillor was hard to take, I know the old saying that the public have spoken holds true but I had a wonderful time as a councillor, achieved a lot I feel so to be voted off was disapointing.

But life goes on, no one died and now I’m back, I’ll be out on the streets knocking on doors and talking to the public, but I will try to avoid the football evenings!

If you want to get in touch with me e-mail me on mark-willis@ntlworld.com or on twitter @AylesburySting

Mark

Lib Dem MP Simon Hughes has led a review of access to higher education. He spent six months traveling around the country to speak with thousands of young people about the changes to university financing and all other concerns they have about access to higher education

Last week he published his final report. It contains over 30 recommendations directed towards schools and colleges, universities, government and regulators on what they can do to encourage participation in higher education. You can download a copy of the report from the Cabinet Office website here: Hughes Report