Author: stockportlibdems

The Liberal Democrats are calling on consultancy firm KPMG to hand back £2 million they’ve received for failed work to cut the deficit at Stepping Hill Hospital.

“KPMG were paid more than £2 million to cut Stepping Hill’s deficit to £6 million,” said Cllr Laura Booth. “We now know the extent of their failure. Instead of leaving a £6 million deficit, Stepping Hill will be a massive £15.6 million in the red.”

“It is unacceptable that KPMG are being rewarded for failure. They should hand that £2 million back to the NHS to be spent on treating patients.”

The Liberal Democrats have discovered that KPMG plans to sell off part of the Stepping Hill Hospital site were shelved after they realised it wasn’t worth as much as they thought. Other proposed savings have failed too. KPMG wanted the hospital to lose 350 staff, but just 45 have been offered voluntary redundancy.

“The approach KPMG has taken at Stepping Hill has been amateurish at best, in my opinion,” Laura said. “We want this wasted money repaid and we want to know how KPMG came to be making these decisions for our hospital in the first place.”

Following a report on ITV’s This Morning programme on 2nd November, Liberal Democrats have warned that Stockport residents could soon be paying for private bin collections and having to put up with smells and possible rat infestations if Labour plans for three-weekly bin collections go ahead.

The Labour Group now leading Stockport Council have announced proposals to move to a three-weekly Black Bin collection starting next year in what they describe as a bid to increase recycling rates.

This mirrors the actions of Labour run Bury Council, who were the first in England to move to a three-weekly bin collection back in October 2014, under the guise of increased recycling.

This Morning’s report covered residents in Bury who are choosing to pay over £300 a year on top of their council tax to have their bins collected more often by a private bin collection company. They told of overflowing bins, bad smells and of rat infestations, all brought by the move to three-weekly bin collections.

Speaking of his concerns, Cllr Mark Hunter, Lib Dem shadow spokesperson for waste collection said “This whole scheme is ill thought out and wrong. We do not want to copy councils like Bury who, despite taking this drastic action, still have a recycling rate below 60%. We do not want Stockport residents having to pay additional charges to a private company for a service which they are already paying council tax for. We call on Labour to drop this extremely unpopular plan now.”

The controversial Greater Manchester Spatial Framework, which could allow for development on Green Belt, has now been published for consultation, closing on 23rd December 2016, and Stockport Liberal Democrats are encouraging all residents to participate.

Lib Dem Deputy Leader Mark Hunter has urged local residents not to miss this opportunity to have their say on the plans under consultation, which will shape how houses, offices, industrial and other developments will be delivered over the next 20 years.

The Lib Dems have criticised the consultation process as being unnecessarily complicated but claim it is vital the public make their views known.

Cllr Hunter said “Stockport Liberal Democrats have serious concerns about the proposals contained within the GM Spatial Strategy, particularly the way Stockport appears to be targeted for housing development and what we feel is inappropriate release of Green Belt land for housebuilding in areas where the roads and services are already stretched to breaking point.

“We encourage all residents to participate in the consultation before it closes on 23rd December. Please share this with your friends and family so that they know how to have their voice heard too.”

Submitting your comments
To give your views on the GM Spatial Framework, first you must register as a consultee by completing the form here.

If you have already registered, or if you return to the site to complete your comments over time, remember to use the Login/Register tab each time to log back in (towards the top right of the web page).

To read and comment on the document (once you have registered/logged in) you need to go to the consultation website here.

Down the left side you will see a link to each section of the document, allowing you to make comments on any or all parts as you choose. Each section has a button towards the top right that says “Add Comments” – click on here and type in your comments. Don’t be overwhelmed by this – whilst you are encouraged to give views on the whole Framework you do not have to comment on every single thing, just those things that concern you, for example Housing or Green Belt.

The Government has said that nearly 1,000 new houses and apartments need to be built in Stockport each year for the next twenty years. Under the policies the Government have put in place, not all the brownfield sites in towns can be used, so councils are having to look to greenbelt – a move opposed by the Liberal Democrats.

This is in addition to several thousand new houses Cheshire East Council propose building near Handforth Dean, Wilmslow, Poynton and Knutsford.

Here are the areas of greenbelt proposed to be released for house-building in Stockport borough:

4,000 houses north of High Lane

2,400 new homes in Woodford, in addition to the Aerodrome development

More than 3,700 homes between Cheadle Hulme and Heald Green

Up to 2,000 homes next to the railway line at the southern end of Heald Green

Full details for Greater Manchester are here (warning: 160MB PDF!).

Stockport Liberal Democrats are warning that the borough is in danger of becoming a target for developers and get-rich-quick land owners, following the publication of the draft Greater Manchester Spatial Framework yesterday. The plan put forward by the ten Greater Manchester local authorities details a number of locations across the conurbation where new housing development could take place.

Although no definitive decisions have been made, and the plan will shortly open for an eight week public consultation period, Cllr Mark Hunter, Deputy Leader of the Lib Dem Group at Stockport Town Hall, is concerned that Stockport is already earmarked to take more than its fair share of new housing. When a call for potential sites was made earlier in the year the Greater Manchester Combined Authority reported that, of 640 sites identified across the city region, fully 20% (128) were in the Stockport borough – including several in the Green Belt.

Cllr Hunter commented “We already knew Stockport is an attractive place to live and work so it is no surprise that developers are targeting our area but we must be robust in our defence of the Green Belt and explore every other avenue before we even contemplate building there. At the moment there are too many sites where derelict buildings remain untouched and others where planning permissions have been granted but no houses have been built and these must be utilised first.”

“Liberal Democrats recognise the need for new homes in our borough, particularly to help those who are struggling to get a first foot on the housing ladder, but it cannot be a blank cheque for developers and land owners to concrete over the Green Belt”, Cllr Hunter concluded.

Stockport Lib Dems have condemned today’s government announcement that the Community Pharmacy budget is to be cut by more than 7% over the next two years. According to the government’s own figures, up to 3000 of the smaller pharmacies will now become non-viable and close.

Speaking after the announcement, Cllr Laura Booth, Lib Dem Shadow Spokesperson for Health, said: “This is going to hit the small, local pharmacies at the heart of our communities. It’s madness to make it more difficult for people to get advice and treatment from a pharmacist. It will put more pressure on GPs and Accident and Emergency departments.”

“Only a few months ago we were being told that an extra £350m a week could be made available to the NHS if we voted for Brexit. Once again we call on the government to properly fund our NHS, especially those parts which help avoid more costly hospital admissions, such as public health and community pharmacies.”