Ann Smith has taken the case up of an elderly woman who was struck by a cyclist on a Stockport pavement.
The woman, who is partially sighted, was hit by someone riding their bike on a pavement despite this being against the law.
Ann has written to Greater Mancheter’s police and crime commissioner to see what can be done. “I appreciate obviously that this matter is not going to be up there as a priority, “she said in her letter. “However, I would like to think that something could be done.”
Stockport Council is thanking green-minded residents for helping the borough be the best for recycling rates in the whole of the North West.
Stockport also thrashes all London boroughs, recycling more than any other metropolitan authority in the country. In the league table of all of Britain’s 354 council’s, Stockport comes 6th.
The recycling success means that not only are Stockport residents doing their bit for the environment, they are helping keep council tax down and saving money that can be spent on other services.
The cost of landfill means it costs £246 more per tonne to dispose of waste from the black bin compared to the blue and brown bins.
The Council’s ‘Right Thing Right Bin’ campaign continues to help residents to make sure their recycling efforts aren’t wasted. Materials sent for recycling are checked at the depot and it only takes a few households to have put the wrong items in their recycling bins for a lorry load to be rejected and sent to landfill, causing unnecessary environmental damage and costs.
Treasury figures have been published showing Stockport to be the best value council in Greater Manchester.
A league table of council’s spending per-resident gives Lib Dem Stockport a lower figure than all other councils in the area, demonstrating the effectiveness of the balanced budget working Stockport Council has worked hard to maintain.
This compares favourably to both Conservative councils like Trafford, and Labour council’s like Oldham and Manchester – a Council which imposed savage cuts despite holding back more than £100 million in town hall coffers and faced national criticism for making “politically motivated cuts.”
The “excellent” financial management of the local authority since the Lib Dems took control of the borough means Stockport Lib Dems are able to propose a Council Tax freeze for 2014/15, something that will be debated by all Stockport councillors in what is expected to be a heated political debate at the Town Hall this Thursday.
Cycle Safety Mirrors (also called Trixi mirrors) have been installed around our area, and are being put in at 50 junctions across Greater Manchester.
The mirrors help drivers of large vehicles like lorries or buses see cycles alongside them. Those sorts of vehicles have a very large blind spot and one of the most common ways for cyclists to be killed or seriously injured is being trapped to the left of a large vehicle turning left at a junction.
The team has also enlisted the support of our Lib Dem MEP, Chris Davies, who is a cyclist himself and wants European rules to improve cycle safety, as many of the lorries on UK roads originate in other European countries.
Lib Dems are proposing to freeze Stockport’s Council tax for year 2014/15[/caption]Stockport’s Lib Dem councillors want to freeze Council Tax for Stockport taxpayers for the year 2014/15.
This will be the third council tax freeze the Lib Dems council has delivered in the past four years, despite the unprecedented financial challenges it continues to face.
Lib Dem councillors want to continue helping residents with the cost of living. Cllr Sue Derbyshire said: “We know local authority finances will get no easier, with almost £60m of savings made since 2010 and over £40m more savings needed between 2015 and 2017. However, we have taken the decision to accept the government’s freeze grant this year in the interests of residents, and I call on the other political groups in Stockport to back this freeze.”
The Liberal Democrat budget proposals will be debated and voted upon by all political groups at the Budget Council Meeting on 27th February.
Local Liberal Democrats are proposing a capital investment scheme of over £100 million in a once-in-a-generation programme that will see hundreds of roads and pavements properly relaid.
The proposal, which will be voted on as part of the Stockport Council budget in February, will see hundreds of roads and pavements resurfaced across Stockport.
This will be the biggest programme of road repair and renewal ever seen in this borough.
“This scale of investment is not something to take lightly,” said Executive councillor Iain Roberts. “Lib Dems have been working on this for over a year. Every single road in Stockport has been checked more comprehensively than ever before, to ensure we have the data to be able to make the right decisions and spend this money wisely.”
“Because of all the preparation and investigation we’ve done, we know that the cost of that borrowing will be similar to what we’d have to pay to continue our programme of patching roads and pavements to maintain them at their current standard.”
If the Lib Dems can get this proposal through the Council, the road and pavement repairs will be completed over the next few years.
