Liberal Party members meeting at Treloweth Community Hall in Poole, Cornwall voted to reiterate their policy that the Water Companies should be renationalised.
 
"As more is known about polluted rivers and coastlines it is untenable for these private water companies to send profit dividends abroad, exert a monopoly over such an essential resource and fail to protect environmental safety standards" stated Liberal Party leader Cllr Steve Radford-.
 
Liberal Party members also supported calls for a Cornish Assembly recognising the unique history and culture of the Duchy.
 
The Liberal Party Leader in Cornwall, Cllr Paul Holmes urged that a Cornish Assembly should take control over the Duchy of Cornwall estates to maximise the benefits to the people of Cornwall and the District Councils be restored respecting that at the last referendum 83% of the voters rejected the then Labour Government's plan to abolish them
 
"We need devolution from Westminster and Bristol to Cornwall , we also need devolution from County Hall to the towns and districts of Cornwall" rounded Cllr Paul Holmes.

The Liberal Party notes with some disbelieve that the UK Government is to proceed with a trial scheme offering £10000 relocation payments for overseas languages and physics teachers.

According to the Schools Week(26th May 2023) the scheme seeks to recruit 400 teachers abroad, primarily to cover shortages of staff trained in key subjects.

The party believes this is another example of the government’s failure to invest in home grown  talent, and a failure to reward our own teaching staff at a time when the education system is being disrupted by industrial action and staff shortages in part driven by the cost-of-living crisis.

Recruitment from abroad also creates shortages of skilled workers in the home countries, depleting their own education and medical services of trained staff.

This scheme  also comes at the same time as the Government is decrying levels of immigration into this country but fails to understand that domestic training and recruitment offers a far more effective solution to addressing skills and labour shortages.

The Liberal Party notes the recent government announcement on UK immigrations level’s which revealed a net gain of 606.000 people in 2022.
 
The party recognise that the immigration and asylum process is out of control, and that the nation does not have a skills analysis approach in place for immigration nor an asylum process where vast numbers arrive through safe countries and enter the UK as an economic opportunity.
 
We also need to emphasise the need for UK embassies abroad to offer asylum and immigration processing services to provide a safe and legal process and we would support a points-based work visa system.
 
We believe that family member visas should be strictly limited such that "anchor students" are no longer a way into this country.
 
We should also be increasing the minimum amount employers have to pay for any overseas employees they bring in (excluding seasonal workers), and there should be a minimum wage of £15/hour for someone with a required skill.

The Liberal Party in Scotland is dismayed that the UK Government is seeking to dramatically amend the deposit return scheme which was due to commence in Scotland in March 2024.
 
According to a report in the independent newspaper, the UK Government is using the UK Internal Market Act to refuse an exception which would allow the region to include glass in their recycling scheme ahead of other parts of the UK.
 
The Liberal Party believes that Scotland should not be penalised for being ahead of the other nations in offering such a service and sees no commercial advantage being obtained. The early implementation of the scheme would benefit the environment.
 
The UK Government’s intervention is both unwelcome and unreasonable and should be reconsidered as a matter of urgency.

The Liberal Party Merseyside Association is supporting a community campaign to stop the closure of the Park View Medical Centre in Tuebrook, Liverpool.

This important local resource faces closure within 2 months as its contract with the NHS Cheshire and Merseyside integrated care board (ICB) finishes and no replacement provider has been found.

Following a recent  campaign meeting at the Tuebrook Hope centre, city councillor and Liberal Party leader Steve Radford told the Liverpool Echo “We’re fighting for every surgery in the community because every surgery will suffer if this closes.”

In the same article Tuebrook Larkhill ward member, Cllr Billy Lake, was quoted as saying  “We’ve seen this before, we’ve fought it before, and we’ll fight it again.”


Every one of the 2800 patients to be moved will add to the waiting lists of local surgeries where people are already struggling to gain access to health services.

The Liberal Party notes this week’s announcement by the UK privatised water companies to invest £10 billion pounds in wastewater management to reduce its effects on the environment.

Whilst this is a welcome step towards the elimination of storm overflows and sewage discharges into our rivers and coastal waters, the party does not believe this investment should be funded by increased bills for domestic customers.

Rather as private companies’, investment in environmental management should be a financial responsibility born by the companies and their shareholders as part of their statutory duty to protect our nations water resources.

Since being privatised in 1989 English water companies have paid out £65 billion to shareholders whilst allowing pollution levels to rise to deplorable levels, with 62 serious pollution incidents reported by UK water and sewage companies in 2021, the highest number since 2013.(Environment Agency, 2021).

The Liberal Party remains committed to the nationalisation of the UK water industry as we believe it has a natural monopoly and the extraction and delivery of water is a public good.

Cllr Steve Radford
Leader Liberal Party Group
Liverpool City Council
 
Dear Editor
 
Since the Electoral Reform Act of 1832 there has been an onus on boundary reviews to ensure that there is greater electoral equality between constituencies.
 
The local Government Boundary has swung that into reverse gear in the local elections within Liverpool in May 2023. The ward of Waterfront North elected a Labour Councillor with only 91 votes cast for him out of a potential electorate of 864.
 
At the same time two working class communities combined into a Tuebrook Larkhill ward had 624 voters elect their Liberal Party Councillor from a total electorate of 4821.
 
There we have it, the city centre’s affluent voters in city centre apartments have 5.6 more impact on the election of historic working-class communities, truly a return to the imbalance of the rotten borough system.
 
However, our concern about the boundary review is not just mathematical diversion and greater electoral inequality.
 
Of the 3 wards named West Derby none of them included the heart of West Derby Village.
 
Of the two wards named Tuebrook neither included the historic parish church of St. John The Baptist Tuebrook.
 
When the overwhelming majority of residents and community groups called for the north and south sides of Tuebrook be kept in one two set ward the boundary commission ignored the communal shopping area and community centres and said there were insufficient pedestrian crossing to show the area was one community.
 
There are in fact 5 pedestrian crossing connecting the south and north sides of the West derby Road- Millbank.
 
The Government should revert the boundary process to an open and transparent process where evidence is taken in person and cross examined and the current commission be suspended before they damage the electoral process and divide natural communities oblivious to the calls of the community in other cities or council’s.
 
Cllr Steve Radford 
Leader Liberal Party
City of Liverpool

The Liberal Party contested seats across the country.on the 4th May.

Following a boundary review in Liverpool, which had delayed elections for a year, the party contested 9 wards with 10 candidates as part of a targeted campaign.

We are pleased to report that party leader Steve Radford, along with Joe Dunne and William Lake were returned to office, where the party took 3991votes across the city.

In East Devon Roy Collins took a seat in the Honiton St Michael`s ward after a recount.

In addition, we contested seats in Lincolnshire, Surry, and Reading, whilst Byron Hadley retained their seat on Northleach Town Counciil in Gloucestershire.

Thank you to all those who store for elected office and their supporters.

Liberal Party chair Cllr Charles Shaw in his capacity as a national trustee of boys and girls’ clubs will be taking four young people to the coronation big lunch at 10 Downing Street on Sunday 7th May 2023.
 
Whilst this is a state and non-party opportunity for young people to see and have a Downing Street experience the event invitation represents a recognition of the importance of including young people in the experience of the coronation and giving a day for them to remember.
 
Charles is proud to be supporting these young people and local communities and ensuring the continued involvement of young people in the great occasions of state and promoting understanding of civic engagement.

The Liberal Party is please to confirm that Roy Collins will be contesting the Honiton St Michael`s ward of the East Devon District Council on the 4th May 2023.

Many thanks to all those nominated and to those who are supporting them at the polls.

Please reach out to help where possible, Liberal Party contacts are listed on the party website.