At an often lively, and robustly debated meeting on Wednesday 14th March, Hebden Royd Town Council passed its budget for the forthcoming financial year of 2007/08.
“We are delighted that the precept of 2.7%, we proposed and council passed last month has now finally been broken down into a radical, progressive, and prudent budget”. said Cllr Fekri.
The council has decided to re-examine the notion of having some community groups on base budget, which is what is seen as good practice by many other authorities and grant-giving bodies.
“We are delighted that with sensiblet financial management we have managed to increase our grant-giving capacity to £45,000, whilst also putting more into reserves should anything untoward appear over the horizon”. said Liberal Democrat Group Leader, Cllr John Beacroft-Mitchell.
“Our main priorities next year are the development of Central Street, Calder Holmes Park, Environmental Renaissance, Mytholmroyd Community Centre, The Ground Floor Project, and of course The Arts Festival and the Junior Band among others,”added a clearly delighted Cllr Fekri.
“It just goes to show how much we can achieve if we all work together for the benefit of all the communities in Hebden Royd”, concluded Cllr Beacroft-Mitchell.

Calder Valley MP, Chris McCafferty, has been challenged to vote against the replacement of the Trident nuclear submarines by a leading local Liberal Democrat.

Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, backed by David Cameron’s Conservatives, have forced a vote in the Commons on replacing the four Trident submarines which will be held on Wednesday 14th March.

Upper Calder Valley Liberal Democrat chairman, John Beacroft-Mitchell said, “The decision on the replacement of the Trident submarines is not needed until at least 2014. This is the date accepted by many experts and by the House of Commons Defence Select Committee.

“And there is a powerful reason for taking the decision in the next decade rather than now. In 2010, the next round of international nuclear disarmament talks will be held. It is vital that they are successful.

“Taking a decision on replacing the Trident submarines now pre-empts the outcome of those talks and could cause them to fail. It will show the rest of the world that the UK is not serious about negotiating away nuclear weapons.

“And it will encourage countries such as Iran to continue developing their own nuclear programme.

“The most sensible course of action is to decide whether or not to replace Trident, with all the costs involved, after we have seen the outcome of the nuclear disarmament talks.

“That is why Liberal Democrat MPs will be voting against the Blair, Brown and Cameron decision to press ahead with replacement now on 14th March.

“And I am calling on Chris McCafferty here in Calder Valley to come off the fence and vote against this decision which could cause these vital international talks to fail.

“This is too important a situation for Chris McCafferty to follow blindly the instructions of the Labour Party whip. If hshe is serious about negotiating away nuclear weapons, backing Blair and Brown on this is definitely the wrong thing to do.”

Shops must reduce wasteful packaging – Upper Calder Valley Liberal Democrats

Local Liberal Democrats have called on local MP Chris McCafferty to back a Bill presented by Liberal Democrat Shadow Local Government Secretary Andrew Stunell MP to require all large shops to accept packing returned by customers.

Packaging typically costs a familiy £470 each year, one sixth of their food budgets, according to the Government’s own Waste Resources Action Programme.

Local Lib Dem, John Beacroft-Mitchell, said, “It is worrying that over half the household waste produced by homes in Calderdale every year is from packaging. It costs families the equivalent of two months’ grocery bills just to pay for throw away wrapping and packaging.
“Local Liberal Democrats are backing this Bill that will make large stores like Tesco, Sainsbury’s and Asda accept packaging returned by customers.
“The aim is to get retailers to put pressure on suppliers to cut packaging with the result of less waste.
“This is good for the environment, good for council costs and good for waste disposal.”

Commenting after presenting the Retail Packaging Recycling Bill to Parliament, Andrew Stunell MP, said,
“Commercial wrapping and packaging is very difficult to recycle, particularly at the household level, where quantities are quite small and very diverse.
“My Bill puts the responsibility back on the retailer. They will soon find out just how difficult much of it is to recycle because of different materials being bonded together.
“Similar laws in Germany and Switzerland quickly resulted in retailers putting pressure on suppliers and manufacturers to cut down on packaging, saving both money and land-fill.”

The Liberal Democrats were the only opposition party to produce a budget, but Labour and Conservative councillors rejected it even though it contained:

• More help for Voluntary Organisations
• Better youth services
• Backing for regeneration in the Upper Calder Valley
• Support for recreation and the countryside, and
• Proposals to bring decision-making closer to you – the people affected by those decisions

This could have been achieved for the same Council Tax rise the Lab/Con deal, but without the cuts in services.