Have a say on spending in Liverpool

RESIDENTS are being asked to help Liverpool City Council decide its spending priorities.  The local authority has to save £91 million during 2011/12 due to a significant reduction in government grants and other spending pressures, and tough choices will have to be made.  Now the council is inviting people to use an online budget calculator, You Choose, to consider where spending should fall, where efficiencies might be made, and where income might be generated. It can be found at:- liverpool.gov.uk/budget. 

Deputy Council Leader Paul Brant said:- “This is a chance for local people to tell us what their priorities are and where they would choose to direct our spending.  It is an opportunity to get involved in the choices we are grappling with in order to balance the books. We want to protect, as far as possible, the essential services to children, the disabled and vulnerable who need the life-line of the services the council provides.  But, given the scale of the reductions we face, even these front line services will not escape the impact and we want people’s views on which services should be hit the least.  We are committed to being as open and transparent as we can about the budget setting process, and this interactive consultation is designed to allow people to play their part.”

The spending categories which people can consider and prioritise include: children’s services and education; adult social care; housing and neighbourhoods; community safety; the environment; regeneration and culture, sport and leisure. Savings totalling £30 million through a series of efficiency measures have already been identified.  They include a review of senior management pay and structures, the opportunity for staff in certain areas to take voluntary severance, cutting down on the use of consultants and agency staff and managing vacancies.  For the first time in living memory, all political parties are working together on a joint budget, with the ruling Labour administration, the Opposition Liberal Democrats, Liberals and Greens all taking part in discussions.  To have your say on the budget, by visiting the website.  The closing date is midnight on Sunday, 20 February 2011. People who don’t have computer access at home can take part in the consultation by using the internet for free at any of the city’s libraries.  Feedback from the You Choose consultation will form part of the budget setting process.  The city council is due to set its budget on 2 March 2011.

Time for Banks to pay their way says Local Euro MP

THE Vice Chair of the Economic and Monetary Affairs Committee, Euro MP Arlene McCarthy has welcomed support for a Financial Transaction Tax in a key vote in the European Parliament. Following the vote in the Economic and Monetary Affairs Committee on Innovative Financing Local Euro MP, Arlene McCarthy said:- “For too long the financial sector has been under taxed and largely exempt from VAT. It’s time that this industry started contributing to the real economy and a Financial Transaction Tax will help achieve this. A recent study by the Institute of Development Studies at Sussex University showed how a 0.005% tax to the foreign exchange market alone could raise around £17.6 billion worldwide in new taxes - £7.7 billion in the UK alone. This would be new money that could go to go to fund UK poverty reduction, international development and climate change mitigation.” On Tory MEPs voting against the call for an FTT Arlene said:- “It’s a shame the Tories refuse to support citizens' campaigns for a financial transaction tax and yet again voted against an FTT and in favour of their friends in the financial sector. Just like the ConDem Government, they talk tough on making the financial sector pay its way but bottle out when it comes to taking action. Following the global economic crisis the banks received massive subsidies from the public purse for a crisis of their own making - costing £2,000 for every man woman and child in the United Kingdom. It’s only fair they should now pay their way and not get a free ride. There is already clear public backing for a tax on financial transactions, through active campaigns for ideas such as a 'Robin Hood Tax' by charities like Oxfam and ActionAid.  It is time to take action”

Crime Fighters Choose Leaders

LIVERPOOL’S Community Crime Fighters have chosen their leaders.   Paul Taylor gas been elected to chair the Community Crime Fighter Steering Group and Brian Gates is to be the vice chair.  The group, which is supported by Citysafe, Liverpool’s Community Safety Partnership, aims to improve the criminal justice system for Liverpool residents.  It will attempt to ensure that the needs of the law abiding citizen, whether as a resident , a victim or witness to crime or anti social behaviour, are at the core of the system. Members of the network bring with them expertise, knowledge and experience based on being an active member of their communities. Paul said:- “I have been involved as a community volunteer for the past 20 years, assisting voluntary in welfare rights and the National Health Service, I am currently Chair of Merseyside Residents Network an organisation that seeks funding to design projects that benefit the wider members of the Merseyside Community,  I am delighted to have been nominated and elected as Chairperson for Liverpool Community Crime Fighters and I am looking forward to working with the communities, Citysafe and Brian Gates. I have worked on other community projects with Brian in the past all with successful outcomes and I can’t see the Community Crime Fighter Group being any different. I feel it’s important that we all work together to benefit our communities”

Brian Gates has 23 years’ experience in the social housing sector both for local authority and registered social landlords mainly managing the delivery of development and regeneration schemes. 

Brian Gates said:- “I understand the difficulties and pressures in which people are enduring within their neighbourhoods.  Becoming a Community Crime Fighter not only fits in with what I personally believe in within my private life and the community that I live in, it also fits into my professional life by giving me the flexibility to be able to commit a lot of time and effort into the aims and objectives of Community Crime Fighters. I have many contacts within the communities both local and nationally enabling me to share best practice to a large network of people”.

Priorities for the group include:-

► Tackling Anti Social Behavior – ensuring that Liverpool residents are aware of the new minimum standards set by the City Council and know what work is being done by the Police and Local Authority to tackle ASB. Work in this area will also include ensuring Registered Social Landlords are fully using the civil powers available to them to tackle anti-social behaviour.

► Support for Victims and Witnesses – the group will work with the Liverpool Victims Champion to ensure that the necessary support is being provided to victims and witnesses. It will particularly focus on support available to those residents who take a take a stand against anti-social behaviour..

► Community Payback –. The group will help raise awareness of the Community Payback scheme led by Merseyside Probation Trust to ensure that local people are given a say in how offenders pay payback for crimes committed in their area.

► Sentencing Outcomes - work on ‘visible’ justice will continue where the group will work with agencies such as Merseyside Police and the HM Court Services to send out regular information out on sentencing decisions. The group will focus on offenders sentenced for crimes that are a priority for that community.

There are 200 Community Crime Fighters in Liverpool. The scheme provides these active members of the public with training and information to help them better engage and work with services to tackle crime in their neighbourhood. They also help disseminate information to others in the community.

The scheme does not confer additional status, any formal role or authority on those who participate but recognises, that those who help their area and play their role in tackling crime deserve encouragement and support and so they can be successful as possible in acting for their communities.