A FAIRER, CLEANER GREENER DERBY - DERBY LIBERAL DEMOCRATS DERBY LIBERAL DEMOCRATS

DERBY LIBERAL DEMOCRATS

          DERBY
  ACTION ON CLIMATE CHANGE:
LIBERAL DEMOCRATS
  POLICIES HERE

A FAIRER, CLEANER
 GREENER DERBY
    Derby City Council election manifesto 2021

       A FAIRER, CLEANER, GREENER DERBY

DERBY LIBERAL DEMOCRATS

FOREWORD:
Councillor Ruth Skelton - Group leader, Derby City Council

This year’s elections are the ones postponed from May 2020
which couldn’t take place due to the COVID 19 outbreak and
lockdown. The past year has been like no other. The loss of life
on such a scale was not inevitable and should be a source of
shame to the Government.

The problems and issues that were present before the pandemic
are still there. Some of them have got worse such as poverty and
child hunger and mental health and well-being.

Another urgent challenge is the Climate Emergency. Derby
Liberal Democrat councillors have been demanding action on
this way before the Council declared a Climate Emergency in
May 2019. An Action Plan should have been developed by the
end of 2019, but this didn’t happen. In January 2020 Lib Dem
councillors successfully put forward a motion to get specific
actions and a timescale for work the Council should be doing to
combat climate change. The Conservative Council Cabinet
should have presented these plans last May, but this still hasn’t
been done.

We need to start seeing some real action now. Not only from the
Council, but also from other public sector organisations and
businesses. We need major investment in housing, transport and
other infrastructure.

Local Liberal Democrats have been working hard all year round,
to serve their communities and Derby. Lib Dems in Derby have
been sewing PPE, providing meals to school children, delivering
food, prescriptions and other essentials to residents who are self
isolating and more.

Every Liberal Democrat Councillor you elect this May will work
flat out to serve you, your area and our city. I hope you will put
your trust in us as we rebuild from the pandemic.

Ruth Skelton

      A FAIRER, CLEANER, GREENER DERBY

DERBY LIBERAL DEMOCRATS

ACTION ON CLIMATE CHANGE:

�    Develop plans so that Derby delivers at least its share of
carbon reduction to address the Climate Emergency. We will
work with interested groups, across all sectors; learning from
what other cities have achieved. The aim is to decarbonise and
mitigate the effects of climate change.

�    Proactively seek out external funding to help finance work
to reduce Derby’s carbon emissions.

�    Increase the proportion of household waste that is sent for
recycling to at least the UK average. Explore opportunities to
develop industry to reuse some of the waste materials locally.

�    Retain the free brown bin service for garden and food
waste, encouraging take up especially until kerbside collection of
kitchen waste can be provided.

�   Make sure that flats dwellers have access to blue and
brown bin services, and that capacities of bins are appropriate.

      A FAIRER, CLEANER, GREENER DERBY

DERBY LIBERAL DEMOCRATS

STREET SCENE AND
COMMUNITIES :
�    Make sure the Council gets better at dealing with fly-tipping
through education and enforcement.

�    Make sure wheelie bins don’t clutter the pavements.

�    Prioritise building more council housing via Derby Homes
and ensuring that good quality affordable homes are available in
Derby.

�     Continue to work with the local voluntary sector and others
to tackle homelessness and its root causes.

�   Improve partnership working with the Police and other
organisations in order to reduce crime levels.

      A FAIRER, CLEANER, GREENER DERBY

DERBY LIBERAL DEMOCRATS

ROADS AND TRANSPORT:

�    Review the speed limit on roads across the city to increase
the number of 20mph zones and ensure that limits over 30mph
are still appropriate.

�     Work with bus companies to improve services and the way
they link in with each other to form a network.

�   Lobby Highways England to make the A38 Junction scheme
compliant with the court decision of 18th March 2021.

�   Continue to campaign for the electrification of the Midland
Mainline.

     A FAIRER, CLEANER, GREENER DERBY

DERBY LIBERAL DEMOCRATS

CHILDRENS SERVICES:

�    Support schools to deliver the best education for all pupils,
in order to improve achievement levels.

�    Working with families of SEND children to provide fair,
effective support and early identification of needs.

�    Improve the accuracy of Education, Health and Care Plans.

�    Lobby the Government to reverse cuts to school funding
and end the crisis in Special Educational Needs.

�    Expand special educational needs provision to ensure we
are meeting the needs of the local area.

�    Lobby the Government to provide the support and funding
necessary to ensure our children and young people’s mental
health and well-being are at the forefront of the city’s recovery.

      A FAIRER, CLEANER, GREENER DERBY

DERBY LIBERAL DEMOCRATS

SOCIAL CARE:

�    Continue to campaign for better mental health services for
children, young people and adults

�   Work in partnership with the NHS and voluntary sector to
improve social care.

�    Keep up the pressure on the Government to honour its
promise to work cross-party to develop a new system to properly
fund adult social care.

�    Develop more extra care housing in the city.

     A FAIRER, CLEANER, GREENER DERBY

DERBY LIBERAL DEMOCRATS

ACCOUNTABLE DEMOCRACY:

�     Make the City Council more accountable to people by
changing to the committee system. We’ve already launched a
petition under the Localism Act 2011 to get a local referendum
on the issue.

�    We remain committed to electing councillors by thirds until
a proportional electoral system is available for council elections
in England, as is already the case in Scotland.

�     Oppose the Tories’ proposals for changing the local
planning system. It will replace case-by-case assessments of
individual applications with a zoning system (10-year plans).
People’s right to comment on individual applications will be
much reduced.

�    Allocate funding across the city in a fair and transparent
way, making sure it is spent on residents’ priorities.

�   Continue giving Neighbourhood Boards/Forums an annual
budget of £10,000.

      A FAIRER, CLEANER, GREENER DERBY

DERBY LIBERAL DEMOCRATS

BUILDING BACK BETTER:

�    Work with Derby businesses to help them recover and
grow, doing what we can to mitigate the negative effects of the
Tories’ damaging hard Brexit deal.

�     Encourage revitalisation of the city centre through
diversification. eg promote the use of empty office space above
retail premises for conversion into flats.

�     Support action to tackle poverty in all its forms across the
city.

�    Support the work of foodbanks and strengthen action to
tackle the underlying causes of child hunger.

�    Reinstate the position of the Osnabrück Envoy in Derby.
Strengthening existing international ties will help Derby
economically, educationally and culturally.

�     Establish a Covid memorial in the city centre to remember
all the people we have lost, and to thank those who have worked
throughout the pandemic in the NHS, social care and in other
key sectors.

      A FAIRER, CLEANER, GREENER DERBY

DERBY LIBERAL DEMOCRATS

LEISURE AND CULTURE:

�    Manage parks and public open spaces not only for
recreation but also to enhance biodiversity.

�    Continue to support Friends of Parks groups across the city.

�    Review the decision to close Allestree Park Golf Course,
taking into account all the relevant facts.

�    Consult with people to develop a locally-driven vision that
can deliver the entertainment, sports and leisure facilities that
people actually want and will use.

�    Identify a suitable future use for the Assembly Rooms site.

�    Ensure Derby retains successful libraries across the city.

                                                          (Pre-Covid photo)

      A FAIRER, CLEANER, GREENER DERBY

FAIRER
  CLEANER
  GREENER
         DERBY
   LIBERAL DEMOCRATS
                                                 2021

Published and promoted by D. Lind on behalf of Derby Liberal Democrats, all at 24a Great Northern Road, Derby DE1 1LR.