Gail ready for election fight

After 18 months of uncertainty, the Prime Minister has finally called a General Election.
Here in North East Somerset, the Liberal Democrats have re-selected well respected political activist Gail Coleshill to contest the election, which will be fought under brand new parliamentary boundaries.

Gail, who has worked for ten years on community projects and initiatives in the area, said:

“A lot has changed here since the last General Election. Not just do we have new boundaries, but our Labour MP has become even more unpopular and the Conservatives have selected a candidate who has no track record of doing anything in our area.
I’m 100% ready for the election contest and hope the people of North East Somerset will elect me as their new MP.”

The new constituency, previously known as Wansdyke, will be losing the Bitton, Oldland Common area to the north of Keynsham – which has had a Labour MP for the last 13years.
New additions to the constituency include Batheaston, Bathampton, South Stoke and Freshford (a total area of around 7,000 voters) – which have all been served by the Lib Dem MP Don Foster for the last 18 years.

Today, Gail Coleshill has published her four pledges for election to Parliament:

1. Economy: I’ll work with Vince Cable to help working families by raising the individual tax free allowance to £10,000. We’ll cut out tax loopholes for the rich and reduce income tax by taxing pollution.
2. Environment:
· I will continue to campaign to protect the environment, particularly against plans to build thousands of houses on the greenbelt.
· We do need more low cost housing, so I want to bring empty homes back into use for affordable housing and increase the energy efficiency of all houses to save money and keep homes warmer.
· I’ll work with other Lib Dem MPs to push for planning decisions to be taken away from central government and decided locally.
· I would like to make buses and trains affordable and reliable so that people have a real choice on how to travel. Re-open railway lines and stations such as Bathampton, Saltford and Radstock to Bristol.
· I support the local Lib Dems plans’ to give all young people free bus passes so they have better access to services.

3. Education: I plan to give teachers more time in the classroom by cutting administration. Raise standards in every school with a pupil premium for every child. Reduce and eventually eliminate university tuition fees.
4. Democratic Reform: The expenses scandal in parliament has put people off politics. I want to change this by using local groups to bring democracy closer to the people, to give people the freedom to sack their MP, and introduce a fairer voting system where every vote counts.

Gail believes the contest locally is wide open:

“Our canvass results are looking very good, with Labour finishing in third place. Every week I am meeting new people on the doorstep, and they’re telling me they want a change from the old-style politics and break from the two older parties.

As we get closer to polling day, election fever is sure to heat up in North East Somerset.”

To watch Gail’s General Election Campaign video visit http://www.nes-libdems.org.uk/

Village Phone Boxes Under Threat Again

Under threat: Cllr Neil Butters, Lib Dem Parliamentary Candidate Gail Coleshill, and residents in Monkton Combe next to the threatened village phone box.


Telephone boxes in 6 villages just outside Bath are once again under threat of removal by BT. Notices have been posted in the traditional, red boxes offering local communities the opportunity to ‘adopt’ the boxes without the telephone service so as to preserve them as a heritage feature. However if the box is adopted, the telephone service will be withdrawn. And if it is not adopted, they will press for closure anyway.

At a meeting of Monkton Combe Parish Council on 25th August 2009 several Parish Councillors expressed concerns about the move and pointed to the facts that there are 400 young people in the village, and that mobile phone coverage is in effect restricted to Vodaphone.

Councillor Neil Butters (Liberal Democrat, Bathavon South) said:

“Six out of seven telephone boxes in this area are now under threat – another local service at risk. This follows BT’s threatened removal of the service in Midford and Shoscombe last year which residents successfully saw off.

“I believe that there is a good case for retaining the telephone service to these kiosks given the poor mobile phone signal in the area and the fact that not everyone has access to a mobile phone. The geographical separation of the villages also means the service can be vital in an emergency situation.”

Lib Dems plea to Council “Leave the mobile library service alone”

News that the mobile library service is proposed for cuts in the very rural areas has caused consternation to villagers who rely on the library van’s regular visits.

Gail Coleshill, Parliamentary spokesperson, representing views from villages like Combe Hay, Priston and Wellow, said:

“I cannot believe that the Council is proposing to take away the mobile library from villages where it is already difficult to explain what they get for their council tax.

Surely rather than a consultation on cuts to the service we should be consulting on how to get more residents interested in using the mobile service and what they want and need from such a service.”

Local Lib Dem Louise Bray is very concerned that it will be young mums and the elderly who will suffer. She said:

“However short, the visit from the library in villages like Combe Hay and Priston is very important for people with young children and the elderly who cannot easily get to places like Timsbury or the main libraries.”

Cllr Neil Butters, Bathavon South ward, is annoyed that this is a cut too far.
He said:

“I am trying hard to get better transport for villages in my ward to save trips by car and then the Council Cabinet seems to do nothing but make it more and more necessary to make car journeys. Villagers in places like Wellow are fed up with being sidelined by the Council.

Creating sustainable communities will increasingly mean getting services to people and communities and not asking them to make lots of individual journeys to centralised locations.”

Gail and Louise will be attending the Overview and Scrutiny Panel (Stronger Communities), at the Guildhall on Thursday 23at 10am to represent the views of people who want to keep the mobile library service. Cllr Neil Butters would be pleased to hear views from any residents.

The B3110 - "It's like going from hell to heaven"

Last week, local Councillor Neil Butters met with Elizabeth James and Lib Dem Parliamentary Spokesperson Gail Coleshill on the BANES border with Somerset County Council.

The B1330 is a great example if how Tory-run BANES have lacked any investment in road infrustructure over the last two years. Click here to watch the video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hww-0YtlbCU

Community Compost Club celebrates sieve

The Community Composting Club in Wellow has taken delivery of a giant sieve for removing sticks, large lumps and aerating the compost (thereby removing the need to shred before the material goes in), which has been paid for using the new “Ward Councillor Initiative Fund” from B&NES Council.

The Composting Club built three giant compost bins in the centre of Wellow for residents’ use. The volunteers running the Club hope to allow recycling to happen locally – avoiding bonfires and unnecessary car journeys – and to create a communal resource in the form of homemade compost out of a ‘waste product’.

Local Councillor Neil Butters was one of the first recipients of the “Ward Councillor Initiative Fund” from B&NES Council. This fund allocates £4,000 for each Councillor to be spent on projects in his or her ward.

The rest of the money was spent on replacing children’s play area fencing at Hinton Charterhouse, and helping create a Pre-School in Freshford. Joanne MacInnes from the Community Composting Club commented:

“The grant from our councillor has thrown us a life line and ensured that we have a safety net with which to confidently carry on. We have insurance costs and planning fees next year and equipment costs, such as our new and wonderful sieve, tool sheds etc and all of this is made possible by the money we were given by the Council. Unlike other sites in other Counties we do not get waste credits back from waste we divert from landfill, so we must rely on grants instead”

Councillor Neil Butters (Lib Dem, Bathavon South), added:

“I was delighted to help such an imaginative project – the first such in the whole of Bath & North East Somerset. It is a show-piece, which has won over many locally who were at first sceptical.”