Cllr Stewart Golton

Leeds City Council has today selected its preferred bidder to build an incinerator in East Leeds.
Veolia will build a plant capable of processing 183,000 tonnes of waste a year on the old markets site at Cross Green. The council’s Exec Board will be asked to formally appoint Veolia as the council’s partner in the project when it meets in November.
The Council began its search for a firm to provide a solution for disposing of its waste in 2006, as landfill taxes were set to cost the Council more to handle its waste. It became clear that the best value bidders all included ‘Energy from Waste’ in their solutions, and the Council whittled down considered sites for the new plant to just two in the Aire Valley to the east of the city.

Liberal Democrat group leader Cllr Stewart Golton (Rothwell), expressed surprise at the decision given the ruling administration’s policy of opposition to incineration on any site in Leeds. He claimed the decision was a u-turn.

Cllr Stewart Golton said:
‘Labour candidates campaigned over several years against building an incinerator in the Aire Valley. Since taking power 18 months ago, the Labour Party have been very quiet on their waste policy. I assumed they were working hard on an alternative. Imagine my surprise that their alternative to an incinerator is…an incinerator!’
‘The Labour leader Keith Wakefield promised a local referendum on Incineration in 2008, and Labour candidates now elected in Burmantofts, Temple Newsam and Rothwell told local residents a vote for them was a vote against incineration. Although there was a lot of talk about potential dangerous emissions, I have been informed that no extra safety specifications have been asked for since the project passed to the new Labour administration, so I assume those concerns have now evaporated.’

The Liberal Democrats believe that circumstances have changed so significantly, that the Council should step back and reconsider whether its first priority should be to build an incinerator of its own.

‘People tell us that they want to recycle as much as possible. The collection of food waste is a roaring success in Rothwell, and if spread to the rest of the city could make significant improvements to our recycling performance.’

At the same time the commercial operator, Biffa has plans to build their own Energy from Waste’ facility in the Aire Valley. Although intended to cater for commercial waste, they have already stated that they have the capacity to handle the city’s domestic waste. Questions are being asked whether a second incinerator is therefore even necessary.

Deputy Prime Minister addresses the Party Conference in Birmingham. You can read the full text of the speech here.

Thousands of Liberal Democrats gathered for their annual conference in Birmingham this week. They discussed what has been achieved in the first 500 days of Government and policies for the future. Highlights include:

• After decades of campaigning, and thanks to Lynne Featherstone: Equal marriage, straight or gay.
• More power for consumers over the energy companies
• Calling time on rewards for failure in boardrooms
• New powers to turn empty homes back into family homes.
• A £500m investment in growth.

The Lib Dems are opposing calls for an immediate cut in the 50% tax rate paid by higher rate taxpayers.

Nick Clegg’s party instead wants to give more help to those on middle and low incomes who need it the most.

NIck Clegg: We need fairer taxes to help ordinary people, not tax cuts for the richest

Lib Dem Chief Secretary to the Treasury Danny Alexander said, “At a time when the whole country faces serious financial challenges, the priority needs to be people on low and middle incomes.”

A key part of the coalition agreement was the Lib Dem commitment to making taxes fairer. The Lib Dems are well on their way to delivering on their pledge that no one should pay tax on the first £10,000 they earn.

Nearly a million low paid workers are no longer paying income tax thanks to this. All basic rate tax payers are paying £200 less in income tax.

Each year more and more people on low and middle incomes will gain more thanks to the Lib Dem fairer tax plan.

Danny Alexander said, “Fairer taxes is our goal. I don’t see why, in the next parliament, we shouldn’t be trying to get to a situation where people in a full-time job on the minimum wage are paying no income tax at all.”

This would mean that no one would pay tax on the first £12,500 they earn.

Nick Clegg: NHS reforms must deliver for patients

The Lib Dems are continuing to work in Parliament to ensure NHS reforms deliver a better deal for patients.

Nick Clegg’s party won major changes to the reforms earlier this summer.

These included measures to ensure there will be no privatisation of the NHS and no special favours for the private sector.

Nick Clegg said, “With the Lib Dems, the NHS will always be free at the point of use and will deliver top quality treatment for patients. We want to deliver a better NHS that can cope with the increasing demand and rising health costs.”

The NHS reforms will cut waste and bureaucracy that costs billions of pounds. They will help the NHS cope with the costs of Britain’s steadily ageing population and the rising cost of many treatments.

By making the NHS more efficient and by protecting the NHS budget from cuts, more money can be spent on improving care for patients.

NHS faced disaster with Labour
Had Labour won the last election, the NHS would have faced deep spending cuts. That along with Labour’s refusal to tackle waste and inefficiency would have been a disaster for our health services.

Labour rigged the market in favour of the private sector by giving contracts that were unfair for the taxpayer and for patients.

Over £250million of taxpayers’ money was handed over by the last Labour government to private providers for operations they didn’t even perform.

The Liberal Democrats have made sure that this kind of favouritism towards the private sector will now be illegal.