A handful of things you might not have read in today's papers about yesterday's Autumn Statement - 1) That from next April, most people will be paying nearly £600 a year less in Income Tax than they were under Labour. That's thanks to the Liberal Democrats !
During the very cold winter of 2010-11, Chesterfield Borough Council, then under a Liberal Democrat administration conducted a Grit Bin review. This had been extensive taking nearly a year to complete.
The refurbishment of the famous Chesterfield Market Hall was, inevitably, going to cause some upset - both to traders and to visitors. However, if the local Council pulls out the stops to mitigate the problem then affected traders and members of the general public will understand.
A very long and sometimes heated debate took place at a recent Chesterfield Borough Council meeting concerning the new Government's policy of a 10% cut to Council Tax grant across the country. Chesterfield Liberal Democrats put forward what we said was an obvious way to boost the council's budget and so go a good way to balancing the expected 10% loss resulting from the government's austerity measures.
At a national level, we still await a proposed solution from the Labour Party reagrding to the country's £158bn debt which they left to the succeeding government as they left office in 2010; especially when, from 2005 onwards Chesterfield Borough Council had to suffer savings of 3% per year, (which occasionally did hit £300,000), and the closure of at least 14 post offices. And yet Labour continued to spend until they left office and had the temerity to joke about it when a note was left by the outgoing Chief Secretary to Treasury, "Good Luck, there's no money left!"
On the problematic side, County Coucillor Keith Morgan has been engaged with the County on potholes and re-surfacing following the severe winter 2011/12 on Moorland View and Greenways; flood damage to tarmac surrounding at least two manhole covers has required serious correction and more enquiries than usual have been received concerning trees and both public and private land, their removal and root damage to pavements now that the trees are getting much older.
