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Thursday, May 31, 2007 Alleygating Progress - Anfield and Clubmoor Locations at Empress Road ,Lampeter Road, Preston Grove, Denton Grove, Thurnham Street have been successfully alleygated. However police and council officers are concerned at incidents of vandalism to gates Further alleygates are scheduled for Larkhill Place/Larkhill Shops and Agar Road ,Clubmoor after lobbying by the Liberal Party in consultation with local residents author: Steve | 05/31/07 03:26 | comments Tuesday, May 29, 2007 Steve Radford supports Lawrence Westgraph in Pathfnder Debate Cllr Steve Radford Dear Editor May I as a member of the Housing Committee totally endorse the comments made by Lawrence Westgraph Furthermore the response of the leading Social Landlords shows the distortions made by the very vested interests he was seeking to expose. In Anfield the clearance areas will result in a lower population by 40% after new housing built. As an immediate result local schools are being merged to reflect collapse in junior school population In the case of the Welsh Streets the original council survey showing a marginal majority against demolition, this was ignored in favour of listening to a bussed in protest To use the Welsh Street case further,. it is the very anti-social landlords of the Housing Associations who own 67% of the stock which is to be demolished. In most areas the Social Landlords are the very people who are knowingly running down their stock and generating the conditions for blight. The fact is, depending which zone is in question, between three and a half times and two and a half times more tax payers money is being ploughed into purchase, compulsory purchase and demolition than into renovation. The Housing Associations and Council are causing market failure by emptying out streets, blighting neighbourhoods and refusing to put empty homes up for sale. Where we have forced the Council and Housing associations to put long term vacants up for sale in Tuebrook, Stoneycroft , Anfield and Clubmoor there whas been no shortage of buyers. Renovation ,without burdening the tax payer for hundreds of millions is preferable to the obscene waste of Merseyside Pathfinder Cllr Steve Radford author: Steve | 05/29/07 17:12 | comments Sunday, May 27, 2007 MP's Abuse of Powers and our Taxes Cllr Steve Radford For Publication Dear Editor, One of the most alarming things about MPs voting to exclude themselves from the Freedom of Information Act so that their expenses remain secret is that only 120 MPs actually voted out of a total of 646. That means that 526 MPs chose to ignore the wishes of their constituents. Is this the listening Government we were told about? When it comes to deciding on their own salaries, gold-plated pensions and generous allowances then the majority of MP's have brought themselves into utter disrepute This is a clear abuse of power and tax payers money, if we councilors behaved like this we would be struck out of office Cllr Steve Radford author: Steve | 05/27/07 21:11 | comments Friday, May 25, 2007
author: Steve | 05/25/07 19:19 | comments Freedom of Information being eroded Cllr Steve Radford 07920090322 Dear Editor I am appalled at the way this government is undermining essential features of a free society We have this government rolling back Freedom of Information legislation. It makes my spine shudder when I read Trade and Industry Minister Alistair Darling writing to the Lord Chancellor stating that the Freedom of Information Act was jeopardising good governance as officials feared their advice to ministers could be made public. Why not! Well its us the public who pay their wages, its we who they should be governing in the interests of. So lets have open government, not closed government as New Labour is taking us back to Cllr Steve Radford author: Steve | 05/25/07 09:00 | comments Thursday, May 24, 2007 Liberals Take Scrutiny Roles whilst Labour run away Cllrs Steve Radford Leader Liberal Party Group 41 Sutton Street Tuebrook Liverpool L13 7EG 07920090322 For Publication Dear Editor It is normal for the leading opposition party to be given the opportunity to take the chair of one or more Scrutiny Committees of the City Council. It is certainly government advise that scrutiny committees are a key function for councillors and in particular opposition councillors should be given the chance to chair these committees. This year The Labour Party refused to take the chair of one or more committees, just as they had failed to put forward an alternative council budget As a consequence The Liberal Party were asked to fulfil this important role I am delighted my colleague Councillor Hazel Williams will be the Deputy Chair of the Health and Adult Care Committee in addition to myself being Chairman of the Environment Committee As genuine Liberals we believe that the role of any opposition party is to scrutinise the administration and offer alternative policies. We, unlike Labour, will not walk away from these responsibilities Cllr Steve Radford Leader Liberal Party Group
author: Steve | 05/24/07 15:05 | comments Monday, May 21, 2007 Battle to Save Bankfield Playing Fields and Lister Drive and Larkhill Libraries Cllrs Steve Radford, Hazel Williams and Chris Lenton, Dear Editor During the local elections the Tuebrook Labour Party pledged to fight closure of Lister Drive and Larkhill Libraries and building on Bankfield Playing Fields. However only a fortnight later at the Special Area Committee we asked residents to indicate their opposition to the application to build on Bankfield and the consequential closure of Lister Drive and Larkhill libraries No wonder nobody trusts Labour , their pledge to fight building on our playing fields was as phoney as the weapons of mass destruction in Iraq The key decision has yet to be called for a hearing at the Planning Committee and we will urge all residents to write in against these plans and if possible top attend. We hope by then even the local Labour Party would show some integrity and turn up to oppose the loss of Bankfield Playing fields Cllrs Steve Radford, Hazel Williams and Chris Lenton author: Steve | 05/21/07 18:57 | comments Open Letter Concerning U Turns of Cllr Anderson and Labour Group Cllr Steve Radford Dear Editor Last week Cllr Joe Anderson was reported going to force a fresh election in the Croxteth Ward This week Cllr Anderson isn't going to force a by-election(Letters page Daily Post 21 May) This week Cllr Anderson says its outrageous Labour opponents suggest they wanted to get rid of the weekly bin collection The fact is that Cllr Nick Small did write in the Daily Post as Labour Enviroment Spokesperson advocating fortnightly bin collections The Fact is Cllr Nick Small did table a council resolution, at the last council before the local elections, advocating fortnightly bin collections The only outrageous thing about the whole affair is that by withdrawing their council resoluton, at the last minute, Labour would have us believe they never made the proposal inb the first place If Cllr Anderson was genuinely shocked that his Enviroment Spokesperson had tabled an item against party policy, then why wasn't Clltr Small sacked from Labour's front bench? The girations of Cllr Anderson might explain why this year the Labour vote across the city dropped in percentage share from 38% to 35%.It is only the absurdity of the first past post system that saw the number of Labour seats rise.
author: Steve | 05/21/07 09:24 | comments International day of Protest against Homophobia - 17th May Liverpool Liberal Party Group Leader Steve Radford joined other protesters, including former Stephen Twigg MP , outside the bombed out St Lukes Church on Thursday 17th May as part of the International Day of Protest against hompohobia. Commenting upon the event Cllr Radford said we should never take the progress in the UK as being secure, during the local elections members of the BNP openly spoke of their tolerance of homosexuality "as long as it is behind closed doors" and the dangers of "promoting homosexuality". Cllr Steve Radford hit back "I think members of the BNP must be very sexually insecure ,as if becoming homosexual is something your catch from a glossy ad" What their views show is an entrenched prejudice that should frighten us all, so many gays and lesbians do not consider the real dangers of the far right and their values of hate and prejudice See gay feelin website www.gayliverpool.net/idaho.html author: Steve | 05/21/07 02:35 | comments Walton Clubmoor Rec Village Green Battle On Friday 18th Cllr Steve Radford summoned up for the applicants led by Georgina Boardman and the other witnesses and supporters of the Caucus Residents Association. 5 other local residents commitee members also spoke for the application The city council argued that the Rec was controlled and maintained by the city and as residents had a statute right of use therefore there was no " as of right" usage Cllr Steve Radford submitted that the grounds were open common land prior to council purchase in 1902 ( A Liberal Party Government) drawing on historical documents and questioned if the additional statutory rights could take away hstoric rights He pointed the purchase price in 1902 included monies set aside for draining the ground and also for fencing. Cllr Steve Radford suggested historic maps showed the land open on three sides, a small section on the south side being fenced of for Everton Football Club He argued that the council had consistently and negligently failed to uphold the 1993 Pleasure Grounds and Open Spaces by -laws and therefore they had abandoned their stautory rights and obligations. He gave a humiliating account of council officers having to jump out of the way of ilegal cars speeding onto the rec. Despite a catalogue of abuse, the councils witnesses could not point to a single meeting with security force or a single known conviction for abuse of the rec, he said the prohibition on vehicles had been flagrantly ignored. The Residents suggested that if the council had alowed anti -social behaviour in breach of the by-laws then in fact the residents were in effect in use as of right
The inspector will be expected to make his recommendations known to the council within the next month author: Steve | 05/21/07 01:42 | comments Wednesday, May 16, 2007 Newsham Park Tour by Scrutiny Panel and Liberal Councillors The councils scrutiny Panel did a tour of Newsham Park, the wards three Liberal Party Councillors reiterated our call for: Foresting the water logged area which runs along the railing embankment on the Fairfield side of the park Placing street lighting along the central pathway between Tuebrook and Fairfield Building an additional play area on the Newsham Drive side of the park Placing sports equipment around the park ,that has proven so popular in Norris Green Park Create a dog run around area with chemically treated toilet to keep rest of park dog free Consider grassing over Gardeners Drive between the new school and the current play area ,to reduce traffic misusing the park Lastly give need to develop Prescot Drive and Orphan Drive Hospital site as potential site for hundreds of homes overlooking the Park, adding to security These recommendations will now go to the main scrutiny panel and Exec Member, Cllr Turner, who we have lobbied author: Steve | 05/16/07 12:53 | comments Cllr Steve Radford Dear Editor For Publication Dear Editor Housing Minister , Yvette Cooper, is reported in Inside Housing magazine (11th May 2007) that councils should ramp up house building., she is quoted as saying "No one wants to return to building the monolithic council estates of the past. But it is time for local councils to play a stronger role with housing associations and developers to build mixed communities for the future" We could not disagree with this objective, however it calls into question the current pathfinder programmes who are spending hundreds of millions of pounds destroying mixed communities of affordable terraced housing. In Liverpool alone, 4,000 terraced homes are threatened with imminent demolition, removing whole communities of working class terraced homes, many of whose residents are owner occupiers, to be replaced with yuppie flats. During the transition local businesses are closing as customers are driven away by the blighting of their communities and even local schools closed. This is not increasing the supply, but reducing the supply of affordable homes. If Yvette Cooper is serious about wanting to turn around the shortage of affordable homes, she should ,make a start right now by halting the wasteful demolitions in Liverpool and so many of our other northern cities
author: Steve | 05/16/07 12:43 | comments Saturday, May 12, 2007 The City Wide Voting Figures show that despite the hype about the Tory Party, in both terms of Seats it is The Liberal Party which remains the clear third Party in the City.Its ironical the Tory Party would only break through if we had PR ,a system they oppose. There is not even one seat where their vote is within striling distance In Tuebrook and Stoneycroft a bitchy campaign by the Labour Party resulted in our vote rising by 200 and the Labour Vote dropping by hundred or so In Clubmoor our vote rose by 200 or so whilst Labour lost ground by 80. We will continue to make strides until this seat is regained for The Liberal Cause. In Anfield thanks go to Dennis for standing in with a short campaign. Over in Picton Griff Parry polled well despite a Lib Dem misinformation campaign over who actually was fighting the demolitions
Candidate |
Party |
Votes |
% |
|  Councillor Sharon SullivanLabour Party |
713 |
50.21% |
Elected |
 Gary MillarLiberal Democrat Party |
432 |
30.42% |
Not elected |
 Robert SmithGreen Party |
125 |
8.80% |
Not elected |
 Mark Andrew CotterellConservative Party |
120 |
8.45% |
Not elected |
 Lisa GaskellLiberal Party |
30 |
2.11% |
Not elected |
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British National Party
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