Canterbury & Whitstable Liberal Democrats

Shirley Williams in Canterbury 6th May 2012

Lib Dem Parliamentary Spokesperson, James Flanagan, has written to the Transport Minister asking for Network Rail's tree felling programme in Whitstable to be stopped.

Baroness Shirley Williams visited Canterbury at the weekend, and during her visit paid tribute to local Liberal Democrat city councillor Michael Dixey who has served 25 years on the City Council. Cllr Dixey, who represents Harbledown ward, was first elected on May 7th 1987 and has been the local councillor for the area ever since.

At a time when Canterbury City Council is consulting on future housing development across the district, Mike Sole, Liberal Democrat County spokesman for Canterbury South, is urging Parish Councils to be bold and go green.

Mike who lives in Bridge said "The Localism Bill gives to Parish Councils, should they wish to do so, the power to prepare neighbourhood plans. Such a step is not to be taken lightly as it will require a significant amount of time and resources to prepare a plan that effectively takes future planning and development away from the City Council and into the hands of the Parish."

Some parish councils such a Bridge, where the City Council would like to see hundreds of new homes, have already started the early stages of a development plan. Mike said, "Parish Councils may not be able to stop large developments but with a neighbourhood plan they can decide where and when houses can be built and what additional community services are required. The latest buzz word is sustainability. This can mean many things but I am urging Parish Councils throughout the district to be bold and put the environment at the heart of all future development."

Mike Sole would like Parishes to adopt Green Neighbourhood plans where every house has solar panels and water saving technology installed at the construction stage as a condition of planning consent. "This is an opportunity for Parish Councils to shape a future for the future. Solar powered street lights, cycle lanes, wind turbines, traffic reduction schemes and so on, all with sympathetic design using sustainable, locally sourced materials." added Mike Sole.

Thank you for your support for the Save Kingsmead Field Campaign. We would really appreciate your help with the E-Petition as this will be the next big push.

E-PETITION

An E-Petition has been submitted by local resident, Cath Smith, and currently has 170 signatures. If 1500 people sign the E-Petition before 25 May, then the Council will be obliged to refer its decision on Kingsmead to an Overview and Scrutiny Committee. This would be extremely valuable as there are many aspects of the Kingsmead Decision which are not in conformity with Council policies or with new national planning guidance.

Dear Sir

I should like to thank The Gazette for the coverage of my recent campaign to clear the A2 of litter. I have been amazed at the very positive response from readers who have expressed their similar concerns through The Gazette letters page and through letters, emails, phone calls and conversations in the street with me.

Individuals and organisations have all been in touch sharing their thoughts.

The message coming through loud and clear is that Canterbury District residents care about their area, and when opportunities arise they will get involved to make a difference.

I am delighted that the City Council quickly arranged for its contractors to tidy up the A2, but I do have to question why it was allowed to get into that state in the first place. The slip roads and B roads are still a major issue and there are other examples of litter being dumped rather than properly disposed of. Just last week I came across a salt bin in Merton Lane filled up with bottles and cans.

Those who litter should be found out and penalised.

We live in a beautiful part of the country - a vibrant city and amazing countryside. Let's all work together to keep it that way.

Mike Sole

Dear Sir

If there is one thing that Canterbury doesn't lack it is venues serving alcohol, often late at night. However what we do lack are a good variety of family entertainment venues.

Wincheap Cllr Alex Perkins has made a very sensible suggestion to how licensing at the Printing House, Simmonds Road should be dealt with. By granting a licence to 11pm and perhaps just occassional event licences beyond that time we can hopefully get a new facility for the area without causing late night disruption to local residents.

If the building owners really claim that they want to stay open until 1:30am four nights a week to offer the venue for wedding receptions then Wincheap must be the romance capital of the world!

Mike Sole

When the Liberal Democrats were running the City Council we made helping local communities a priority.

I was a founder member of the Northgate Ward Development Group and we LibDems were able to set up the Northgate Community Centre. In Thanington, our councillors worked with local people, we got the money to build the Neighbourhood Centre and helped set up a flourishing community association. And we didn't just concentrate on areas in town: we also established a scheme to help villages run youth clubs.

Dear Sir

Once again on Saturday I found myself trying to explain in my very poor French how to pay for parking in a Canterbury car park.

It is unbelievable that when the city is trying to attract tourists from Europe and beyond it doesn't have instructions in car parks in any language other than English.

As I stood in Castle Street car park trying to help this French family it quickly became clear that the machine that we were trying to use was out of order. The second machine accepted coins but the credit card facility was not working. Having no cash myself, and only a few weeks ago being penalised for leaving my car to go for change, I resorted to using the phone systead promoted on the machine to pay for parking. After several minutes of speaking to a machine, paying extra for the privilege of paying this way, and refusing the various options of receiving and paying for reminder text messages I final paid for parking.

The frenchman and his family, unable to understand the English only phone system shrugged his shoulders and walked away with his family without paying.

If the city council want residents and visitors alike to pay for car parking it needs to be made as easy as possible.

Mike Sole