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F4 Public Services Campaign

09.30 Topical Motion

Chair:

Mallen Baker

Aide:

Cllr Iain Smith

F4 Public Services Campaign

Submitted by:

Sutton, 20 Conference Representatives

Mover:

Paul Burstow MP (Team Leader, Local Government)

Summation:

Don Foster MP (Team Leader, Education and Employment)

Conference believes that local public services are best delivered and managed by democratically accountable local authorities.

Conference welcomes the Government's decision to sign the European Declaration of Local Self-Government and calls on the Government to:

a) Introduce STV for local government elections.

b) Legislate for a power of local competence.

c) Reform local government funding by removing capping, replacing the Uniform Business Rate with a locally set Site Value Rate and replacing the Council Tax with Local Income Tax.

Conference believes that public services have been underfunded and undermined by 18 years of Conservative rule and that the Labour Government, by signing up to Tory spending plans, is simply delivering Tory spending cuts.

Conference calls on all Liberal Democrats to continue to campaign for a Fair Deal for local public services by highlighting the Government's failure to:

1. Meet the challenge of reversing years of under-investment in education which has left schools with inadequate equipment, insufficient books and demoralised staff and pupils working in decaying and dilapidated buildings.
2. Recognise the important role that social services play in supporting families, protecting children, caring for older people and meeting the needs of people with mental health problems.
3. Live up to its own pro-local government rhetoric when in opposition.

Mover of motion: 7 minutes; other speakers: 4 minutes.

Speakers

Paul Bustow MP - Speech

Gary Malcom - Preston

Andrew Hudson - Walthamstow

Yvonne Emmerson-Pierce - Salisbury

Cllr Marcelle Llyod-Hayes - Herefordshire

Cllr Kevin Daws - Hackney

Cllr David Williams - Twickenham and Richmond

Cllr Chris Clarke - Wells

Jill Allen-King - Southend West

Don Foster MP

Vote

Motion - Carried Nem Con

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