The local dimension - Ensuring fairness and empowering communities

As the General Election gets nearer, people are losing sight of there being local elections as well. This is the first of a series of posts looking at the Liberal Democrat manifesto for South Gloucestershire, and what it means in our area. First of all, what are the issues for local communities?

Despite reduced funding from central government, the local Lib Dems have consistently worked to protect those in greatest need to help create a fairer society. Localism is at the heart of everything we do. We will continue to ensure that important decisions are not simply left to council officers and that residents have a real voice in local decision-making.

We will:

1. Prioritise the protection of services for vulnerable residents and fight for fair access to services for rural residents.
2. Maintain the Council’s commitment to a living wage and continue to lobby the Council’s suppliers and providers to do the same.
3. Empower local communities and residents by ensuring that they have a voice in decision-making through town/parish councils and area forums.
4. Continue to support local voluntary groups through area forum grants.
5. Look at ways of improving the standards of accommodation available for private tenants.

Our record of action...

The local Lib Dems ensured that a proportion of New Homes Bonus money is given to the areas where the new homes have been built, so those that take the pain get the gain.

This is an extract from the Liberal Democrat Vision for South Gloucestershire, our manifesto for the 2015 Local Elections.

Nominate your community hero

There is still time to nominate your community heroes for the Chair's Community Awards, but hurry, the deadline for nominations is Friday 21 March.

The annual awards event celebrates the hard work and dedication of volunteers in the community who display outstanding commitment in giving up their time and effort to help others. Suggestions for nominations include those who have contributed to community development, promoting equality, arts, sports, play, environment, working with older or young people, advice and advocacy or have simply been a good neighbour. From charity fundraisers to local football club managers, sports coaches and arts festival organisers, these awards have seen South Gloucestershire Council honour the dedication and commitment of hundreds of unsung heroes across the district.

You can nominate online. The winners will be invited to a ceremony at the South Gloucestershire & Stroud College WISE campus in Filton on Sunday 18 May.

Nominations open for community awards

Do you know someone whose work in your community deserves to be recognised? If so, you have until 22nd February to nominate them for a South Gloucestershire Chair's Community Awards. You can find out more on the South Glos website.

Yate & Chipping Sodbury Broadcasters Association needs board members

Could YOU become a Board Member for this exciting new venture?

Becoming a board member is one of the most challenging and rewarding volunteer assignments. Yate FM say "We want all of our board members to feel that their commitment of time, skill, and resources is valued and worthwhile"

Yate FM's Mission Statement is
“To reach out to all of the diverse groups in the community to give people a voice, enable talent to develop, provide training opportunities, access to equipment and to nurture a sense of inclusion.”

The project board will contain up to 7 individuals who represent the different interests of the group, including:
• Marketing and communication
• Finance / business management
• Legal / business management
• Networking and community development
• Fundraising / applying for grants
• Website and Design
• Broadcasting

The board, chosen for their skills, experience and knowledge would take responsibility for all financial, managerial and day-to-day business. The legal ownership rests with the board.

To express an interest - or just to find out more about Yate FM - please email admin@yatefm.co.uk.

You can also check out some of Yate Fm's first internet broadcasts here.

Get onto the airwaves with a NEW community radio station

Yate.FM is a new community, semi-automated internet radio station, for Yate and Chipping Sodbury, which will be online 24 hours a day. The station plays a mixture of music with live and pre-recorded shows.

The station is looking for local people, community and voluntary groups and those who work in the area to come forward with ideas for programmes, news, views, issues, events, music, poetry etc.

The next meeting will be next Thursday 27 April at 7.00 pm at Waves night club in Yate Shopping Centre . It will last about an hour and will be your chance to meet the team and find out more about community radio and Yate.FM in particular. You will also find out about the training courses that they will be running.

Yate.FM relies on the work of volunteers, not just on broadcasting but with the many essential behind the scenes tasks. Whilst they won't start broadcasting until later on in 2012, they are now recruiting volunteers to help in the planning and preparation prior to the launch.

If you would like to get involved in any way just come along to the meeting or email yatefm@uwclub.net. Yate FM is also on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/Yate.fm

Yate & Dodington Priority Neighbourhoods - have your say

Parts of South Yate and Dodington have been declared a "Priority Neighbourhood". This means that some of the local statistics show that the area needs some extra help to improve the quality of life for local people and to make the area safer and stronger. It's a way of pointing out to council departments and other agencies that the area needs a more "joined-up" approach.

Community Drop-In sessions will be held next month. They will provide

• A chance to help shape local priorities
• Information about local groups, agencies and the area
• A chance to hear the latest progress on the Yate Community Plan

The sessions are as follows:
Mon 14 Dec 6pm to 8pm at St Nicholas Church Hall, Chargrove
Tue 15 Dec 10am to 12 noon at Yate Parish Hall, Station Rd

Please come along and have your say.

There is more information on Priority Neighbourhoods on the South Glos website.

How to apply for a Diamondtravel Card

We've been asked how to apply for the Diamondtravel Card that we talked about in this earlier article.

All the details are on the South Glos Council website - click here for the Concessionary Travel page.

You can download the form from there as well.

Out and About – For Free!

More than 38,000 people in South Glos now have Diamond Travel Cards, entitling them to a wide range of free travel:

DIAL A RIDE
Monday - Sat until 6.30pm (later on request). Takes you exactly where you want, when you want, as often as you want. Door to door like a taxi. You phone and book your trip – there and back. And you get whatever other help you need - eg carrying your shopping in. All vehicles are disability friendly. Trips are free for Diamond card holders (there’s a £5 membership fee). The scheme now has extra vehicles - to respond to the growing number of people switching to this service. One user commented “It’s so much better than a bus - and so much cheaper than taxis. I go shopping when I like now”. The Social Car Scheme is even more flexible.

Alan Lawrance with one of the new Community Transport buses

GETTING AROUND THE SHOPS - SHOPMOBILITY
Shopmobility loans out scooters & wheelchairs (from Yate Library) to use on the Shopping Centre, Tues & Fri 9.30 to 4.30 and Sat from 9.30 to 1.30. They will collect and return you to your car or bus stop. All free for Diamond Card users.

How do I sign up for all this?

If you're over 60, disabled or medically not allowed to drive...

• Call 864 864 (or email itu@southglos.gov.uk) to claim your Diamond Card (free bus pass)
• Then call 312036 to join Dial a Ride
• Once you have joined, call 312036 to book Dial a Ride or Social Car trips.
• To join Shopmobility or to book a trip call 868178.

To make it easier, we’ll put all the forms here on our blog shortly - or call any member of the Focus Team and we’ll help you sort it out.

CHEAP TRAIN TRAVEL
NEW from this month, you can get cheap train travel too! It gets you a National Rail Card at a discounted price of £16 - and that card gives you one third off rail fares.(and for disabled users a companion gets the discount too) Forms available from http://www.railcard.co.uk/ or from the Focus Team.

BUT WHAT ABOUT TRAVEL TOKENS?
Could the bus tokens come back? The Focus Team went to experts to get it costed. It would cost £2.2million! We’ve looked at the figures and we can’t find a way to reintroduce them within the financial limits imposed on the Council. Nor can Labour. If the Tories can - they should say HOW. Even if they shut libraries on Saturday afternoons, cut funds available to schools, cut bus services and increase charges for home care - that's only £1m. So where’s the rest to come from?

Rather than promising the impossible, the Focus Team’s efforts are going into finding ways to help people who can’t use buses - e.g. funding extra disability friendly vehicles for Dial a Ride.

We read it there first - Steve Webb's blog and the Sustainable Communities Bill

Blogging is a good way of keeping people up to date. Yesterday Steve Webb's blog reported the debate on the Sustainable Communities Bill at least an hour before it was reported on Radio 4.

This Private Member's Bill, which has wide cross-party support, aims to give communities powers to tackle issues like the closure of post offices and independent shops, and threats to build on valued green spaces.

To take one example, between 1999 and 2004 no fewer than 3700 post offices closed - that's one in five. Many closed because the Government took services away and made them uneconomic. Other local post offices closed because the shops they were in were taken over by big supermarket chains that didn't want to run post offices. Now the Government is talking about closing up to another 2500.

But will the Government give this bill parliamentary time, or will they kill it off? (like they did with the recent bill to bring mobile phone masts under normal planning controls) - we'll have to see.

To read more about the Sustainable Communities Bill, click here.