We are the largest party on the District Council and we lead the Progressive Alliance.
Steve Flitter, the Leader of the Liberal Democrats on DDDC said - We are delighted to come together as 3 progressive Parties to offer the residents and businesses of the Derbyshire Dales a new approach to local politics. We know that our District faces many challenges, not least the cost of living crisis, the shortage of affordable housing for our young families and the threat to our environment from new developments and pollution.
Working together we will support our communities in the best and most effective way, and provide them with genuinely value-for-money services.
It is not often that political parties are required to set the record straight on things that happened over 25 years ago! However Ashbourne Conservatives continue to comment on the Liberal Democrats action in late 1997 without providing a suitable context (and, coincidentally, remind us of the year when the Conservatives lost more than half their seats at the General Election).
Today is the anniversary of Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
The issue of immigration is one of the most difficult political issues across the world. Despite the appalling language used by the Home Secretary, Suella Braverman, the UK only receives a modest number of asylum applications in comparison with other European countries. In 2021 we had 50,000 applications whilst France had over 100,000 and Germany over 150,000. When you look at applications per 100,000 population we have 80 per 100,000 - behind most European countries with Austria at over 400 and Belgium at over 150. Recent reports in the press about a 'fast track processing system' and 'amnesty' are driven not by increasing numbers of applicants but Government failures since Boris's 'oven ready deal' that was enacted in 2020. We have a backlog of applications, over 120,000 up from 30,000 in 2019. This is because we are taking 15.5 months to process an application, whereas Germany takes 6.5 months and France 8.5 months. The Government blames the ECHR but this applies in Germany and France so clearly is just a
No child should ever have to experience sexual abuse. These are horrifying crimes that cause so much harm to the children who are victims. We will keep up the pressure so that the action needed to make our communities safe all children finally happens.
Government must deliver the change people are yearning for
A new charity single to support young carers
