Paul Ankers

Paul Ankers, our Prospective Parliamentary Candidate for Bolton North East, has launched his new Facebook and Twitter pages to coincide with an interview with Total Politics magazine.

In the interview Paul says: “Bolton North East needs a champion. A constituency MP that would fight for the area rather than get sucked into the Westminster set.”

“It also needs someone who can appreciate just how diverse this constituency, not just people, but there are very different environments from the town centre to the hills and consequently different challenges. I suspect my opponents are focussed on smaller sections of the community than are necessary.”

Paul is also updating Bolton North East residents on his campaign through a new blog, which can be found here.

His Facebook and Twitter pages are just two of the many ways in which the Liberal Democrats in Bolton keep in touch with residents.

Join Paul’s Facebook group here.

Follow Paul’s tweets on Twitter here.

You can also email Paul directly paul4boltonne@yahoo.co.uk

Each school in Phase One of the BSF Programme will show their plans to students, parents and the wider community during a 90 minute drop-in session. Members of the community are encouraged to attend as this is their opportunity to help shape plans to improve leisure, sport and adult learning facilities in their local area through this investment into schools.

Ladybridge High and Rumworth Special schools, who will share a site as part of their refurbishment, will kick start the open days on Wednesday, March 3 with a session specifically for the community.

The event starts at 7pm at Ladybridge and will finish at 8.30pm.

Sessions will also follow on Wednesday, March 17 for Ladybridge parents and on Thursday, March 25 for Rumworth parents.

Open sessions, for parents and the community, will be held at Bolton Muslim Girls School on Thursday, March 4; Westhoughton on Tuesday, March 9; Little Lever on Tuesday, March 16; Smithills on Thursday, March 18 and Sharples on Tuesday, March 23.

Each open evening runs from 7pm to 8.30pm and will provide parents and the community the opportunity to find out more and have their say on the ideas put forward by each school.

The open evenings follow a successful BSF design day held recently, which saw the pupils present their ideas to an audience of local authority representatives, other schools from Phase Two and Three and Balfour Beatty Education, the company selected to deliver the BSF Programme in Bolton.

The plans are still being developed and people are encouraged to register their views by March 31 at www.bolton.gov.uk/bsf

Donal O'Hanlon

Donal O’Hanlon, Liberal Democrat Prospective Parliamentary Candidate for the Bolton South East Constituency, has said that questions should be asked of the council and police over a series of arson attacks that have blighted Bolton.

In his latest blog he has said: “Since I decided to think of standing as a candidate for Bolton South East, I’ve been keeping abreast of events normally via the “Bolton News”. The number of arsons reported in those pages is truly staggering. Virtually every other day a new arson occurs to houses, cars, factories, bins or on open ground.

“I understand the fight that the Fire Service have, in trying to move from a reactive service to a pro-active preventative service, but what are the police and local council doing to reduce the numbers? In all the time I’ve been reading, probably once or twice have I seen reference to arson reduction programs. I recommend the public look over the pages in the next few weeks and start asking those who control the Council exactly what they are doing about this Bolton scourge!”

Eric Hyde tackles Little Lever's litter problem

Little Lever has become LITTER Lever – and Darcy Lever fares little better.

Eric Hyde has been getting his hands dirty with some of our area’s worst grot spots.

He has reported dozens of litter problems and says the problem needs tackling soon.

Eric said: “Residents are telling me there are particularly fed up with cans and bottles being found on grass verges and some roads.”

Eric has asked Bolton Council’s Environmental Services department to clean up the area.

If you know of a litter hotspot let Eric know.

Paul Ankers in a TV interview recently

Paul Ankers is the Liberal Democrat parliamentary candidate for Bolton North East, we can reveal.

Paul Ankers

“I am a firm believer that the Liberal Democrats can and should win every seat in mainland Britain.”

Roger Hayes gives the post-snow warning in his blog

Bolton will have to deal with potholes and broken road surfaces after the snow and ice has gone, a leading Liberal Democrat has warned.

Councillor Roger Hayes, Leader of the Bolton Liberal Democrat group on Bolton Council, said: “Eventually this cold weather will end, but then other problems will start. First, there will be a danger of flooding if the thaw is rapid.”

“We will then have to see what damage the ice and salt has done to Bolton’s roads and pavements. Remember how many potholes appeared last year after a relatively mild winter?”

“The problem this year is likely to be far, far worse. In that situation it seems foolhardy for Bolton Council to be considering slashing its road budget for 2010/11; one option under consideration is to cut the Highways Urgent Repairs Budget (which is used for pothole repairs) by £150,000 and other Highways budgets by over £325,000. We shall try very hard to get that changed – we have had some success in previous years.”

Deputy group leader, Councillor David Wilkinson, also added: “Once the cold snap is over, the next problem will be the condition of the roads which took a real pasting from last winter and given that there is a backlog of around £50 million on roads and footpaths work across Bolton, things don’t look good.”

Bolton has seen some of the worse wintery conditions for a number of years and the council has been working hard to ensure the main roads are gritted.

You can view Roger’s blog here, and David’s blog here.

At one point, all bus routes in Bolton were suspended and the station was even closed.

Transport is slowly returning to normal, but some roads still remain icy.

Bolton Council has been hard at work gritting all of its priority roads.

Nick Clegg

Dear friend,

Ever since I became leader of the Liberal Democrats I have been travelling the country, holding public meetings, listening and talking to the people I meet. The economy is in a mess, people are losing jobs and everywhere I go, people are angry at the way politicians have let them down.

The two old parties don’t really want to change a political system that keeps them in power or challenge the bankers who got the economy into such a terrible mess. The next election will be your chance to tell them they’re wrong – your chance to vote for something different.

Many people believed they would get change for the better in 1997. Instead, under Labour, the gap between rich and poor has got bigger, our politics has got even dirtier, our civil liberties have been eroded, the environment around us is in danger and our international reputation is at a new low. Labour let us all down.

The Conservatives say they want change but all they really want is to keep things the way they are. They say they want fairness but demand tax cuts for millionaires. They say they want to protect the environment, but have linked up in Europe with people who deny climate change is a problem at all. They will promise everything and change nothing.

Britain is in the teeth of three crises: a huge banking crisis and recession, a rotten Westminster system abused by too many MPs for personal gain, and the threat of climate change. We need big changes to fix our economy, our discredited politics and our environment, yet both Labour and the Conservatives are letting the City, the House of Commons and polluters off the hook. No action against bankers’ bonuses. No action to give people the right to sack MPs guilty of breaking the rules. No action to slash emissions. They say just enough to get in the headlines, but when the spotlight moves on it’s back to business as usual.

I believe there’s a better way. This country can be fairer, it can be safer, greener, and stronger in the world. Only the Liberal Democrats have the ideas, the energy, and the ambition to provide the new hope the country needs. If that’s what you want too, after twelve years of Labour disappointment, turn to us. We carry the torch of progress now.

Despite all the gloomy news, there’s still real hope for the future – but only if we make a fresh start. We need strong leadership and a different kind of politics to make it happen. The way things have always been done has got us into this mess, and it will never get us out.

Above all, we must do everything to protect the next generation from the mistakes made today. For me, how we treat young children is the most important measure of what kind of society we want, what kind of values we hold dear.

Even in these difficult times, giving all children from all backgrounds the life chances they deserve will always be my personal priority.

So if you want things to be different, choose a party that is different. Choose the Liberal Democrats.

Best wishes,

Nick Clegg, Leader of the Liberal Democrats

To see the full text, including a downloadable PDF of the document either click here.

A series of six pre-budget consultation meetings will take place ahead of Bolton Council’s budget being set.

However the council told us that the meetings “are not area forums and other issues will not be considered for discussion at these meetings.”

The meetings will take place as follows:

Tuesday 12^th, 7pm  Astley Bridge/ Bromley Cross/Bradshaw  - Turton High School Arts Theatre

Wednesday 13^th 7pm  Tonge with the Haulgh/ Breightmet/Little Lever and Darcy Lever – Leverhulme Primary School

Thursday 14^th 7pm  Westhoughton with Chew Moor / Hulton/ Heaton & Lostock - Tempest Road FC,  Main Hall

Monday 25^th 1pm  Harper Green/ Farnworth/ Kearsley –  Farnworth Town Hall

Tuesday 26^th 7pm  Two Towns/ Smithills   St. Catherine’s Primary School

Wednesday 27^th 2pm  Halliwell/Crompton/Great Lever /Rumworth – Festival Hall, Bolton  Town Hall

Labour has created a tax regime where the poorest pay a bigger slice of their income than the richest. Polluters are allowed to get away with harming our environment without paying for the clean-up. And we lose as much as £40 billion a year to tax dodgers.

This has to change.

The Conservatives tell us that we are all in this together whilst promising tax cuts for millionaires and then say that there might be tax rises for everyone else.

So much for their kind of change.

Today, we have pledged to put a transformation of Britain’s unfair tax system at the heart of the Liberal Democrat campaign for a fairer Britain.

Our plans will see tax cuts for millions of people, paid for by closing tax loopholes, making polluters pay and introducing a ‘mansion tax’ on homes worth over £2m.

For more details of our policy proposals, see here. And for a video from the launch, see here.

What we are proposing is a radical rebalancing of the tax system with fairness at its centre. This is a real and genuine change that would make a huge difference to the lives of people up and down the country.

Best wishes,

Nick Clegg MP
Leader of the Liberal Democrats

Vince Cable MP
Shadow Chancellor and Liberal Democrat Deputy Leader