Wycombe Liberal Democrats

With the development of Eden what is going to happen to our local shops?

We are seeing small businesses being pushed out of business by the weight of the large retailers, Trevor Snaith and Ray Farmer are asking the council to invest in our local communities to support local shops for local people

The Friends of the Earthg have recently produced an advert you may find interesting

Click here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kGoWKVA87ro

 The competition authorities are currently investigating supermarkets.

In January they published their interim report. In this report, they recognised several potential problems related to supermarket dominance.

The next stage of this inquiry is crucial. Tough action is urgently needed to control the power of the supermarkets.

We have the opportunity to ask the Competition Commission to make the grocery industry fairer for everyone.

We must urge them to investigate the things that really matter:

• Stronger planning policies
  Needed to protect smaller shops.
• Supermarket code of practice
  Needed to protect the interests of consumers, farmers, workers and the environment.

After all, who wants cheap food if it’s at the expense of people and the planet?

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Cllr Ray Farmer is receiving resident compaints and questions concerning  the ongoing development of the Town centre wards by backgarden and brownfield sites  . Issue appears to be one of lack of cohesive community resoures, traffic management, buses  and community service  to support the developments in the town.

Ray will be expanding on this over the coming weeks, but in the interim is pressing for out of town brownfield sites to be considered for Rural Communities and new Rural villages

Ray has identified the Molins site in Saunderton as an example of a brownfield site suitable for mixed new  and affordable housing with retail development with excellent rail road and infrastructures in place – More info to follow as Ray is currently exploring the feasability with WDC

 Any other sites that we should be considering outside of town please e mail Ray

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We have discovered there is an opportunity for land to be made available behind the Marsh retail Development for a new community centre.

The District Council confirm “Everything is in place to ensure that the land is included—- for Community uses. The challenge will be developing a viable project that enables not only the capital cost of the development but the purchase of the site to be funded”

Trevor and Ray are working with local community groups and churches to see how the land can be leveraged for the benefit of our local community.This isnt going to be an easy task but the residents of Ryemead have been starved of facilities for far too long.

RESIDENTS AND INTERESTED GROUPS WISHING TO BE INVOLVED IN THE DISCUSSIONS AND PLANS FOR THE COMMUNITY CENTRE CONTACT TREVOR OR RAY–

trevor_snaith@wycombe.gov.uk

Raymond_farmer@wycombe.gov.uk

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Burned village of Hilat Na’gah: In a village in West Darfur, villagers walk among what remains of their homes and possessions. Photo: USAID

The Liberal Democrats are very concerned about the shortcomings of the peace agreement in which Hilary Benn, UK Secretary for International Development, played a key role. Our worries stem from the fact that the agreement was drafted by international negotiators without engaging with the rival factions and then presented to them on a ‘take it or leave it’ basis. As a result, significant rebel groups, such as the JEM and the largest faction of the SLM/A, did not sign it and the high-level nature of the negotiations ignored the tribal dimensions of the conflict. The international community must recognise that these groups need to be brought into peace talks now.

Whatever the limitations of the agreement, the conduct of the Sudanese Government has been wholly unacceptable. The build-up of Government forces within Darfur, the bombing of the civilian population and repeated acts of violence, rape and murder are abhorrent. We cannot stand by and allow the Government and their ‘Janjaweed’ militia forces to continue these atrocities against their own people.

We welcome the extended mandate of the African Union force (AMIS) until 31^st December 2006 but this is no panacea. AMIS is vastly underfunded, under-equipped and unable to fully protect the people of Darfur. It is imperative, therefore, that the international ‘responsibility to protect’ is acted upon without delay and that Khartoum allow UN forces on the ground, in keeping with Security Council Resolution 1706.

The UK Government must also press Russia and China to act. Their strategic oil interests in Sudan make them well-placed to influence the Sudanese Government, though both countries abstained on Resolution 1706. The EU must also be willing to consider targeted sanctions against Khartoum if it continues to reject a UN peacekeeping force.

The Liberal Democrat Spokesperson on International Development, Susan Kramer, has organised an EDM which calls for urgent international action to resolve the crisis. We would urge you to write to your MP (Paul Goodman MP, if you live in Wycombe) and ask him to support this motion. The easiest way to do this is via the excellent website faxyourmp.com.

We must ensure that the international community does not fail the people of Darfur as it did the people of Rwanda almost 12 years ago.

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Just a few months ago, our Council Tax bills landed on the mat.

For many, the arrival of this bill was most unwelcome. Of course nobody likes paying tax, but the Council Tax, because it has no link with peoples ability to pay is the most unfair and the most unpopular.

In around four or five months time when Sir Michael Lyons, who was appointed by the Government to review and make recommendations about Local Government Finance, publishes his report, there may be a golden opportunity to get the Council Tax scrapped.

It is for this reason that this summer we are re-launching our campaign to Axe the Council Tax. The campaign will run until October when we will present the Axe the Tax petition to the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government.

You can help us by signing the petition on-line, getting your friends to sign or collecting signatures on your own petition.

To find out more about the campaign, to print off a copy of the petition etc see our new website, still at http://www.axethetax.org.uk

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